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Wednesday
Macbeth’s murder of Duncan is going through my mind as I watch Donald Trump and Elon Musk attempt to murder democracy. Like Macbeth, they believe that a quick and overwhelming strike will do the business and appear to think they can handle any consequences. Or as Macbeth puts it,
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
Could trammel up the consequence and catch
With his [Duncan’s] surcease success, that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here.
The difference between Trump and Macbeth, as I’ve noted in the past, is that Macbeth has a conscience and is far more reflective. Even though he is a monster, he’s far more interesting than Trump. Unlike the president, he actually worries that he is unleashing unstoppable violence upon the world, and that this violence will one day rebound against him:
But in these cases
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips.
In other words, with this action he is teaching others to use the same tactics, which he foresees will “return to plague th’ inventor.” He himself will ultimately drink the poison he is administering to others.
And so it happens in Shakespeare’s tragedy as Birnam Hill does in fact rise up and advance upon Dunsinane. Dare we hope that this will occur here as well, with those who still believe in the American Constitution serving as our avenging Macduff and Malcolm? Even with a happy ending, however, a lot of good people died first, including Duncan, Duncan’s servants, Banquo, and Macduff’s wife and son.
One consoling thought is that the same paranoia that prompts Macbeth to turn against a former ally (Banquo) might be at work in our own situation. Musk might want to watch his back—or Trump his. But I don’t imagine that either man has enough of a conscience to see the other’s ghost rising up to chastise him. Nor, if Melania were to die, do I imagine Trump mourning her death as Macbeth mourns his spouse.
While I once derided Trump as a wannabe Macbeth, he’s a lot closer to pulling off a Macbeth coup than I ever thought possible. It appears that I suffered from Duncan complacency.
