21.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-15
Good Country
Which country or land may be considered good? We have many criteria now.
Economists will talk of GDP or some such nonsense disregarding the damage it causes and does not measure.
Bhutan is the only country in the world to adopt 'Gross National Happiness', in place of GDP.
Tourism promoters would show us the natural splendours, on which they shamelessly make money, even as they spoil those very spots.
Politicians will hail some country as the land of democracy, obscuring the fact that it is money which dances in those lands.
There are countries noted for their art, but they are now mostly stored in museums, carefully kept away fearing theft.
Dance, drama, music- such refined arts are now in the hands of money bags and promoters.
Even sports have become money spinning machines.
What we see on TV is anything but refined, what with unbearable commercial ads,but that has become universal under the impact of global commercialization.
That indeed levels all countries.
What is a country?
Today, the economic criterion comes in everywhere.In the olden days [ in India, till about 60-70 years ago] moral excellence was considered the chief criterion for judging a society. Cultivation of virtue was considered the foundation of happy individuals and societies. This prevailed in both the East and West, as we observe from ancient Greece and Rome.
Tiruvalluvar devotes a section of 10 verses on the characteristics of a good land, to be called country.
தள்ளா விளையுளும் தக்காரும் தாழ்விலாச்
செல்வரும் சேர்வது நாடு. 731
That is the great country that does not fail in its harvests,
which is the abode of sages (worthy men) and of rich men
who do not waste their wealth in degenerate acts.
உறுபசியும் ஒவாப் பிணியும் செறுபகையும்
சேராது இயல்வது நாடு. 734
That is the great country which is free from hunger and diseases,
and which is safe from the invasion of foes.
பல்குழுவும் பாழ்செய்யும் உட்பகையும் வேந்தலைக்கும்
கொல்குறும்பும் இல்லது நாடு. 735
That is a great country which is not divided into warring sects,
which is free from destructive internal enmities,
and which has no traitors within.
Look at the world with these criteria. Does any country qualify to be called a country proper today?
The queen of Tamil poets Avvaiyar said it so well:
நாடா கொன்றோ ; காடா கொன்றோ;
அவலா கொன்றோ ; மிசையா கொன்றோ;
எவ்வழி நல்லவர் ஆடவர்,
அவ்வழி நல்லை ; வாழிய நிலனே.
What does it matter if the land is township or forest, is mountainous or low lying? Wherever there are good people is considered good land. So may the land be blessed!
The greatness of the land derived from the greatness of the people, not the physical characteristics of the land-or what economists would call factor endowments.
Mixed Humanity
No country consisted entirely of good people. Humanity has always been a mixture. The difference between the old and current criteria is that in earlier ages, some standards were maintained whereas now, we elevate and celebrate the deviations! The modern age denies absolute morality or standards anywhere. Even Truth is 'relative'.
Shakespeare celebrates humanity as it is, depicting both the good and the other aspects.
Man- wonderful and woeful!
The indifferent children of the earth.
Hamlet
Most people are ordinary. But the earth does contain great things!
How many godly creatures are here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in it !
[The Tempest]
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither,
But everyone is not like this!
What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.
[Hamlet]
Man-living like animals
Most of us do not use our faculties, but live like beasts, feeding and breeding!
Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor,
bare, forked, animal
King Lear.
The uncultured man is no more than an animal. But most men make a great show, if only vested with a little authority!
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d;
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.
[Measure For Measure ]
Man, the hypocrite
Man knows the art of hiding his feelings and intentions!
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
Measure For Measure.
With devotion's visage
And pious action, we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
Hamlet.
A goodly apple rotten at the heart,
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
The Merchant of Venice
I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stolen forth of holy writ,
And seem a saint when most I play the devil.
Richard III
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?
The Merchant of Venice.
It takes all sorts!
We say it takes all sorts to make the world! The world is a mixture of the good and the not good.
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
[A Midsummer Night's Dream.]
When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.
[King Lear.]
Nature has framed strange fellows in her time.
[The Merchant of Venice.]
Saints, Sages, religious leaders have all been trying to elevate human thought and conduct. But has humanity changed for all that through these centuries? Since the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century, the world has dumped religions and is full of armies of secular advisers with all kinds of philosophies. Have they brought any improvement? They have only made us clever, without making us better!
Sample these lines from Alexander Pope, from his epistle to Caryll in August, 1713:
Good God! What an incongruous animal is man? how unsettled in his best part, his soul; and how changing and variable in his frame of body? The constancy of the one, shook by every notion, the temperament of the other, affected by every blast of wind. What an April weather in the mind! In a word, what is Man altogether, but one mighty Inconsistency!
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