The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....
An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the implicit threat of a coup d'état or mass insurrection)...... Absolute monarchy (such as Saudi Arabia) and dictatorship are the main historical forms of autocracy.....Both totalitarianism and military dictatorship are often identified with, but need not be, an autocracy....With a combination of cooperation and intimidation, Hitler and his party systematically weakened all opposition to his rule, transforming the Weimar Republic into a fascist dictatorship where Hitler alone spoke and acted on behalf of Germany.
Every other day there's a new story out that makes us want to bury our faces in our hands and mutter, "this cannot be happening......Trump is a sign of how far down the road we have come to the weakening of US democracy.......Trump, who seems happy to mold himself into a brassier American version of Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un.
Trump's sycophants are doing their part to lay the groundwork for such a stunning move. In a particularly North Korean touch -- or, depending on your perspective, one reminiscent of mandatory compliments teachers force their kindergartners to dole out -- Trump also convened members of his Cabinet around a big wooden table and so they could each say something nice about his presidency in front of the press. Trump himself started, declaring himself one of the most accomplished leaders the United States has ever seen. And then one by one, the adult men and women (although mostly men) sitting around him heaped praise on the President, deeming themselves "privileged" to have the "great honor" and "blessing" to serve him......The President then refused to answer any questions from the media......What a pathetic, humiliating spectacle.
It's almost Shakespearean, to see a buffoonish leader filled with this much braggadocio, surrounded by fawning yes-men.
A President who appears hell-bent on securing himself absolute power; a moneyed and sophisticated propaganda machine (including outfits like Ruddy's, along with Breitbart and others) that routinely veers into conspiracy theory territory but still gets invited to the White House; and one of our country's two major parties either looking the other way or actively working to prop up his failing autocratic regime.
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