Tuesday, June 09, 2009

A Greek Tragedy?

Jeffrey Jena at Breitbart.tv has written an insightful article on Obama as "tragic hero".

No, it's not as romantic as it sounds. (Unless you're thinking of Heathcliff, who is not so much 'romantic' as psychopathic in my opinion, but that's another story.)

Jena would have it that we are at the point in the drama that calamity stikes...when the fatal flaw of the protagonist causes his inevitable downfall. And the fatalist of fatal flaws is hubris.

That is where our drama stands after almost five months. The stage is set and we are at intermission. So what comes next? While President Obama dabbles in auto manufacturing, health care and giving speeches in Egypt, he doesn’t see or hear that the chorus is singing a song of warning. He is distracted by his false nemesis; be it talk radio hosts, corporate executives or whatever boogie man is convenient at the moment.

In classical tragedy the next element is catastrophe, the event that leads to a complete reversal of fortune. What will that event be? For Obama, it is hard to say – but there’s no doubt that in his mind it will not have been his fault.


Read it all here.

And pray that he is right.

The Gunslinger

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