“And, masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass.” Dogberry in Act 5, Scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing
In the play Much Ado About Nothing the character of Dogberry, chief of the citizen-police, stands out as that of a comedic, incompetent fool. When the play is done well this character is a light in a dark plot, for it is the bumbling ignorance of Dogberry and his men that provide much-needed humor.
Despite their idiocy, they effectively uncover the central plot of the story.
If the Federal Government of the Unites States of America could be half as ineffective as these citizen-police, they would not have shut down. And while undoubtedly incompetent, they are hardly funny.
Yes. The government of the United States of America has ‘shut down’. It should be noted it is not the Egyptian government that shut down, though they are constantly criticized for not being able to stabilize the country. The government of Lebanon has not shut down, despite having approximately a million Syrian refugees join a population of 4 million. The government of Pakistan has not shut down, despite bomb attacks and other violent attempts to destabilize the administration.
We could go on and on.
Would that we could take them back to the kindergarten sandbox and drill into their thick heads that most of life involves negotiation. But I can’t do that, so I go back to literature and take my words from that master of words – William Shakespeare.
“And so, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that they, the Federal Government of the United States are an ass.”
