Thursday 15 September 2016

Lear on the Heath...politics for the next 18 months



Looking forward politically over the next 18 months makes you feel like King Lear on the heath. In the USA Trump takes a 5% lead in Ohio and also leads in Florida. Teresa may accepts a massively expensive deal for Nuclear power from the French and the Chinese and rationalises it by realising that she cannot afford to upset the Chinese Government. In the long goodbye of Brexit we begin to realise that nothing can be done till after the French Presidential election, haunted by the spectre of Marine Le Pen, and the German Federal elections of October 2017.


Meantime the old fools of the left, now beginning to resemble King Lear refuse to except their role in giving the Right a momentum through Brexit. They refuse to realise the swagger of the right and its growing confidence to continue the Thatcher revolution was the raw gift of the old trots, the Socialist party, the SWP and the remnants of the Communist Party. Lexit has given the right stimulus and stilled the rest of the Left. How Lear like they all look leaving the rest of us marooned on the heath, feeling like Lear`s Fool.


One bright spot appears on the horizon it seems that the Americans have simplified their over sea registrations process making it more likely and easier for Americans abroad to register. Those Americans living abroad are more tolerant, know more of the world, have met other cultures and are therefore less likely to be Republicans and this may well be the October Surprise that stops Trump becoming president. You can excuse the young Turks of the Right here, the earnest young men of the Tory/UKIP milleau. Half have not lived, not experienced the beauty and pain of life, not felt the need for compassion but the old bitter fools of the lexit left have been driven into the madness of denial that pushes King Lear to madness through denial.


The UK feels like King Lear Britain at the end of ACT 5, we are confused, we give excuses and our enthusiasm to jump back to the political arena is sluggish, dimmed and unenthusiastic. At the end of Lear, Albany says[

The weight of this sad time we must obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young,
        385
Shall never see so much, nor live so long


And yet out of Lear comes hope, hope for love that saves humanity, Cordelia forgives Lear, Edgar forgives Gloucester and the unnamed servant sacrifices himself trying to save the Earl of Gloucester from being mutilated by the Earl of Cornwall. Even in Lear love, solidarity and respect for other reveal these values as the issues and emotions that save humanity and give meaning to this King Lear ridden island in its toxic sea.



And yet not so, since I am sure my love's
More ponderous than my tongue. (1.1.86-87)

"My wits begin to turn.— 
Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?
I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?
The art of our necessities is strange
That can make vile things precious. Come, your 
   hovel.— 
Poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart
That's sorry yet for thee." (3.2.73-80)


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