Was Oedipus Culpable?

As I noted in an earlier post on Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, I am (very slowly) working my way through the ancient Greek tragedies.  I recently finished the sequel to Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus.  One of the central questions in OC is the extent to which Oedipus was truly culpable for killing his father, King Laius, and sleeping with his mother, Queen Jocasta.  And, indeed, to modern sensibilities (or at least my modern sensibilities), Oedipus suffers far in excess of his blameworthiness.  After all, he did not know that Laius and Jocasta were his father and mother — he was raised by the King and Queen of Corinth, and they never told him that they were not his biological parents.  The whole patricide and incest thing was an accident.  So why should Oedipus suffer blindness, exile, and life as a wandering beggar — how he can deserve such a fate?

To be sure, Oedipus did massacre Laius and his attendants following a dispute over whose chariot had the right of way — what seems to be an ancient instance of road rage.  Even if he did not know that Laius was his father, we might say Oedipus was culpable for a hyper-violent overreaction to a minor slight.  

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Mayfair – Tumult in Wisconsin’s Shrine of Consumption

Much has been written and said about the tumult at the Mayfair Mall on January 2.  Commentators have argued the theft and destruction grew out of, among other things, the general rebelliousness of teenagers, deep-seated racial tensions, and/or colliding urban and suburban subcultures.  All these arguments have validity to them, but the very nature of the Mayfair Mall itself may also have played a role in the disturbances.

Mayfair epitomizes the modern shopping complex.  It has more sales per square foot than any other shopping complex in the metropolitan area.  A staggering 16 million shoppers pass through the mall annually, making Mayfair the busiest mall in all of Wisconsin.  With its flashing signage, swooping escalators, and elaborate display windows, Mayfair is a striking shrine devoted to late capitalism’s excessive consumption.

The central belief at Mayfair and hundreds of comparable shrines is that the purchase of goods and experiences will lead to personal happiness.

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Wisconsin’s First RNC Chairman

On the seventh ballot of their meeting yesterday, the members of the Republican National Committee elected Wisconsin state party chairman Reince Priebus as their new chairman.  Contrary to some reports, Priebus is not the first national party chairman from Wisconsin.  That designation belongs to Henry Clay Payne, who chaired the RNC for a brief time in 1904.

Payne started his political career in 1872 at the most grassroots level – the Young Men’s Republican Club of Milwaukee County – as a volunteer for President Grant’s reelection campaign.  As a reward for his party service, he was appointed postmaster of Milwaukee in 1876 – this before civil service laws protected such positions from political patronage.  At one point, he told the citizens of Milwaukee, “As long as I am postmaster, I shall employ only Republicans if I can find those that are competent.”   When Democrat Grover Cleveland won the presidency in 1884, he promptly fired Payne as postmaster, labeling him an “offensive partisan.” 

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