Thought for the Month May 2025

In these days of financial and political turmoil, you might well be considering an evening of relaxation at the theatre. In which case, I imagine that Shakespeare may not necessarily be your first choice of escapist entertainment, and even if he is, then his greatest tragedy, “King Lear”, is unlikely to have you singing its hit song and dancing in the aisles. But perhaps you should reconsider. Shakespeare is dealing in his startlingly modern way with the same problems that America -like us – is facing today.

The roots of the problems of his time could be reduced to three elements: the Black Death, printing and Machiavelli. An epidemic changed society for ever; technology equipped it with an explosion of thought, learning and communication; and one man turned accepted norms upside down. Ring any bells?

What Machiavelli’s book “The Prince” did was to recommend to those in power to behave without principle or morality – to be ruthless in the pursuit of power, ruthless in hanging on to it. You can lie because you can control the truth. You do not need love – you can buy it or compel it. You do not even need to bother about the trappings of wealth – power in its purest form is even more intoxicating. And you should use this power in random and cruel ways simply because you can.

How do you deal with this kind of deception? Shakespeare loads the dice. His Machiavellian characters are attractive – people want to be their besties. They are funny – they laugh at their dupes and encourage others to share the joke. They are skilful in attracting sympathy, convincing in conveying their sense of entitlement. By contrast, the goodies are worthy but dull, easily deceived, even misguided – who wouldn’t vote to see the back of a dodderingly incompetent ruler?

So there they were, here we are.

The first answer Shakespeare gives us is that such politicians and their oligarchies carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. Not only will, eventually, a rival Machiavel use their own methods against them but, more to the point, people will turn against them because what they offer to the people they rule is not what as human beings we most desire and need – contentment, peace, stability, justice.

Secondly, while the qualities of those opposed to the Machiavels can initially seem impotent, the rise of a tyrant brings focus to opposition, because what joins us together as a society and unites us as human beings is greater than any megalomaniac ego can comprehend or destroy. Insofar as their actions force us to choose, those choices may run counter to reason, counter even to our own interests. So, in the play, one character chooses love for his king despite his arrogance and folly; one character chooses to love both his sons equally, though only one is part of his legitimate family and only one loves him back; one character chooses love for her father despite his rejection and banishment of her. For each, finally, they could do no other.

For love does not work in a Machiavellian way. We don’t love our children because we want them to look after us in our old age; we don’t love parents because we want our share of the inheritance; we don’t love our spouse because of their culinary or DIY skills – sometimes it’s in spite of these… We don’t love God because we want to book a place in Heaven, and he certainly doesn’t love us because we put a note in the collection plate.

Love is more than unselfish; it does not simply demand sacrifices – it is, by its nature sacrificial. It finds its apogee in the Easter story of Christ’s sacrifice of the life that God gave him and our response has to be – in the words of the prophet – to break the chains of injustice, to remove the burdens of those who suffer, to free those who are oppressed.

If all this sounds too heavy and you would prefer an Easter smile, then head instead to YouTube and seek out the Monty Python Merchant Banker sketch. It makes the same points as the above: just pray that Western civilisation doesn’t go the same way as the charity collector there!

David