Wallace Shawn Examines Responsibility

It's hard to nail down specifics in "The Fever," Wallace Shawn's meandering 95-minute monologue that examines the responsibility — and the guilt — of the haves when confronted by the have nots.

Whether you respond to Shawn's 95-minute solo show, which the New Group has revived at off-Broadway's Acorn Theatre, will depend on your connection to the likable performer, whose genial manner hides an impassioned feeling for the poverty and unrest that inflicts much of the world. Some, though, might think of it as chic sermonizing from a comfortable point of view.

The setup is simple. The narrator (Shawn) sits in a chair in what looks like the library of a Manhattan apartment (maybe the Upper West Side) and talks.

Dressed in a natty gray sports jacket, blue shirt and striped tie, he tells the story of finding himself shivering in a hotel room in an unnamed Third World country where a war is going on. An execution is about to take place, and the event sets off a series of ruminations that trip over each other in no particular order.

Among other things, Shawn chatters about some of his nondescript friends — one who was mugged, another whose father has died — and compares their lives to those suffering in the turmoil of the country where he is trapped. Yet neither group of folks comes to life.

Shawn talks about the "beauty" of poor countries and of being poor. "It's a wonderful feeling to have money in a country where most people are poor, to ride in a taxi through horrible slums," he says with only a smidgen of irony.

And he does debate — within himself — whether he should give all his money to the less fortunate. In the end, he does come down on the side of keeping more for himself. "For God's sake, I worked for that money," Shawn rationalizes.

"My feeling in my heart a sympathy for the poor does not change the life of the poor," he muses toward the end of the evening. Well, yes. Shawn's realization at least is honest, although it doesn't provide much insight into what he thinks can be done to alleviate the poverty.

"The Fever" was done at the Public Theater in 1990 in what was a slightly longer version.

This production actually begins before the house lights go down. Shawn already is on stage when the audience enters the theater, and a free glass of champagne (French, no less) is available onstage for those who wish to have a drink before the show. Outrage apparently goes down better in a convivial atmosphere. But that may be the point Shawn is making.

Paris

Tired of broken friendships,
torn apart
and struck again.

Ocean of wisdom,
of broken vessels
and broken hearts.

And finally Paris
My secret city,
My Shangri-La;
Paris of a thousand lights
and as many dreams,
or so it seems.
Land of forgotten debt,
abandoned regret;
You are my salvation,
my shining nowhere;
I will leave my care
behind,
free the mind.

Paris
my future past
the feast that lasts.

Statue of Fraternity

In my neighbourhood in Paris, there is a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty, built in recognition of the gift presented to a young America by its older mentor in 1886, celebrating the centenary of the war of independence. It stands on a crest of land abutting a bridge on the Seine, welcoming the tired, the hungry, the poor barge drivers, pleasure craft owners and tour boat operators entering the inner sanctums of the great city from rural France. One windy winter day, as I stood looking at this dwarfed green replica of the world's greatest symbol of individual freedom, I reflected on the choice of liberty as the prime virtue to be depicted by the statue, and to be the beacon call of America itself.

I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that, when they studied the national virtues and government structures of their French sponsors in search of a model to adopt, the leaders of the American Revolution placed greater emphasis on the virtue of liberté, the principle of individual freedom, than on fraternité (community, brotherly love) or egalité (equality). What else would we expect from the wealthy landowners and sons of privilege who signed the Declaration of Independence and set the tone for how America’s national values would shape up and evolve over time?

But who would have anticipated that the primacy of this simple principle – liberty – would have such a colossal impact on the whole world for the balance of what I fear will be a comparatively short-lived existence? Liberty, and America’s ongoing pursuit of happiness – at least for the descendents of that landed class of signatories - has informed domestic policies of low taxes for the rich and few services for those in need, little regulation of industries that pollute the planet and exploit impoverished workers in foreign lands while depriving American citizens of jobs at home, a domestic melting pot of fear that sees people living in virtual prisons behind gates and armed guards to keep out the riff-raff, and a gluttonous orgy of consumerism and materialism among the mass population that has spawned an epidemic of obesity, plastic surgery, debt, and diabetes.

And this is not to mention a foreign policy shamelessly and transparently based on “American national interest”. The legacy of American engagement in the world is a literal feast of greed and selfishness of biblical proportion: Its refusal to enter World War II until it was itself attacked left other countries big and small to try to fend off tyranny in its most evil form. Active US support of a host of ruthless dictators from Marcos and Somoza to the Shah of Iran, Pinochet, and the military junta in El Salvador – not to mention the tyrants they set up but ultimately turned on, like Noriega and one Saddam Hussein - resulted in the torture, disappearance and death of thousands, maybe millions…all to protect and preserve American national, and often corporate, interest. I mentioned a few of these names to an American heckler at Speaker’s Corner in London one Sunday, when I could no longer stomach his assertion that “America was a beacon of liberty and freedom for the world”. He stormed off, unwilling to face the fact that America was really only a beacon of liberty and freedom to Americans, and few of them at that.

