If anyone doubts the benefits of an education that includes a good dose of the Literary classics, History that isn't underwritten by corporate grants, and an emphasis on critical thinking rather than boot-licking loyalty to an ideology, all they have to do is look at the current dynamics between Bush, his father, Iraq, an enabling, vindictative mother, and the paid minions who spout ideology instead of facts because of favors bought and promised.
Shakespeare covered the whole ugly story of the Bush family many times over: the resentful and spoiled son who can never be better than dad, the manipulative mother who turned away at the affairs, the ugly political scenes, the dehumanization required in order to head something as vile and immoral as the CIA. You will find the corrupt "royal" family whose roots are sown deep in the secrets that made them rich, the passive-aggressive mother who uses the son as a weapon against the father, the ambitious social-climber who knows her family's lack of breeding will allow them only to be used by those who are more "legitimate," and the bumbling ideologue trapped in a position beyond his ability to understand, much less control.
If that isn't enough, there's always the Greeks and their classic father-son dynamics that brought down empires, the overbearing mother who lusts after her own offspring so completely that she can see no wrong, no defect in him. This is paralleled by the son who sees mom as a sort of Hellenic Goddess with the power to destroy those who cross her or who fail to acknowledge the perfection of her fruit of the loins.
Or you can move forward to Freud and other analysts who drew on the Greeks to describe the incestuous relationship (physical and/or mental) between mother and son, the battles between fathers who cannot relinquish control and sons who will do anything to take it over. You can read how these dynamics destroyed not only families, but businesses, villages, and countries.
You can really study History and learn how the Bush family has its dirty little fingers in every stinking pie for decades. Want a nice shock? Type these three words in google without the quotes: Houston Barbara Zapata. You will read about Bush the Elder's connection to the CIA and the Bay of Pigs, Iran-Contra, the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and others. A picture will emerge of a dirty dirty corrupt and immoral family who have no concept of humanity, compassion, love, or a world outside their own greed and need for power.
And the blame for this can be put squarely on those who thought Shakespeare, Greek Literature, and Psychology were too complicated and boring to study on more than a superficial level. It is because of this mindset that we have a President who will not admit he is wrong about Iraq and who listens to the greedy minions with war profits to be made, instead of listening to the advisors forced on him by a father who long ago lost control of his son. And alongside them, you will find the cruel and trashy Barbara who will keep enabling all of them because if she stops then she has to look at herself--and that is NOT a pretty picture.
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