Our second Camelot

By Marita Vargas

Liberals believe the election a year ago of Barack Hussein Obama ushered in America's second Camelot. Let me be the first to agree with them. We are in Camelot — the Camelot of the Waste Land.

Mordred (Mr. Obama) sits on the throne, Morgana le Fey (Nancy Pelosi) stands at his side, and the nobles (our illustrious lawmakers) trade our freedoms for personal gain. Central casting rarely sends down such perfect specimens. All that remains to be seen is who will play the part of Parsifal.

If anyone thinks this too fanciful for 21st Century minds consider this: The Catholic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, worked tirelessly to pass an abortion-protecting version of the Healthcare bill.[1] She was asking members of her own party to cast aside their consciences and their constituents in a bid to make the bloody knife available to as many infants as possible.

With this gesture she entered the mythic realm, offering her peers a brew from an unholy grail. Poor woman she doesn't even know what master she serves. Not many of our leaders do. They might well learn a lesson from Macbeth.

By the time of Macbeth's consultation with the three witches he was willing to admit what it took to gain complete power.

I conjure you by that which you profess
......................................answer me.
Though you untie the winds and let them fight
Against the churches, though the yeasty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up,
Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down,
Though castles topple on their warders' heads,
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure
Of nature's germens tumble all together
Even till destruction sicken, answer me to what I ask you.
(Macbeth, Act IV,Scene I, ll. 51-64)

Macbeth, of course, was asking the witches to prophesy how long his kingdom would stand — a strange question, given the fact that he was willing to bring upheaval, sterility and death upon the entire world to retain his power.

Our leaders are just the same.

While we are alarmed that the Churches are under constant siege by the courts, our leaders are not.

While we are grieved to think that our diminishing naval power is only a presentiment of our growing weakness, our leaders are not.

While we are outraged that the "warders of our castles" can be cut to ribbons within the fortress meant to protect all of us, our leaders are not.

While we are dismayed at seeing our houses "toppled" as they are seized by planning boards and inter-governmental agencies, our leaders are not.

And then there is the special case of California where the government-made dust bowl is placing farms and the millions who depend on them in danger. Our leaders are not troubled by this either.

Is it a sign of things to come? We can answer "Yes" with confidence if we are willing to learn a lesson from Macbeth. Shakespeare knew how the will to power worked. His Macbeth reminds us that our leaders are not only willing to overturn the fecundity of the earth, but the fecundity of the womb.

Macbeth has no heirs. His castle is mysteriously empty of children's voices. Lady Macbeth famously claims that she would dash her suckling babe against the stones were she free to live and act and murder as a man. She urges her husband to secure his throne by killing the innocent children of MacDuff.

In answer to his query, the masters of the Three Witches show Macbeth three rather famous apparitions: that of an armored head, a bloody child and a crowned child with a tree in his hand. These three visions should have deterred Macbeth from continuing his murderous course.

The first should have reminded Macbeth of what happens to all those who live by the sword; the second should have reminded him of the slaughter of the innocents; the third should have reminded him of the infant Jesus — triumphant though Calvary still lay before him. In simple terms, Macbeth was invited to repent even as he faced his greatest temptation.

Earlier Macbeth had almost turned away from his design to murder good king Duncan. He reasoned that "pity, like a naked newborn babe/striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed/upon the sightless couriers of the air,/shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,/that tears shall drown the wind." (Act I, Sc. VII, ll. 21-25)

We should all cry oceans at the death of the innocently slain. For the "babe striding the blast" and riding with the "horsed cherubin" is none other than the Christ Child himself, whose season we will celebrate shortly. And those who inspire us to weep at the death of a faithful king are none other than the Heavenly Host. Perhaps they also weep at the death of a once fine republic whose people have allowed themselves to be ruled by lawmakers all but blind to truth.

There is still time to shed tears for all the innocent lives lost. Christ is as forgiving as he is just and mighty. Let us call upon his mercy while we still can, for ourselves and for all of our leaders. If we turn from our nation's murderous ways, perhaps the worst of the Waste Land can be averted. Perhaps through God's grace we will be sent a host of Parsifals. If so we can all share in turning our nation from embracing death to embracing life.

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© Marita Vargas