And now we come to America’s latest project – the “democratization” of the planet – read opening up and securing markets for American consumers, products and services. This policy has seen America (and others) imposing free market democracy on countries that are clearly not ready for it, spreading ethnic hatred and often genocide. Even before the calamity that is Iraq unfolded, Amy Chua wrote a great book called World on Fire, that explores the horrific impact of this policy across the globe. Surely enough has been written about ongoing US efforts to stoke the fires of the Middle East in order to justify its military presence there (and thereby protect its oil reserves).

It is sad, but again perhaps not surprising, that King Louis XVI and his cohorts were not in a position to impart to their American students the other French virtues of brotherly love and equality – before losing their heads. For that matter, is it any wonder that these two old friends, both among the most powerful countries on earth, and each completely enamored of its own sense of self-importance and greatness, spend much of their time these days butting heads and opposing each other's ongoing litany of self-serving policies for the planet?

Don't get me wrong. I admire the US on may levels - the optimism, the boldness, the embrace of the future. But as I stood on that windy day looking at Liberty's "mini-me", I found myself wondering what the last 230 years might have looked like if the French had shipped a “Statue of Fraternity” to New York… if the Americans had only understood the beautiful balance created by the harmony of the three French virtues taken together, or if they had focused on one or both of the others and not liberty. What course would human history have taken? What would the headlines have been through the ages?

Here are just a few of the possibilities that occurred to me:

• 1777 - Washington and Jefferson free their slaves: Declare slavery incompatible with American values of fraternity and equality
• 1778 – Slavery abolished in US
• 1779 – Women given the vote
• 1862 – Lincoln holds conference to resolve North/South issues
• 1864 – Lincoln re-elected
• 1940 – Americans enter war
• 1942 - Victory! – Germany turned out of France; concentration camps discovered
• 1945 – United Nations formed – US promises support and means it
• 1960 – Kennedy elected
• 1964 – Kennedy pulls last US advisors out of Viet Nam
• 1964 – JFK re-elected – introduces sweeping civil rights legislation
• 1965 – Kennedy signs comprehensive nuclear disarmament treaty with Soviet Union
• 1966 – Cold War over!
• 1968 – Robert Kennedy elected president
• 1970 – RFK orders massive FBI sweep to destroy Mafia
• 1972 – Nixon appointed CEO of Disney

OK, so this may be a little extreme. But I submit that the possibility of any or all of these headlines would have grown exponentially if only America (and Americans) placed the same emphasis on fraternity and equality that they do on liberty. Slavery, the American Civil War, the Holocaust, the Viet Nam War, the Cold War, and possibly even the drug epidemic could have been averted, contained or minimized, if only the notion of fraternity and equality had resonated the way liberty did.

What do you think? Go ahead. Dare to dream about what could have been for this planet. Add your own headlines….or feel free to challenge mine.

Darwin Award Variations

1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.

And now, the Honorable Mentions:

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer: $15.
(If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?)

7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinderblock through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinderblock and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinderblock bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

******A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER*****

10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

Why a Blog?

Welcome to my blog,

So my parents always thought that people who wrote letters to the editor and the sort were lonely and pathetic. I wrote a few just to piss them off – one was an open letter to the thief who stole my bicycle when I was 15, one was a satirical response to an editorial about the Irish troubles, and one attacked a catholic who had attacked protestants. Nevertheless, notwithstanding my own endless craving for attention and fame, I have maintained a healthy suspicion of bloggers, Speaker's Corner types and others who spend inordinate amounts of time expressing their opinions to strangers in public forums.

I am a talker and story teller by nature and many friends have strongly encouraged me to create a blog....but that still, small voice of my parents lingered in my head.

So what changed my mind? Well, a litany of ramblings in private journals, short stories and novels begun but never finished, uncontrolled rants and raves to anyone who would listen, endless arguments with myself as I walk the dogs - just don't cut it for me anymore. I need to connect, to communicate, to hear and be heard. I am a seeker and I guess a reformer on the enneagram. I have been through the religious thing, the political thing, the self-help thing, the corporate thing, the travel thing, the personal fulfilment thing, and the animal rights thing - well still into animal rights. And still I seek.

I am too old to believe that anyone has a corner on the truth, but just old enough to realize that everyone has a piece of it.

And so, I will try the blog thing to see if I can do my part to impart my piece of the truth and get yours. Perhaps it will go the way of my many half full journals and unfinished stories. Or maybe I'll share my unfinished stories...and maybe you will finish them...and maybe we can get rich together. At the very least, this will give me a cool forum for my thoughts, and I can stop talking to myself as I walk my dogs on the Champs de Mars....and who knows...maybe I will find that "low door in the wall".

And apologies to my parents - who taught me well - but couldn't possibly be right abut everything.