A new movie \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet seen, but plan to \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anonymous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The subject is about doubts that the works of William Shakespeare \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the 37 plays, many sonnets and poems \u00e2\u20ac\u201d were written by someone else.<\/p>\n
Purposely, I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t delved into the reviews to avoid forming a strong premature opinion, but I will posit that those who say the man from Stratford-Upon-Avon was a fake, an imposter, generally aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t literary types.<\/p>\n
Few serious authors, writers, poets or critics have taken up the anti-Shakespeare banner. The most vocal folks who argue that someone else deserves the honors are housewives, lawyers, doctors and some plain folks. Mark Twain, by the way, refused to believe the Bard was legitimate.<\/p>\n
Some people say Shakespeare could not have ventured into the realm of more educated, traveled writers, such as Sir Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe. Like some of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153birthers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d many critics consider Shakespeare\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s place of birth as a benighted back-street slum through whose mired alleys trudged the lowest form of humanity that ever gibbered in the suburbs of Dogpatch.<\/p>\n
The fact that we know little about Shakespeare is not justification for believing the man to have been unlettered. Were Shakespeare really illiterate, would that endear him to common people?<\/p>\n
But this is not to become a defense of Shakespeare (that will come after I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve watched \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anonymous\u00e2\u20ac\u009d); instead, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about some ridiculous arguments people make in favor of ignorance. In this case, some people apparently believe that not knowing things is a plus.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Remember when Billy Graham signed off his sermons with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And may God bless you real good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n
Real good? My English teacher at Immaculate Conception School, Sister Mary Grammatica Correcta, would have grabbed the building\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only phone to tell the man of the cloth that he ought to have said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153well\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instead of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
And she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably add that if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to modify \u00e2\u20ac\u0153well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he needs an adverb to do the honors: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153really well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real good (or well).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (I hope I made that point real good.
\nI believe that many are mistrustful of anyone demonstrating erudition, and that Billy Graham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s followers felt he was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one of us\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He speaks our language, not that high-falutin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stuff.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Now this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to imply that Las Vegas or New Mexico, or the U.S. is awash with ignorant people; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s merely to say the advice of people like Sam Cooke (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wonderful World\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know much \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbout history\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the best for us.<\/p>\n
In a recent syndicated column, Cynthia Tucker warns of political candidates guilty of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the conflating of ignorance with authenticity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The columnist refers to a GOP debate and some interviews in which Herman Cain, who rose to the leading spot in the pack of Republican presidential candidates, displayed a lack of knowledge about how the world operates. Tucker cited an almost braggadocio attitude of the former pizza king that hinted his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153profound lack of knowledge … is one reason to support him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Tucker adds, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We certainly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a president … who publicly disdained the president of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as someone he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to remember.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
And those who have watched the debates are aware of the brain freeze suffered by Texas Gov. Rick Perry during his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oops\u00e2\u20ac\u009d moment. He needed help recalling the three federal departments he hopes to dismantle when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s president \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to cite those agencies on his hit list, even if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s determined to eliminate them.<\/p>\n
Why have educated people become objects of such scorn? One of the anti-Stratfordians mentioned above, convinced that the Shakespeare canon was actually written by someone else, claimed that his kind of research \u00e2\u20ac\u0153needed a mind uncluttered with facts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in order to prove Shakespeare wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t legitimate. \t\t\tThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another appeal to the masses on the basis of being uninformed, or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153uncluttered.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget the late George Wallace, the pro-segregation governor of Alabama, who ran for president four times and lost. He denounced those who were well educated as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pointy-headed intellectuals.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We need more of these pointies in government, not fewer.<\/p>\n
Cain performed poorly before the editorial board of a Milwaukee newspaper, saying the country needs \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a leader, not a reader,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as if one can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be both; the two aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n
Cain has since suspended his run for the presidency.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Billy Currington ought to team up with his amigo Sam Cooke to concoct a pre-election ditty that equates lack of knowledge or skills with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153our kind of person one we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to have as our leader.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Currington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current hit is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pretty Good at Drinkin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Beer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He sings, in part, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not the type to work in a bank, \/ I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m no good at slappin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on paint. \/ Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a knack for makin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 motors crank, no, \/But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty good at drinkin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 beer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s juxtapose Currington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beer-guzzling credentials with those of Sam Cooke, who sings, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know much about history\/ Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know much biology\/ Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know much about a science book\/ Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know much about the French I took.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But later, Cooke makes everything all right by revealing, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But I do know that I love you\/ and I know that if you love me too, what a wonderful world this will be ….\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So we have a beer drinker possibly teaming up with someone deficient in history, science, languages, algebra, trig and slide rules. Maybe they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re good at textin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n
We already have these types among us, some raking in $174,000 a year as members of the U.S. House, who dismiss things like climate change, evolution and even the obesity epidemic, according to columnist Tucker.<\/p>\n
Some might feel a kinship with politicians and others who revel in their ignorance, but we ought to try electing informed people as our leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new movie \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet seen, but plan to \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anonymous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The subject is about doubts that the works of William Shakespeare \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the 37 plays, many sonnets and poems \u00e2\u20ac\u201d were written by someone else. Purposely, I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t delved into the reviews to avoid forming a strong premature opinion, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}