Running Laps

Yesterday I read Lysistrata, a middle comedy of Aristophenes, and had stirred within in me a dormant outrage at the direction this country is taking. Before I go into that though I want to digress as to the breathtaking series of events that made this reading so special. Recently I went to Cyprus and Athens with my Greek speaking girlfriend (whose perspective you can read here) and had the good fortune to visit the Acropolis along with any number of archaeological sites from the height of the Greek empire. To depart from the Piraeas to the seat of the Minoan civilization in Santorini, then subsequently read a play written 2500 years ago that describes the infighting between those elegant cultures reifies a hope (and despair) I have that humans across time and place share very fundamental spirits; the Spartan sails proudly puffed with Piraean air would have been no less a travesty to Athenians than smoke billowing from towers in NYC.

The sad truth is that these event s share not only a visceral similarity but also a much more worrisome material relationship. Aristophenes was a well known critic of the excesses of the Athenian politicians. The profit driven war mongering of the Athenian oligarchs, in his view, were systemically corrupting a culture that had achieved sophistication to the point where arts and sciences were truly flourishing. As a voice of reason he was marginalized by the truth of power. And today we see a small cohort of rich Americans desperately holding onto power. While America moves closer and closer to recession the privatized mercenary armies and defense contractors are getting fat on taxpayers dollars. While the few and the rich get richer, our schools are failing and our art, while vital, is marginal at best.

And the reason that we can listen to is often in the depths of late night, whether Tina Fey or Jon Stewart. So read those old plays, and hope that we leave the beaten path of repeated history and find a new venue moving forward.