Obama vs. Othello: A Question of Character
Othello is black, true, but is accepted by Venetian society. He has converted to Christianity and has demonstrated his patriotism and bravery on the battlefield. Those characters who still hold his race against him do not come across well in the play. Othello, like his white counterparts, is a tragic character, someone essentially good and noble (his lines are some of the highest poetry). But the very things that make him noble also lead to a flaw that brings him down.
A lifetime focused on the battlefield makes Othello susceptible to the manipulations of Iago, who acts in a cool, calculated manner, to plant the seed of suspicion about Othello’s wife.
Audiences identify with Othello, who realizes his error after he murders his wife and in regret kills himself. The play meets Aristotle’s definition of tragedy because it arouses pity or fear through a character “whose misfortune … is brought upon him not by vice and depravity but by some error of judgment.” The cathartic moment comes from the sympathy for the hero.
There is no such feeling for Iago, who became the model for John Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost. Iago is not a flawed character, but one without a conscience, an atheist who manipulates others in power plays — the sociopath.
Although the sum total of President Obama’s life has not been brought together in a literary work, Americans who have looked at his life, associations, books, and previous speeches see someone cool and detached — especially when it comes to love of country. They rightly see a political strategist.
And this is what Gerstein and many analysts don’t seem to understand. For all his flaws and mistakes, Americans largely did not doubt George Bush’s love of country. He acted immediately after 9/11 with harsh words and harsh actions against the enemy. In fact, he was criticized by the left for jingoism, or too much love of country.
Obama, on the other hand, has done what would be unthinkable for a commander-in-chief in an earlier time. His demeanor during the press conference after the foiled Christmas Day attack was without emotion. He has done what would be taken as treason by besmirching his own country on foreign soil. The year was filled with him bowing to America’s enemies and glad-handing with Hugo Chavez. His Department of Justice is persecuting the CIA, of which seven members just died in Afghanistan. He states his discomfort with victory in Afghanistan, while cutting the military budget and changing the rules of engagement to favor the enemy. Through his Justice Department he is according terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 of our citizens the same rights and conducting a trial in the midst of survivors who will pay for the defense through their taxes. The Department of Homeland Security instructed law enforcement to go after dissenting patriotic Americans, particularly military veterans, and displayed callous disregard of the facts and the fears surrounding the thwarted Christmas Day terrorist attack.
One of the most treasonous acts concerns the communist, antiwar group Code Pink, which has been aiding and funding the enemy and raising money for Obama. As our vulnerable soldiers awaited word about sending more troops to Afghanistan, Obama was meeting with Code Pink, as recent videos show.
In 2008, there were reports out about Jodie Evans’ fundraising for the Obama campaign. But only the most careful readers noticed back then.
Obama is not merely “clueless.” Even when he gives lip service about the regrettable necessity of war as he did in the Nobel speech, Obama’s words do not ring true because they lack conviction.
Iago, too, repeatedly professes his allegiance to Othello and has a reputation of being honest. Too many around him overlook evidence to the contrary.
But careful readers understand character.
shouldn’t it be Obama vs. Iago?
Honesrt Obama. Clever Obama. Naive Obama. Calculating Obama. He is all of this and none of this. Obama described himself as a “blank slate” onto which others project what they want to see. Any self respecting sociopathic ot craven opportunist would consider that to be a good thing. Just so, Obama seems impressed with this machine-like calclator quality in himself.
Obama is a bottomless pit, a pit into which all kinds of stuff has been stuffed. What comes out is determined soley by exigency, not by any internal dharacter or core, other than that of the conniver, the plotter, the self-server, the liar, and the blamer. Have I forgotten anything?
There’s not a single word in the English language proper that can surmise the absolute “cluelessness” of the exalted one. He is sophomoric, negligent, arrogant, narcissistic, stubborn, cowardly and contemptuous all rolled into One. These characteristics are also quite one dimensional i.e. to say obvious to anyone with half a brain. These character flaws alone only inspire dread, unease and malaise. As such he’s starring at a single term, not that it matters to someone of Obama’s character. Politicians of Obama’s stripes never live up to their perceived and manufactured greatness – they don’t posses the right ingredients (never have and never will) to be truly noteworthy respectable leaders.
What’s with the atheist dig? Do atheists lack conscience? All of us? Really?
Wow, the things one learns from Shakespeare.
good post, love Obama.
