Shakespeare vs. Democracy

Order, Chaos, Order.

That’s the cycle, right? We go from a state where the good king is in power, well until some nefarious schemers get ideas, and the divine order (embodied by the king) is overthrown. Everyone suffers, until the villain is eventually destroyed, and order returns. Shakespeare uses this repeatedly in his plays and we see this pattern reflected in many other author’s works (including some of my fave fantasy novels).

And what’s not to love about tales of righteous kings, foul villains, and bawdy humour, in both these old stories and in fantastic literature. The truth is, I love this shit - I cheer along with he rest of you when the king pulls the sword from the rock; when we go to battle with the St. Crispin’s Day speech ringing in our ears, or watching Gandalf’s arrival at the first light on the fifth day, or whatever. There’s a simplicity to this sort of tale that is deeply compelling, but, but... this is not the world we live in, for all that it’s something that we seem to yearn for. So we tell ourselves that these are the stories that reflect our deepest truths, but in fact, they simply speak to an archaic sense of the world, one that is so much a part of our culture, that it feels ‘right’.

The democratic world - the better world - is, by comparison, poorly represented in our stories. Even Science Fiction, which should be reflecting a possible future world (either literally or metaphorically), one that, presumably, would be one where democracy has been part of our lives for generations, tends, instead, towards star-spanning Empires lead by some sort of aristocracy. I mean, sure, I’m partial to space operas, call it a weakness, but there’s no reason that we can’t look at these things through another lens. One where we struggle with issues like the concentration of power that threatens to undermine established democracy, stories that reflect the deeper political values of the Enlightenment. Or heck, one that pitches autocracy against democracy. Funnily enough, Lucas tried this in StarWars (Eps I-III) and failed miserably - I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s worth doing. I mean it’s so reflexive - to write to these old tropes. I was doing a short story myself, and the reflexive instinct was to set it in a political dystopia - but there are other routes, including democracies that fail to go your way (hello there, America in 2019). But despite the proof of history that democracies, are ultimately, more stable (and arguably more messy) as a model of governance, we insist of stories where a single man’s vision is only impeded by the messy realities of bureaucracies, opposing views, caution or balance.

“Whatevs,” you might say. “They’re just stories, they’re classics because the get at how people feel.” I would argue that much of the dysfunctionality and disengagement we see in our current electoral system is driven by the fact that we don’t see ourselves in the political process, we don’t have enough of those stories that describe this engagement. We participate only if we are roused, either because we are profoundly angered or, less commonly, inspired. A sense that it’s a part of our day-to-day story, in the way that family or work or sports or (in Toronto anyway) housing prices are, is missing. And without this sense that democracy, and the associated political processes, are part of the daily fabric of our lives, is problematic.

“Nonsense,” you might argue, “my social media feed is filled with political outrage,” and sure it probably is, but the current extremis will die down. And in any case the current spate of never ending hyperbole is a symptom of this lack of our ability to tell stories of democracy. Outrage at our current version of Zaphod Beeblebrox in the Western World is not political engagement, but rather its lack.

What we need, from our stories, are plots and characters that reflect the realities and challenges of a democratic society. It’s not about the great struggle that got us there (though I do love those stories, and would like to see more of these in fantasy and Sci Fi environments), but about the protagonist’s struggle in an, at least nominally, democratic world. The reboot of BattleStar Galacica was amazing for this. It had plot lines that involved finding the levers of power, of political struggle, and of dealing with the reality that sometimes the bastards will grind you down. But this show was to my knowledge a rarity - both in SF and in straight up dramas on TV - House of Cards, West Wing, even Veep (a literal handful of shows among all other genres). But these series are few and far between. But with the possible exception of House of Cards, they tend to work against the reality is that the people in charge are not, in fact, the appointed guardians of the rightful order, but just a bunch of people. Nothing divine, or inevitable or fated.

I also find it interesting that literary fiction lacks these stories as well. Of course there are the stories of oppression and abuse, the failings of people and governments, but very little about the process and struggle to make things right. Stories in literary fiction often focus on the protagonist’s struggles against the powers that be, but not about driving change in the underlying power structure. I’m looking for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, but for the political world, because I’m not after (necessarily) heroic fiction, or even political fiction. I’m after fiction where politics, and our ability to affect it, is woven into the story; where the characters are, like us, are citizens, both profound and foolish.