Category Archives: Shakespeare on Mass Psychology and Group Behavior

It is a borderline platitude that a crowd acts according to the standards of the lowest character in that crowd. It is a huge generalization but life is short. Shakespeare offers to us multiple instances to show his topic contempt.

Methinks I am a prophet…

Posted on May 3, 2016 by jimmie

No prophet will I trust, if she prove false. (King Henry VI, part 1, act 1, sc. 2)   It’s not even a question of reading “the book of fate and seeing the revolutions of the times…” (1), or of having “a thousand eyes to be filled with prophetic tears”(2). The audacious eloquence of Bernie Read More

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The Bay of Pigs

Posted on April 21, 2016 by jimmie

What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time? The Tempest, act 1. During this April 2016, an anniversary escaped the notice of most – 55 years have run their course since the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. All events gradually sink under the accumulating dust of antique time (1), and Read More

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Crime and (un)Punishment

Posted on December 16, 2015 by jimmie

“ … Foul deeds will rise, Though all the world o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.” Hamlet act 1, sc. 2 American visitors to this site will probably know of the event, but here is a summary for our international guests. It is a case where the evidence is undisputable. And from the evidence we can, Read More

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Sex, War and Patriarchy

Posted on November 23, 2015 by jimmie

“… All this the world well knows, yet none knows well To shun the heaven, that leads men to this hell” (SON 129) In the Sinai desert and Paris, we have just witnessed the triumph of horror, the summit of barbarity, the unseasonal festival of unreason, the waste of shame, the scenes of destruction,

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Mass-shootings and False Consciousness

Posted on October 29, 2015 by jimmie

“… The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns – puzzles the will. And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.” (Hamlet, act 3, sc. 1) Roseburg is the approximate equivalent of a continental European small provincial town. It is the seat of Douglas Read More

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A Deep Divine

Posted on September 29, 2015 by jimmie

“…meditating with two deep divines, Not sleeping, to engross his idle body, But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.” King Richard III, act 3, sc. 7 Sipping an espresso in the park’s cafe’, I looked at the trees, thinking of that “time of the year… when yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang upon Read More

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October Surprise

Posted on September 7, 2015 by jimmie

“…With colours fairer painted their foul ends.” (The Tempest, act 1, sc. 2) We are approaching the 35th anniversary of the so-called “October Surprise” of 1980. Given the workings of the inaudible and noiseless foot of time (1) most will probably have forgotten, or may have stored the event in what is loosely called the Read More

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French Fries & Strange Flesh

Posted on August 4, 2015 by jimmie

Knowing that flattery is the infantry of negotiations, Octavian, on meeting Antony after a long time, starts the conversation by recounting, for the benefit of the audience, one of Antony’s feats, the fame of which reached even Rome, “…on the Alps It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, Which some did die to look Read More

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Much Ado About Tsipras

Posted on July 11, 2015 by jimmie

     For one who spent five years of his misspent youth toiling with (ancient) Greek, the recent limelight on Athens feels like a return to the past. For suddenly the ancient Greeks are on the lips of politicians, economists, commentators and media pundits of all shades and colors. There is Plato, Socrates, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristotle, Read More

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Literature, Life & Baltimore Riots

Posted on April 29, 2015 by jimmie

“Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.” Hamlet, 1.3 Articles published on this site are occasionally posted on other social media outlets, such as, for example, the “LITERATURE” Linked-in group. Some critics in that group have objected to the unwarranted intrusion, on the grounds that the blogs in the “Your Daily Shakespeare” website are Read More

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