For a Ph.D. (of anything) to call on the great works of arts to evaluate Obama’s character is as wasteful as using a sledge hammer to swat a fly.
What part or parts of two faced, Caucasian; Jewish people hating, America bashing liar is so damned hard to understand that the super educated in our midst needs to insult the history of the human race to figure the creep out?
This is just another vile, racist attack on our new Leader.
President Obama and the Progressives rule this country now. The day of the racist white male oppressor has passed.
President Obama will lead us into a new world of peace and justice. All the ill-gotten wealth of the racist white male oppressors will be confiscated and used to pay long overdue reparations to their erstwhile victims.
“I am amazed by the discouragement of reading and contemplation.”
The Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas, calmly admits to not reading many books. Most lefties under the age of 45 rarely seem to read and contemplate upon serious works of any kind. It is implicitly deemed unnecessary. Adhering to the politically correct doctrines of the modern age is all that is truly required. The number one reason for this sharp decline of intellect is probably due to the affirmative action policies implemented in the universities and colleges throughout the United States no later than 1969. Minority students of one sort or another were the first beneficiaries of the new system that provided liberal arts students with unearned grades. The proverbial crap, however, really hit the fan when the majority white students also jumped aboard the inflated grades bandwagon! It is my guess that this occurred sometime in the mid 1970s. The situation is only getting worse every year.
It is too bad that a time machine is only a fantasy device. There is little doubt that today’s typical soft science student attending an Ivy League academic institution would have their minds blown if they could meet their counterparts of the year 1960. Those students of that earlier era would humiliate them. Their education was vastly superior.
Voters thought Obama was a better example of life experiences than John McCain because Obama grew up as a black man.
Now we find out that he has very little of life’s experiences.
And I think its not his fault that he was offered affirmative action programs at home and in his college and political career.
America gave him those perks.
John McCain was the real hero of life experiences but we all missed out on his leadership in a wicked world.
But such is life and the stage we perform on.
Now we have an inexperienced black man ACORN community organizer trying to get a handle and on the job training as an American commander in chief, energy guide, economist, health control, and any other program you can put here——.
Luckily he doesn’t have time to decide if he loves his country or not.
But I think it has been good for America to find out the difference.
Some of us will die because of it,
but it has happened before.
That is what makes American Heroes.
Next time vote for one.
Yes, Obama is no Othello. Yes (in Obama’s bunch) we have bananas.
Your premise, that the public doesn’t understand art (science, math, history…) is sound.
The reason they don’t is LOUSY TEACHERS for the last three generations.
But you can’t talk about that.
So talk about Othello and bananas.
Mary, please go to the root of the thing.
I would say that the election of Mr. Obama will prove tragic for the country in some ways. Even so, I can’t seem to find a reason to pity him or sympathize with him. I just do not understand much of what he does, like giving a two minute shout out before speaking of the horrible events at Ft. Hood. I ascribe Obama’s many curiosities as a result of little Barack growing up as a non-American in Indonesia, dealing with a father who abandoned him, seeking comfort and mentoring from the self-proclaimed communist Frank Marshall Davis. I don’t think even Barack Hussein Obama knows who he really is.
Excellent analysis, Dr. Grabar. You also might consider showing your students the best film version of “Othello” ever: Kenneth Branagh’s, with him as Iago and Lawrence Fishburen as Othello.
Just one comment… there’s a major reason why Bush’s response to the shoe bomber should be viewed as very different than Obama’s response to the butt bomber.
With Bush, we knew we were at war. The attack was another battle in the war and did not require any more commentary than any other battle. With Obama and his “Overseas Contingencies” and “Man-Caused Disasters,” we are very much in doubt as to whether Obama views this as a war or not. Thus, as an “isolated incident,” it requires immediate addressing.
RE #4/MJBrutus:
[...] What’s with the atheist dig? Do atheists lack conscience?[...]
Hehehehe – so Mary just shot in the fog, and out they came out from the swamp, running & hollerin’…
Hitting a raw nerve… et tu Brute, what is your problem?
In a blog piece on a Democrat Congressman, Jerome Nadler, who wants the NY City trial in his own district, I stated something I want to repeat here because it also applies to Obama and Holder:
There is a large residential area near the World Trade Center, Battery Park City. These people whose apartment windows were literally covered in ash from the bodies of those who died in the World Trade Center destruction have a Representative who is now calling for the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Foley Square, a half hour walk from their homes rather than in military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.
