Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

He hath confest: away with him! He’s a

 villain and a traitor.

 -All

King Henry the Sixth Part II       Act IV, Scene ii, Line 103

 

We touched on this scene, but just barely, in a post back in August 2019. So let’s get into it a bit today.

The ‘All’ here is a mob, and the mob leader is a fellow named Jack Cade. Now on the one hand, this is taking place in the time of a monarchy, you know, divine rights of kings and all that. So a group of ordinary folks rising up might seem like a good thing. Right? Well, not exactly.

In this case we have a group of ordinary folks being led by a king wanna-be. Cade is a pretender to the throne. His aspirations are not about the good of the common folk, his aspirations are about the good of Jack Cade. And right now they have found an educated fellow, a common folk, who can read and write. They’re going to take this as a sign that he’s part of the establishment and they’re going to hang him.

And this just shows that there’s a difference between democracy and mob rule: a big difference, and yet sometimes a fine line. Consider: A bunch of unhappy guys get together in Philadelphia in 1776, and we're celebrating it almost 250 years later. A bunch of unhappy guys (and gals) get together in Washington on January 6, 2021; no cause for celebration there.

So listen to Will. He has a lot to say about a lot of things. He won’t give you all the answers, but he’ll get you to ask a lot of important questions.

Happy Fourth of July y'all.