Review: Cato: a Tragedy (1713) by Joseph Addison

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I had a delightful surprise when I finally got to read Addison’s Cato:  a Tragedy in Five Acts on my Kindle recently.  It was much better than I’d hoped.  This short drama was first staged in 1713 in London and was a big hit in the 18^th Century.  Said to be the favorite play of George Washington, he had it staged by his officers during the bitter winter bivouac at Valley Forge.  Now I can see why. 

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Cato is a concise but immensely powerful classic of the struggle between liberty (represented by Cato the Younger) versus tyranny (that of Julius Caesar).  I had always heard of the fame and influence of the classical-liberal (i.e., libertarian), radical Whig pamphlet series, Cato’s Letters (1720-23), by the Englishman John Trenchard and the Scotsman Thomas Gordon, but only now do I appreciate exactly why they chose the pseudonym of “Cato” for their revolutionary publications:  in those days every reader knew that the name stood solidly for individual freedom against authoritarian power.  This latter pamphlet series was said to be the most widely read of political writings in the American Colonies in the decades running up to the Revolution.  And, of course, today’s libertarian think tank, Cato Institute, famously takes its name from the Trenchard-Gordon series. 

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One thing that jumped right out at me as I read Cato was that a couple of the most famous quotations from the American Revolutionary era must surely have been proclaimed while knowing that the contemporary audience also was well-versed in Addison’s play.  I’m thinking of Patrick Henry and Nathan Hale. 

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Another thing that struck me fully was how much, in Addison’s era, the name of Julius Caesar was tied to villainous tyranny.  Caesar’s ambition for power led to the destabilization and end of the great Roman Republic, a republic with a rule of law, strong checks on government power, and strong institutions protecting the freedom of its citizens.  Cato and the Republic represented liberty, while Caesar brought in the age of empire, rule by conquering generals, endless war, the end of liberty, and the establishment of absolute power in one man. 

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The history of Caesar’s ambition for power was blasted by 18^th Century thinkers.  Addison was born in 1672 and witnessed England’s “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, a milestone in human history so far as chaining down government power.  This revolution in political thinking was articulated best by John Locke and Algernon Sidney, and was furthered by Addison, Trenchard and Gordon, and on through the American Founders.  Remember Henry’s other famous speech:  “Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First had his Cromwell; and George the Third may profit by their example.  If this be treason, make the most of it!” 

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My point:  the very idea of ambitious power-lusting tyrants such as Caesar was abhorred, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the 18^th Century Enlightenment (except for odd collectivists like Rousseau).  But, tragically, Anglo-American thinkers started to worship the memory of the dictator Julius Caesar by the latter half of the 19^th Century, at the same time when libertarians like Thomas Jefferson were no longer admired as much as before.  This was the time when Statism, i.e., the conceit that state power can be “good” and that “great men” should be allowed great power, was becoming the new political god.  To objectify the predictable result from this new surge in statist ideology, witness:  the 20^th Century, with its bloody totalitarian dictatorships and gruesome total wars; Caesar triumphant!  Cato forgotten. 

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Is there hope for the true freedom of individuals in the modern world?  Probably not in my lifetime, as the rot of slavish worship of government power as a cure-all is still rampant.  Yet, there is always future hope in education.  There are the timeless libraries of liberty.  E.g., after being unavailable for more than a century, Cato’s Letters is now back in print as well as online here. And Addison’s Cato:  a Tragedy in Five Acts is available online here. 

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Cato the Younger was famous for his love of liberty, his integrity, his refusal of any bribes, and his opposition to Julius Caesar.  One reason Caesar had so many allies is that he gave out the goodies, the spoils of war and power, to both his cronies and the populace, making the corruption surrounding him remind us in Thailand of today’s (exiled) big boss of ambition.

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-Zenwind.

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50 Years Ago Today, The Beatles Taught Us How to Play

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In February 1964 the British Invasion of America began with The Beatles appearing on the universally watched Ed Sullivan TV Show.  Beatlemania hit our shores, with excellent British bands following shortly after, and American youth were never the same again.  It was a revolution, indeed. 

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The Beatles broke into phenomenal popularity in the UK in 1963, unbeknownst to us in the States.  My first clue was on Christmas Day 1963.  I was a 13-year-old wannabe hipster trying to tune in my brand new AM transistor radio.  (No FM pop or Rock in those days; FM was still only for Classical.)  That afternoon I heard a radio DJ announce the next song with a bit of surprise in his voice.  He said that this was a song by a band “from England”!  I was surprised too.  We didn’t know that the British even listened to Rock n Roll, let alone played it.  Man, were we ever surprised in the coming months! 

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That song was She Loves You – “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”  Totally unique like we’d never imagined music could be sung and played.  I heard the song again twice in the next week to New Years.  Then in January 1964 a series of Beatles’ songs assaulted the American pop charts and radio slots.  I remember sitting at breakfast on a school morning with the AM radio next to my ear at our old kitchen table.  Just before finishing breakfast I had the immense joy of hearing the radio pump out I Wanna Hold Your Hand, the Number One hit in the nation!  Wow!  Their music was so Happy!  It was more upbeat, honest, innocent, and fresh than anything we’d heard before. 