I’m having a hard time understanding the main point of this analysis in relation to Obama and Co., despite the fact that I have taught this work every semester for the past six years. Maybe it is just too early in the morning.
I’ve never found the relationship between Iago and Othello to be all that fascinating. Iago really is a cut-and-dried villian who reveals his strategy openly to the audience (Pelosi? ha ha!). What is more interesting is the cryptic relationship between Othello and Desdemona. When the two meet, Desdemona does not really fall in the love with the “real person,” but rather the tales of bravery in battle that Othello narrates to her. Othello falls in love with Desdemona’s seeming purity, innocence, and good nature. He also falls in love with the fact that she adores him for his bravery. These two do not really know each other, and they run off and elope before they can tell anybody, including Desdemona’s father. (This is something that Iago later uses against Desdemona as he convinces Othello she has been unfaithful–if Desdemona has deceived her own father, she would certainly deceive her husband). So that, in Desdemona and Othello we have two fairly naive individuals who do not understand the characters of those around them. If we are going to make direct political comparisons, perhaps Dedemona reminds us of the American people who were wooed by the personal story of Obama and rushed to support him without the understanding that time brings.
But I’m afraid that you really do need to consider representations of race when reading/watching the play. This is not a 21st-century interpretation that is foisted on the characters. Rather, Iago makes repeated references to Othello’s race which are meant to paint him in the worst possible light (as savage, uncivilized, sexually immoral). Many of these references are sexually explicit and use animal imagery to evoke popular Elizabethan stereotypes of blacks (i.e. the Elizabethans called anyone “black” who was not white/European–North Africans, Indians, etc.). Believe it or not, Shakespeare was merely integrating the racial anxiety of his own day into the work. There were increasing numbers of “non-white” residents of London who had arrived through the slave trade or because they were merchants and mariners. At that time, there was a great fear of the mixing of races and intermarriage. According to one source I have read, at one time, Queen Elizabeth issues a proclamation that all “blacks” should return to their own lands. I don’t know if anything ever came of that. But again, Graber is right–that Othello’s “blackness” is not really an issue to anyone but Iago. These are military men, and strength and success in battle and friendship among men within a regiment is more important than race.
By the way, I’m wondering if we can compare George W. Bush to Prince Hal in Henry IV. The reluctant leader who spends his youth partying too much but then must become an adult–rise to the occassion and become Henry V who leads his troops to victory in the Battle of Agincourt.
RE #8/David Thomson:
[...] The number one reason for this sharp decline of intellect is probably due to the affirmative action policies implemented in the universities and colleges throughout the United States no later than 1969. Minority students of one sort or another were the first beneficiaries of the new system that provided liberal arts students with unearned grades. [...]
David, the Berkeley USD is now studying a proposition (which will probably pass) for dismantling the science laboratory classes because these classes have a discouraging effect upon students from one or another racial group – do you need more than that? (Rubbing bachelite sticks on cat furs to produce static electricity appears to be one of the more difficult & descriminatory tasks required there).
I remember reverend Wright persuasively arguing (not a new theory) that learning is racially conditioned, Whites learning with one part of the brain, Blacks with another, and for this reason, the entire education process should be re-designed to accomodate the respective difference -
Interesting enough, Obama when asked about Wright’s ideas, kind of hedged, didn’t come with a clear answer, and this, mind you, comes from one described by associates as having deep interest for educational issues –
Hey, but after all why should Obama regard this matter in a different way, since he himself was the very beneficiary of a mystery, “special education track” -
It is impossible to know how:
1) Obama entered Occidental and what was his performance there -
2) how he got the transfer to Columbia and what and how he did there -
3) how he got at Harvard, what and how he did there -
4) how he got at Chicago U, and what and how did there -
… so we are back at square one – Obama, reverand Wright’s spiritual pupil is a life-time, big time, affirmative action beneficiary, his arrival to presidency being largely due to a tide of non-judgementalism -
… yet he is also a clearly incompetent president -
Blame Dewey. The public education system – and its products – we have today are the inevitable result of Progressive education.
There has been measurable continental drift since i was in college, but I still remember one of my political science professors saying that voting for president on the basis of character was not at all irrational. He pointed out that no one voted for Kennedy because of how he might handle the Cuban missile crisis because, of course, no one knew that he’d face such a challenge. (It transpired that he didn’t handle it quite as well as we thought, but the point is still valid.)
