Parody
Parody David S. Br?der Wise Words from the Sage of Elsinore It's become fashionable in today's cynical Danish society to deride the role of the palace court and the men and women who are part of...
...Critics say courtiers are out of touch with the lives and desires of the Danes who live "beyond the moat...
...Parody David S. Br?der Wise Words from the Sage of Elsinore It's become fashionable in today's cynical Danish society to deride the role of the palace court and the men and women who are part of it...
...But while it is true that some Elsinore bureaucrats are corrupt, most are dedicated public servants who have forgotten more about politics in this palace than their critics have ever learned...
...I talked to him last week as he said goodbye to his son Laertes, now off to college in England...
...I'm thinking of one in particular: Polonius...
...It's fortunate that our new king, Claudius, has kept this seasoned old hand close to him, because his common-sense views on a variety of issues make him perhaps the wisest man in Elsinore...
...Polonius avoids the errors that most Danskers have fallen into of dividing the world into left and right, ghost and human, King and Player King-a voice of reason at a time when the embattled Claudius administration needs one...
...He would not say much to a reporter- "give every man thine ear, but few thine voice," he chuckled-but what he did say deserves a hearing...
...On the budget deficit, Polonius offered typically sage counsel...
...Neither a borrower nor a lender be," Polonius said, citing a recent study by the respected Br??kings Institution indicating that a tight-money policy using CB...
...This feeling of alienation from Elsinore-confirmed by a trip last week to Jutland, where I rang doorbells and talked to swing peasants- is new and disturbing...
...He was equally eloquent about diplomacy...
...Now Danish public servants are considered treacherous, two-faced sycophants who think nothing of hiding in a woman's bedcloset and eavesdropping on her while she rolls around on her bed with her son...
...Well spake...
...figures would close the budget gap in seven years...
...He is quiet, subtle, clever, and fully aware of his own intellectual gifts...
...Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement," Polonius offered, indicating his support for a multilateralist approach that seeks to gather support, not bully opponents...
...By indirections," he has said, "do we of wisdom and of reach find directions out...
...Only a few short years ago, the common image of the palace courtier was, of course, the universally beloved Yorick, whose way with a jest led many in this town to dub him "the Mo Udall of the 16th century...
...And they may have a lot to teach us in these difficult days...
Vol. 1 • February 1996 • No. 21