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Within two months time The Beatles completely captured the American pop charts.  They always had 5 songs in the Top Ten every week for weeks and weeks, and they always had a lock on the number 1, 2, and 3 spots, new songs replacing the earlier ones.  It was indeed a Phenomenon. 

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In February 1964 The Beatles came to America and played on the most popular variety show of that time, The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evenings.  They taped enough music in New York and Miami to play for three weekly shows – delighting and enlightening the youth of the USA.  Here is a BBC article about that time, with an excellent 29-minute video of the complete Sullivan performances.  My own favorite part of this video is on their third appearance, at minute-22, when they launch into Twist and Shout, followed by Please Please Me and I Wanna Hold Your Hand.  

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On the evening of their historic first performance, I had gone (i.e., I had been forced to go) to Sunday night church with my father, the end time of the service being the exact start time of the TV show.  Church ended, and we had to look forward to the inevitably painful delays of shaking hands and meaningless chat with fellow parishioners at the back of the church before escaping – too late – to the parking lot and home.  I would miss much of the show. 

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To my delight and total surprise, my father – knowing how much I wanted to see the Beatles TV show – furtively suggested to me that we quickly exit the church via the door left of the pulpit down to the parking lot, thus escaping the glad-handing mob.  For this, I am eternally grateful to my father’s perceptiveness and kindness in that simple humane gesture.  He truly understood me at that moment. 

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We got home just minutes after the Sullivan Show had started.  My mom had the TV on and tuned in.  As we entered the living room, still in our winter clothes, The Beatles had started to sing and the crowd went absolutely bonkers!  Pop joy!  It really was an historical event. 

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The first record album I ever bought was the 33-RPM vinyl Meet The Beatles, the first album release in America by Capitol Records.  Cousin Bonnie bought an even earlier album, a British release on another label with their earlier songs. 

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The “British Invasion” had begun.  The first Rock group to knock the Beatles off the number one in England were The Dave Clark Five with Glad All Over, an exuberant ode to joy.  My next album purchase was of theirs.  (In later years they had radio hits that I listened to while sleeping out in the yard under the stars, my favorite music venue, in 1965, I Like It Like That in the summer, and Catch Me If You Can in the autumn.) 

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Then the 1964 British group The Searchers hit the top of the British charts, with a cover of Needles and Pins.  As 1964 turned into summer, we had even more bizarre and beautiful music from the UK.  That summer American radio heard The Animals (a Newcastle working class band with Eric Burdon singing) playing The House of the Rising Sun, a mournful old American Blues standard that few in my generation had never heard.  Thus was the main theme of the British Invasion:  American Blues, Rock, and pop songs recycled back to us through British interpretations. 

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That very same 1964 summer week we also heard for the first time a new British group called The Rolling Stones, playing Tell Me, and later, It’s All Over Now (now a standard that I have heard still played in Bangkok bars).  My late great best friend from my youth, Ron Diethrick (1948-2011), and I sat in my parents’ living room beside an ancient cabinet phonograph, playing these Stones songs over and over again to try to decode the lyrics; Ron had pencil and paper, and he got down to serious business.  (We also decoded the lyrics to “Monster Mash” with the same methodical technique.)  My mother drove Ron and me to a theater in the nearest city where we saw the Beatles film, A Hard Day’s Night. 

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I will never forget being in the barn one day when my cousin Dan was working.  The radio was on, and as The Beatles’ Twist and Shout came on, we just looked at each other and nodded – “Oh, Yeah!” 

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As 1964 turned over into 1965, I remember a classroom discussion in 9^th grade.  I was in a Civics class and was seated with class members, basically good decent folk, who later became preachers and leading members of their communities.  I.e., I was mismatched.  The Beatles had been popular for over a year now, and one of my classmates remarked to another, “I think the Beatles are okay,” to which another nodded in tentative agreement.  Then I put in my own two cents, “I like the Rolling Stones.”  To which they visibly shrank away in horror, implying that the Rolling Stones are “not acceptable.”  Always the heretic, I still love the Stones. 

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In the summer of 1965, my poor suffering mother drove my good friend Dick Hale (1950-1973) and me to a drive-in movie theater to see the Beatles film Help.  My mom was ill (perhaps a gall stone attack) and lay uncomfortably groaning in the back seat while Dick and I sat up front reveling in the music.  (Mothers do endure so much self-sacrificial agony for their kids.  I think some kind of sainthood is in order.) 

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But if you think Rock was good in early 1965, you should have heard the incredibly new sounds reaching America in the summer of 65 (e.g., The Yardbirds, the band that had a history of great guitarists, such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page), and into 66 (The Who, “Talkin’ bout my generation!”), and 67.  It just got better and better. The entire decade rocked.  My life’s soundtrack. 

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For me it started 50 years ago today. 

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-Zenwind.

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