That’s one reason why I, a heretofore lifelong Democrat, had no trouble voting for a ticket that included Sarah Palin. Whatever her other shortcomings, her instincts were good and she had good advisers. If that now-proverbial three a.m. call came in I’d trust her response. And given Obama’s background and his advisers, I am unfortunately not at all astonished by his first year. There’s no reason to think he would have done otherwise, nor is there reason to think that his character is the sort who is reflective about his principles and susceptible to anything other than, perhaps, overwhelming contrary evidence.
One small and probably unimportant point keeps nagging at me: I hardlys ee the US as a society not capable of improvement, but I’d like to have a president who likes the country and is proud to be an American. Obama seems to have gone out of his way to avoid giving any praise to the US other than that it electe4d him. Telling was his reference to the Berlin airlift and the end of the Cold War as credited to “the world,” without much of a reference to the American part in those events which was hardly minor.
Of his many weaknesses, Obama’s lack of character stands tall. It was obvious as soon as Pajamas Media, Fox News and NRO started writing about him. Once I learned of his close associations with the terrorist Ayers, his shady deals with conficted felon Rezko, and attendance for 20 years listening to anti-American Rev. Wright I knew he was not a good man.
Excellent! Excellent and enjoyable. I love good movies, and there seems to be a good line or two that contributes real value, but the old masters of literature have endured time because of immense value if a reader will go beyond the intriguing plot. I am looking forward to reading many more articles of yours in the future.
Character is in part a reflection of what one does for a living. Othello was a military officer, with many of the character attributes inherent to that field.
Obama has spent his life almost exclusively in what used to be called “staff” positions–ie, roles in which one opinionates and advises, but does not have ultimate decision-making authority and the consequent responsibility.
Also: Mary, there’s a movie called “O”, which modernizes the Othello story with the title character as a high-school basketball player. Surprisingly effective; your students might enjoy it *after* studying the works you’ve assigned.
I think the analysis of character is something that the American people are no longer very good at determining. Look at the people of low character that we elect to various positions – both Republican and Democrat office holders. It is as if character no longer matters – that showmanship is the determinant of success in political campaigns. And our news services are not intent on revealing character until the flaw is on display for everyone to see.
If I may distill the argument a bit:
sociopath=Iago=Obama.
or:
Iago=sociopath=Obama
or, most simply:
Obama=sociopath.
God save our Republic.
he (Obama) is a narcissist.
Extending the “character” issue beyond politics…lots & lots of parents are excessively focused on ensuring that their kids get the credentials and “skills” that they need to succeed, but…through the very way that they approach things…are undercutting the development of the essential meta-skills (what used to be called “character”)…like the ability to deal with failure, to take initiative, etc.
Failures in the business world, as I’ve observed them, usually have more to do with character issues (picking pointless and unwinnable fights with other executives, for instance) than with skill/credential deficiencies.
When finally made to comment on his connections to William Ayers during the campaign, Mr. Obama’s first utterance began with “I was 8 years old when those bombings occured…” That was all I had to hear from this man – it displayed his cynical, sophist approach to the truth and his contempt for the American people. Character is destiny, and his character is now attached to our destiny.
It seems to me that the point being made is that in some ways Obama resembles Iago, not Othello.
If I ever studied Shakespeare’s Othello, it was a few decades ago and I have forgotten all but a misty outline. However I recently watched Verdi’s Otello on DVD and there Iago is the brilliantly effective sociopath defty manipulating Cassio, Rodrigo and of course Otello. In a powerful aria in the second act, Iago sings his belief in and allegiance to a cruel god (aka Satan) and that after death there is nothing (the Credo aria). So Iago of the opera is not an atheist, he is a Satanist asserting the rule of evil and denying the existence of Heaven and power of God. Thus he feels no allegiance to his commander or to his fellow officers and countrymen. The tragedy is that Otello (and Cassio and Rodrigo) were manipulated because they naively believed that a fellow officer must be honorable and patriotic and thus believed Iago’s lies.
Libretto with English translation (the Credo is in Act 2 scene 2):
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/reserves/cd264/text/act02.html
James Morris as Iago singing the Credo – his facial expressions convey pure malice…:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCMD7uBUN_w
The main and most crucial difference between Obama and Othello is that the latter was a fictional character. His flaws and virtues only titillate the imagination. Obama, on the other hand, is real and really affecting flesh and blood type of lives. When he wrecks this country by deliberately downsizing the economy, and creates a nation who would be permanent ward of the government, he destroying not just imaginary lives but real ones for generations to come.
