Shakespearean Luck

Good piece by Michael Hirsh of Newsweek on the historical accident of this presidency - an accident that has cost us so much and will continue to cost us much more long after it has finally ended:

A Luckless Nation

The election of 2000 will be recorded in tragic terms when the history of this period is written. At first it was a crushing disappointment and a horrible injustice for those of us who would have preferred a different outcome. As time passes, it begins to look positively Greek in its world historical significance.

Gratuitous theatrical tangent: It appears we've been living through Henry IV, but a version in which Hal never turns into Henry V. He remains Falstaff's lazy, unthinking, incurious drinking buddy. Only in this telling, all the world's the stage. And it's the Islamists who may yet have their Agincourt.

Or maybe it's Henry V Deconstructed - after all, the English ruled northern France for less than a decade after Henry's victory before their claim was declared invalid and their troops were expelled. Maybe Shakespeare was prescient...

PS - I thought this was an interesting image.





It's entitled:

"Falstaff and His Page"





Sort of reminds you of the Republican Congress, doesn't it.










(Phil English anyone?)