An English actor said it best: at his best, Shakespeare was the best ever, and is the best ever, and n o one has ever been at their best more than Shakespeare. Who has been better? Euripides? Sophocles? Aeschylus ? Racine? Moliere? Marlowe? Wilde? Shaw? Schiller? Inge? Williams? Sartre? Albee? Genet? Saroyan? Brecht? Beckett? Miller? Ionesco? Osborne? Anouilh? Pinter? Chekhov? Too small a canvas. Ibsen? A joke, his only claim to fame is that he invented modern Liberalism, PREDICTABLE modern Liberalism. Shakespeare, did not create an arrogant, self righteous and boring political philosophy but recorded Humanity, in war, peace, bravery, treachery, despair, anger, jealousy, rage, buffoonery and madness. Who is eternally greater? HEDDA GABLER or LADY MACBETH? JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN or HENRY V? AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE or JULIUS CAESAR? GHOSTS or KING LEAR? THE WILD DUCK or ROMEO AND JULIET? Ibsen is a bad cable TV writer, paid by the word, compared to Shakespeare. In this Blogger’s op
One of the leitmotifs of 2024 American Liberalism, is its propensity to wheel out, from the crypts of the forgotten, relics of the Obama Liberal Ascendency; to pontificate on the current state of the Republic. Those include Jon Stewart, (the foolish comic who thought Bill De Blasio was so terrific; that he wished to be adopted into his multiracial family, which no longer exists, just like the SAFE New York which existed before Mayor de Blasio no longer exists), Jon Meachem, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Katie Couric. Ms. Couric is a former diva of American journalism; who has been passed by, by history and relevance. Her contribution to the antebellum tension was the following declaration: “Former TV anchor Katie Couric argued President Trump's MAGA base was driven by "anti-intellectualism"….” Of course, MAGA supporters are anti-intellectual, for they have read George Orwell:” “ Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them." To bolster the Liberal Eli