Obama can be stopped and must be stopped. Othello cannot and there is no point trying.
The main and most crucial difference between Obama and Othello is that the latter was a fictional character. His flaws and virtues only titillate the imagination. Obama, on the other hand, is real and really affecting flesh and blood type of lives. When he wrecks this country by deliberately downsizing the economy, and creates a nation who would be permanent ward of the government, he destroying not just imaginary lives but real ones for generations to come.
Obama can be stopped and must be stopped. Othello cannot and there is no point trying.
Yes people are poorly educated these days. “Critical thinking” now means learning politically correct talking points about racism, sexism, and socialism from doctrinaire high school teachers.
Yes, confused people are easy marks for the con. A good education gives the ability to discriminate good sense from nonsense. How many can do that nowadays?
Wring hands and weep all you want – that’s the way it is now and it can’t be changed. The real problem is how to survive and prosper amongst the confusion.
While I don’t see that the issue of reading and contemplating has much to do with Obama, it certainly is an important issue in current education. In fact, you can use more than half the reflexive shoot-from-the-hip rants against Obama that you can read here to prove the point quite nicely.
The internet is a major problem now in education, in that for many standard essay assignments that a teacher might give, the student can find an on-line response and cut and paste a response with no or only minor editing. Students can access Spark Notes to get all sorts of character studies of Iago, Othello, Desdemona and anyone else featured in the commonly taught literature. A conscientious teacher has to give unique rather than boiler plate essay topics, which is difficult when you are teaching younger students and trying to teach them the basics of standard character sketches.
Then teachers should use plagiarism.org or Google suspicious phrases, all of which takes a lot of time and evokes a tone of suspicion to the classroom. Nevertheless, that is what a conscientious teacher who really cares about students’ confronting the material has to do.
People used to knock Ronald Reagan for quoting Reader’s Digest, whereas I had my more basic level students often read an article in Reader’s Digest and answer comprehension questions which I made up. They would also do it in class, so that I could be sure that they were not doing the work, not copying someone else’s. Granted, it did make for some boring an tedious work, but at least I knew that it wasn’t faked or copied. That made me a “conservative” in educational practice, where RD was despised and grunt work was not respected. So it goes (or went.)
The whole internet culture encourages shorty, pithy responses in which something as complicated as global warming or a President’s policies can be responded to with a paragraph of blather, which features a punch line or two, but not much else. A major criticism of Obama appears to be that he does not respond immediately with a TONE of anger against “terrorists” being sure to call them that. What is most strange is that folks seem to think that it is more important that he talks loudly against the bad guy, than whether or not he is sending drones, spies, and soldiers to fight them.
People often dismiss global warming with a sentence or two, when there are so many factors involved that have to be addressed for any comprehensive response. Just for kicks, go to the much-maligned Realclimate site and note the level of complexity of much of the discussion. Sure, there is snark on both sides, but there is also considerable discussion of science, content, and links to muc more demanding stuff.
Alas, most of the articles featured on this site, the present one included focus on finding some new way to show how bad Obama is. It is obviously a cottage industry written produced for people with short attention spans.
“Were I the Moor I would not be Iago…” Shakespeare
Iago was moved by envy. Envy means if I can’t have/be it, I don’t want him (or anybody) to have/be it. The “it” that Othello has is inherent nobility. Acting out envy makes people evil. George Gilder’s Israel Test recognizes this, which is why he is so dead on.
I don’t see where Mr Obama is moved ny envy. Yesterday we took visiting friends to the Jefferson Memorial here in Washington. Reading the inscriptions moved our visitors — an Israeli woman and a South African man — to tears. Jefferson, the man who composed the Declaration’s immortal Preamble, separated church from state, and was essntially the brain that created a unique revolutionary government “FOR the people” knew his Greek and Latin, knew the Enlightenment philosophers. Yet nowadays he is dissed for Sall Hemmings, et al… which seems to suggest that Dr Graber is right on that our leaders know that pc trumps thoughful and informed deduction.
They should be reading Locke and Hobbes and Machiaveli and Lincoln and Shakespeare …. instead of watching Howdy Doody!
‘Tis an oft-told tale, but not ‘Othello’:
Charismatic but clueless candidate controlled
by the man behind the curtain; Pick your own
version, from several recent retellings, based
on how you expect the US economy to do over
the next few years.
