I suspect I am not alone in remembering that I was taught in high school English class that Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Hamlet, was about a man who simply could not make up his mind to take action and get vengeance for the murder of his father. The lesson that Shakespeare was laying down for us, we were told, was that Hamlet dithered, was indecisive, and that his failure to act decisively led to his own downfall and the death of others. But that was, and is, a superficial reading of the play.
I had the opportunity while at university in Houston, of studying under, and knowing, a very perceptive English professor and my mentor, who helped his students understand the real tragedy. It is one that has never left me and a teaching that I urge all of us to think about.
What we learned in that English class was that the real tragedy of Hamlet was more social and political than personal. It was not simply that he was indecisive but that, more importantly, he refused to acknowledge and use all the friends and potential allies, which he had around him. Whether it was his good friend, Horatio (whom he ignored) Ophelia the woman who loved him (whom he alienated and drove insane), his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (whom he had murdered) and even his mother (whom he alienated) he failed, or refused, to make use of the natural allies who were right there in front of him. Hamlet was smart, cultured and charismatic but he had a fateful blind spot. He insisted on treating the murder of his father, the King, as a singularly personal crime, rather than a political one, which had implications for others that rendered him ineffective.
I have experienced, in both my work as a community organizer and as a long time academic, the problems caused, and opportunities lost, when people get caught up in the dysfunction engendered by the syndrome of individual or mutual distrust. Some folks refuse to work with, or even talk seriously to, others with whom they have similar goals but may vary in some way, in their approach to an issue or simply in their personality. They allow some argument, over differing approaches or ideological perspective or worse, some personal jealousy or animosity, to get in the way of combining their resources for the benefit of all.
It is not of course only in the more public areas of life where we get caught up in focusing on the differences between us rather than the ways that we can connect. I had a recent experience with someone very dear to me who is going through a tough time. She had fallen into the Hamlet trap; she would not trust anyone around her to help because she felt that they had proven themselves undependable or “disloyal” in one aspect of friendship or another. And it reminded me how often we refuse, or fail to acknowledge, the potential allies around us and try to go it alone, whether in dealing with our private troubles or in our collective public efforts at social change.
As the results of numerous historical and anthropological research has shown, we human beings have only survived and prospered as a species because of our “social nature”, our ability to work together to solve problems, protect ourselves from danger and advance the collective, public good (Bregman, 2020; Sukel, 2019). If we fall victims to the trap of “toxic individuality” (Lee and Carranza, 2022: 99) and greed that is all too present today1- inaction on the existential crisis that is global warming for example that will soon turn into a climate catastrophe - we will inevitably repeat the tragic flaw that led to Hamlet’s failure. Our version however will not be a drama on a stage, but our real lives and those of our children and grandchildren. Without engaging in the work, and it can be difficult work, of looking for allies, assessing their abilities and intentions and developing trust and the ability to work together, our lives can only become worse. We will be unable to meet, and thus succumb to, the very real challenges and existential dangers, like the rapidly worsening climate crisis, that we clearly face.
I would imagine that Benjamin Franklin was conversant with the works of Shakespeare as he seems to have understood the fatal flaw exhibited by Hamlet. In any event he is reputed to have commented at the time of the signing of the US. Declaration of Independence: "We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
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Resources
Bregman, R. (2020). Humankind. New York, Little, Brown and Company
Lee. B. & Carranza, M.C. (2022). “Toxic Individuality” entry in A Glossary of Social Justice Terms for Contemporary Practioners. Toronto: CommonAct Press. P. 99. McManus, M.R. (Undated). “Why Is Ayn Rand Still So Popular Today?” HowStuffWorks. https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/why-is-ayn-rand-so-popular-today.htm.
Sukel, K. (2019). “In Sync: How Humans are Hard-Wired for Social Relationships”. Neuroscience, The Dana Foundation
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