To Protest, or Not to Protest? (What would Hamlet Do?)

On June 19 of this year, The Public Theater of New York published on YouTube their fine video of black actors from across the US reading Hamlet's speech, "To be or not to be." It's powerful and provocative, evoking the sense of cognitive dissonance and mystery that Hamlet feels he faces in the play.



You can view it here:


This video has been on my mind this week as I read of George Floyd/police protests in Portland, Oregon, and President Trump sending federal troops there, where Black Lives Matter protesters had occupied an area of the city. At first protesters were mostly peaceful, but Portland police used teargas, pepper spray, flash-bang grenades, and other devices that inspired an outcry and a restraining order from a judge, a sign of early progress. Yet after Trump sent in federal troops, violent methods were used again, as well as snatching demonstrators and detaining them indefinitely without charges. Oregon Public Broadcasting has an good account of the timeline of events in Portland here.

In the reporting, it has been unclear at times who these federal troops represent, as was the case with federal agents using teargas to clear streets in Washington D.C. of peaceful protesters prior to Trump staging a photo-op outside a church there. In D.C., some were park police; some may have been with the Department of Homeland Security. Some may have been paramilitary hired by the fed from companies like the controversial former Blackwater, owned by Erik Prince, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: During the Iraq war, his company would hire highly trained US military and pay them higher rates than the military did, to do security detail that was not restricted by the laws of the military operating in Iraq, leading to deaths and controversy. In 2014, some Blackwater employees were tried and convicted in connection with a massacre that took place in Nisour square where 17 were killed and 20 wounded. Even the Brookings Institute, a centrist-liberal think-tank, had to recognize that private security firms like Blackwater represented a problem.

Some claimed there was $23 million in damages due to the protests in Portland, but it was later found that most of this was due to COVID closures of businesses.

Some claim that protesters are "provoking" responses from police, taunting police, inviting incidents of police violence and arrests, as police claim regarding a widely shared and viewed video of a cyclist being knocked to the ground in Portland.

But in many ways, this is not new. Many famous protests in India led by Gandhi, and in the US led by Dr. Martin Luther King, involved confronting police and people of power, and often the breaking of what were considered unjust laws.

US citizens might be rightfully concerned that, just as a white provocateur was involved early in the violence and looting in Minneapolis, it's hard to tell what violence or destruction of property in Portland might be due to protesters, and what might be provoked. In Minneapolis, the white provocateur wore a black hooded coat, a large gas mask (perhaps as much to conceal his face as to protect against tear gas and COVID-19), with an umbrella to hide from drone and surveillance cameras, and with gloves and a hammer for breaking glass.

The Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, tweeted that he wanted to know the identity of the provocateur:


To what extent were protests in Minneapolis, and are protests in Portland, being manipulated by the presence of highly trained and equipped provocateurs? This is deeply concerning and disturbing.

What does all of this have to do with Hamlet?
Just as Prince Hamlet's situation is complicated by the lies, secret poisoning and "seeming" appearances of the murderous usurper, Claudius, reality in the US is distorted and poisoned by lies and white provocateurs.

Hamlet's speech, read so powerfully by black actors in the video at the start of this post, asks the important question that many now face in the US:

To be, or not to be- that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them.... (3.1)

Better to suffer outrageous wrongs, or to protest?
Better to speak out, sometimes at great risk, or to be silent?
To protest peacefully, and suffer violence of police,
or to resort to actions that damage property?
To throw a teargas canister back at the police?

The US is at an existential turning point, and it makes sense that so many would find great meaning in the video by The Public Theater of New York and their powerful reading of the Hamlet speech.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
END
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A NOTE TO READERS: Yes, I am still doing research on Shakespeare, Hamlet, and biblical allusions, but also yes, due to the COVID crisis and BLM protests in the US, I am also blogging about contemporary events. I am what I am, you get what you get. Thanks for your patience!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over any other, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.