Hint: I hear Senator Dodd is resigning.
President Obama is a shallow, empty suit; he only parrots what the telepromnter says, written by someone else. Alone without a script, Obama is all over the place. He’s about as eloquent as a 2 year old with a mouth full of candy & poop in his diaper. He’s a man-child given the flesh of a the liberal Leftists. Worse, he’s a narcissist whose ego knows no bounds. He is not a leader. He’s not Othello; Othello, although naive in his trust of the manipulative Iago, could lead. He just lead down the wrong path thanks to Iago’s dark desires. I believe Obama to be more the fool in most Shakespeare plays. However, unlike the fool in the Shakespeare plays, Obama is so self-absorbed, he is unaware he is the fool. But everyone else knows Obama is the fool. Again, Obama’s narcissism does not allow any self-reflection since he thinks he’s everything but sliced bread.
I’m thinking more of the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Obama is the man who turned into a jack-ass in the play when fairies taunted mere humans for sport. Obama got tricked by a fairy. How is he going to live it down? It doesn’t help Michelle Obama looks like a drag queen.
yes you did
The only peace obama is going to bring us is the kind that goes with “Rest in Peace America”.
meanwhile more than half this country is working on some hopey changey this November
#33 Dwight: you can use more than half the reflexive shoot-from-the-hip rants against Obama that you can read here to prove the point quite nicely.
If only we were all so smart and all-knowing as intellectuals like Dwight … on the other hand, Thomas Sowell has a new book out on intellectuals I think I’ll read.
#38 Jim Rockford wrote:
If only we were all so smart and all-knowing as intellectuals like Dwight … on the other hand, Thomas Sowell has a new book out on intellectuals I think I’ll read.
————-
Well, if it helps you bring something coherent the table, go for it.
Anyway, I’m sure that I have helped more kids with their reading, more guns in my closet, sawdust in my cuffs and dirt under my fingernails than Sowells, but…whatever.
I just can’t buy into the reflexive bashing of the other side for any imaginable reason. We know that GWB had that frat-boy, cocky aura, which drove Libs nuts, and that Obama has the professorial reserve, which drives righties nuts…but where the hell does that get us? Othello?
No We Didn’t, how’s that pay working for you via the Soros-Hillary fund? You are a terrible cliche & parody of liberal beliefs wrapped up in a human package. You make Nancy Pelosi look seriously mindful when she speaks instead of sounding like a fool she normally is. Congratulations!
In this analogy, Obama is Iago and the American voter is Othello; Desdemona is our free republic, which Iago seeks to turn us against, in the name of a false equality of circumstance. We find it near impossible to believe that any American citizen would wish harm to our nation but hubris may lead to harm through an over estimation of ones ability to control the details of complex issues. Yes, health care and global warming and terrorism are complex issues but a belief that one has comprehended all their subtilties to often leads to the impossition of novel, complex and detiled ‘solutions’ that have no hope of acheiving the stated goal and which run a high risk of ‘unintended consequences’. Othello’s moral failing is that he permits himself to be tempted into doing something he knows to be wrong; the America publics moral failing has been that we let passing anger at George Bush and a self-indulgent desire to prove we really are not racist tempt us into judging Obama by the color of his skin and not the content of his character.
Oops, I was #39 anonymous.
14. misanthropicus:
Well your handle is well chosen. Gotta give you that
As for my nerves, I was just trying to see what she was getting at. I mean that atheist bit was just weird and so out of left field.
I have to admit it takes chutzpa to castigate Obama for stony indifference when you’re raising a glass to the guy who sat reading “My Pet Goat” while I watched people diving off the top of the twin towers.
This is a very telling column. Mary Grabar pretends to analyze the character of Othello, but then ends up embodying in herself the character of Iago. The insinuations of “treason” and “sociopathy” directed at Barack Obama here are Iago’s insinuations of unfaithfulness directed toward Desdemona. It makes her last line, “careful readers understand character,” read like a parody of Iago’s opening dialogue with Roderigo.
Grabar actually does a good acting job, inhabiting Iago so fully that she can improvise new lines by him. She also relies on the presumption that her readers, the Roderigos and Othellos she holds in such contempt, will not have read Shakespeare’s play.
