Modern Tragedy

They were talking about crazy old Moussaoui on NPR this morning. Normally, I admire people who can take a joke to its distant extreme without breaking character, but in this case I almost think he is going too far. I predict that this will be the first high-profile case in US legal history where someone will be put to death pretty much for being annoying. I think that sets a bad precedent.

I enjoyed hearing Moussaoui's claim that George Bush would pardon him toward the end of his presidential term. What that does is makes Bush into the classic tragic figure. For the Greeks this was often a hero-like character who, through some single flaw (often hubris) finds himself forced to make a decision between two equally undesirable positions, either of which would (and in the course of the drama, do) bring his demise. For instance, Sophocles' Antigone is forced to make a choice between the laws of the state and the laws of the gods, in choosing whether or not to bury her slain brother, an act which the king has forbade. Bush is in a similar circumstance. On the one hand, to let Moussaoui die Bush would go against his very nature which rewards loyalty above all things. Certainly Moussaoui has been a loyal, crazily religious and incompetent sevant. Those are like the top three things for Republicans in general and Bush in particular. On the other hand, to grant a pardon would mean missing out on the execution of a retarded/mentally ill person, his other favorite thing in the whole world. We must be vigilant in our battle against mental illness! But we must also reward loyal incompetence! What to do?

Antigone hanged herself, but I bet this one won't turn out so well.