Long before Walter White roamed the New Mexico desert brewing up blue meth; long before Tony Soprano emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel, cigar in mouth, onto the Jersey Turnpike; long before Don Draper walked the halls of Sterling, Cooper, tortured with secrets, guilt, lust and ambition, the story of a corrupt, depraved and magnificently ruthless family transfixed us in front of our 1970's round-screen, 19-inch TV's.
I speak, of course, of I, Claudius, which despite the excellence and innovation of recent series, remains The Best Thing Ever On TV (TM). Based on historical novels by Robert Graves, I Claudius recounts the story of four Roman Emperors, Augustus, Tiberius, and the eponymous narrator Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (just "Claudius," to his friends, Romans and countrymen). It starred some of the greatest actors of our era, including of course, Derek Jacobi as Claudius, John Hurt as Caligula, Sian Phillips as Livia and Patrick Stewart (with hair!) as Tiberius's henchman, Sejanus.
Claudius survives the imperial intra-familial carnage perpetrated by, among others, Livia and Caligula, because his stuttering and chronic limp made him appear like a harmless idiot, and because of his quiet intelligence and cleverness. For most of the story, his is the only conscience in a hive of power-mad murderers, thieves and madmen.
But once in power, beset by faithless wives, scheming courtiers and corruption, even Claudius succumbs to bitterness and disgust and takes to heart the advice of his friend (and subsequent enemy) Herod:
Trust no one, my friend, no one. Not your most grateful freedman. Not your most intimate friend. Not your dearest child. Not the wife of your bosom. Trust no one.
In my favorite scene, two advisors suggest a possible new wife for Claudius (who has had grim bad luck in prior spouses). One suggests Claudius's niece, Agrippina, to the horror of the other. Claudius listens impassively to the heated discussion, finally proclaims
Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud . . . hatch out,
and agrees to the incestuous union:
Claudius was essentially saying "F&*$#k it. Let it all hang out and see what happens. Maybe release of the poisons will expose the rot in the system and lead to something better, maybe even a Republic."
That quote has remained with me as I've watched and been a part of political events for these nearly forty years: the poisonous racist appeals of Reaganism in the '80s; the pernicious, calculated rhetoric of Gingrich-Luntz in the '90s; the demonization of dissent in the '00s; and the renascent bigotry of the Tea Party since the election of Obama.
But in the last few days, watching and reading the fallout from the Zimmerman/Martin case and the President's remarks, the disgraceful and open return to Jim Crow voting by legislatures in NC, TX and elsewhere and the virulent anti-immigrant hatred from Steven King et al., it seems like the poisons have finally "hatched" out of the mud into the open. Witness:
A PA Police Chief publicly rants against "libtards" and shoots off guns while calling for armed insurrection. (and remains in his job)
A WaPo columnist says of the President: “I do not think that this man is a good person. He wants to incite people and to rally people for political ends; that is not a good person.”
Rep. King says: “But for every one who is a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they have calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
As part of a racist rant, Bill O'Reilly blurts out: "White People don't force black people to have babies out of wedlock."
Ads by the Koch brothers openly spread lies about the ACA
Clearly, poisons are hatching out of the mud.
My hope is that they will finally convince a strong majority of Americans that one party is dominated by racists and xenophobes financed by Dickensian billionaires, and repudiate that party at the polls.
But unlike Claudius, I'm not going to just sit back and watch. I'm going to do all I can to help it happen.
Update: (Clearing throat), "I'd like to thank the Academy, er, the "Rescue Rangers" for putting me on the "Community Spotlight," as well as my family, my teachers, Derek Jacobi, the producers of I Claudius, the black and white Sony TV I watched it on . . . . [music in the background drowns me out] .."