But in all truth, Iago is a great role model for those faux “Conservative” intellectuals who are ready to summon every racist atavism to their ignoble political service through wolf-whistle, insinuation and any other semiotic ingenuity at their command.
God bless Shakespeare, as always. His light cuts the fog.
Obama “perplexed in the extreme”?
Lefty (44):
I have to admit it takes chutzpa to castigate Obama for stony indifference when you’re raising a glass to the guy who sat reading “My Pet Goat” while I watched people diving off the top of the twin towers.
And you would have had him do what? Scare a bunch of little kids senseless by rushing off surrounded by Secret Service to do …? He’s the CINC, not a first responder. The president sets policy and chooses subordinates beforehand, he does not and should not react personally to every event. He should not have acted other than how he did on 9/11, nor should he have rushed in during Hurricane Katrina (even FEMA had always said that it would take 3 days to get into gear). The first responders were and should have been the New York City FD and PD and the Louisiana emergency services and National Guard, respectively.
“Americans largely did not doubt George Bush’s love of country. He acted immediately after 9/11 with harsh words and harsh actions against the enemy.”
Yeah, too bad he didn’t act BEFORE 9/11, when the CIA briefed him that Bin Laden was set to strike in the U.S. Instead, he told the agent who delivered the memo, “OK, you’ve covered your ass.”
To make an obvious point, liberals are idiots who do not have a love for this country based on the constitution. They want socialism, meaning that they aren’t well educated to understand how exceptional this country is including allowing the morons to spout without concern of penalty vapid policy views, hate speech, and politically correct platitudes. Sheep would be another good description for liberals.
Regarding Obama, he is the modern day Manchurian candidate. Because of his superficial qualities he has been groomed by the left to achieve what he has achieved. Now, however, he is lost and soon his liberal agenda along with the liberal movement will be shunted aside to become the bleating minority once again. The experiment will last a couple of years but will be remembered by two generations.
It’s hardly any surprise that the current culture cannot judge character.
Are children encouraged to understand right from wrong?
Are children encouraged to discriminate (or judge) based on character traits?
Are children encouraged to learn from the mistakes of others?
The culture and the children have been corrupted by the teaching of relativism. How progressive….
For anyone who is interested, I discussed in my blog how literature can aid intelligence analysis, including an excellent essay by Jeffrey White of the Joint Military Intelligence College, entitled “Shakespeare for Analysts”: http://newrisks.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/how-literature-can-enhance-intelligence-analysis/
I’m encouraged by all the literate readers of this site–even English teachers. Good points, mariecurie, but aren’t you imposing today’s standards onto the marriage of Othello and Desdemona? True, they don’t “know” each other as well today’s couples are supposed to; by the standards of the advice-dispensers they should know each other’s childhood fears, how they will divvy up household duties, how often they will have sex, etc. In other words, Othello and Desdemona are attracted to each other by their character traits.
Getting back to culture and the lessons of great works of art, Puccini’s Tosca is fantastic! I’ve just watched the version by Bosio, filmed in 1976 in the utterly magnificent buildings of Rome, rather than on stage. That packs a punch. Loyalty, steadfastness while being tortured, jealousy, the actions/emotions/thoughts of a tyrant, love, hope, despair, all there. Iago is mentioned
Great works of art let us see and hear and feel right from wrong, to see and hear and feel how character weaknesses (such as Tosca’s jealousy) or simple naivete can be exploited by ruthless enemies. It’s not a question of “encouragement”, but rather of learning *how* with one’s mind and heart — while being hit emotionally in the gut.
Much better to learn from others the practical side to good, evil, folly and weakness than to experience it all first hand. The passion in a great work makes the lesson stick. The mastery exhibited in the structure of the work makes the lesson more useful than most from the school of hard knocks.
Since great performances and works of literature, as well as sci/tech classes and hobby groups are far more accessible these days, perhaps a growing number of people are learning and enjoying these on their own without being tracked by a school, under the radar so to speak. One hopes.
Oakley:
“The culture and the children have been corrupted by the” TEACHERS. Period.
Accountability follows Responsibility.
Stop using passive voice when TEACHERS have actively done violence to our children for three generations.
48. “Bin Laden determined to strike inside US” is not actionable intelligence. That’s a general warning, not a specific threat. Without some information on time, place, persons or manner of attack, you can’t do anything other than tell people to be on alert for suspicious behavior.
The main hing that people need to understand is that Othello was nothing but a fictional character, whereas Obama is the president of the USA.