Who do we believe in? Who do we trust? Who do we fear? And who will we follow? I have spent the afternoon watching “Rebellion,” about the Easter uprising in Ireland, 1916, and thinking of Yeats’ “Easter, 1916,” where he points out that the leaders were faulty human beings, but still headed a major revolution. The “drunken vainglorious lout” who married, betrayed and beat the love of Yeats’ life, Maud Gonne, always comes back to me when I kvetch about the people I have to vote for. It’s not like the “Hanging Judge” who just got elected to the presidency in Iran – they’re just faulty. And they can still lead people well.
This is something I hope I will keep in mind. What do you think?