To be or not to be...

This is a story about humanity and is encompassed in the soliloquy by Shakespeare in the play Hamlet. Words so true and powerful that they defy age and time.  These words in essence speak of life. The truth in them is timeless.

HAMLET: 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. To die, to sleep--

No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--

To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action

One often finds that a story can be told in reverse and have the same meaning. But then to see the ending and from whence it came to be , a surprising but true tale appears.

(And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action)

In the end, it is interesting that Hamlet finds that Enterprises with vast resources and global dimension with many accrued successes to plead about their greatness can lose themselves and end up mediocre, or even in complete destitution. The fate of such institutions have been chronicled in our lifetimes take for example Pan Am Airways, Enron, Lehman Brothers and a litany of such modern debacles where excesses of the mind have driven the fortunes of countless into the abyss. Is it as Hamlet considers, related to Death or maybe fear of death as in loss or fear of loss that drives them to the brink and then they themselves tip over the precipice and all action is adrift like a rudderless boat?

Or is it conscience?

(Thus conscience does make cowards of us all)

No maybe not conscience in these days as the Bernie Maddoff case explains in vivid detail his lost moral compass. This life ebbs and flows to the carnal desire and hedonistic demands. So Hamlet may have hit upon the conscience of cowardice that makes such arteries of vigor and flow come to a complete stop with sludge, dread and self-immolation. It maybe that the hidden cowardice in some that commands them into such sociopathic behavior leading to loss of trust that puzzles the mind.

Humans no matter what station they reside at, what comforts they cushion their lives with or what power they ascribe to are frequently puzzled similarly by death, especially death!

(The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,)

It is that undiscovered country that makes them most fearful. This realization that eventually they (all of humanity) have to go to this unknown land and that they will never again return to the riches they have eschewed all their lives. This is the consciousness that makes them tremble and those that do spend the time to evaluate their own lives, live in the fear of doing others wrong. These are the few that live in the comfort of their conscience and fear of death retreats from their soul. These are the few if they make it up the ladder of success, stay grounded in the contentment of their souls rather than to the delight of their avarice. While others never having such introspection continue to advance their profligate wants.

Man and his insolence projected upon another man is the current day life where to get to the top one has to step on another persons dreams desires and literally face.

(Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns)

Whether it be some one in high office and use that threshold to obligate, suppress, oppress, condemn, judge harshly, demonize or harm another for self aggrandizement is doomed to the channels of tidal waves that will rise against him in the end and subdue, submerge and even drown all his ambitions, wealth, arrogance and desire.  Or it might be someone with limited power who seeks to wield it for self-promotion.  The culture of duplicity and selfishness is ingrained in such people.

Equally the law in its infinite wisdom concerns itself of procedures and demands rather than the merits. It hangs on the confluence of verbiage and a cataract of impressions rather than the virtues, rights and truths. Yet those that suffer the indignities of others with scorned looks, spurned hellos, denied presence and mere existence are the wronged feel left out. Sometimes in the future the prick of the oppressor’s conscience preys on their own cowardice when the specter of death is at hand and there is nowhere under the largest of gold mines nor the softest of comfortable blankets to hide and these proud men then turn to a new found faith, to find relief. It is this fear of the unknown, this vacuum of information, this lack of knowledge that turns the mighty into whimpering souls.

(To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,)

It is death that drives us from the injustice, the pain, the torture to forgo the wishes of too long a survival. It is the daily grit and grind that tires the souls of tested men. It is this conscience that gives us pause. “Hold it! Do I really want that?” the brain cries out.

Those harmed and those that will be then wish for a rest, for sleep, for reflection, for dreams to carry them away from the vicissitudes of real life. Yet the unknown haunts the mind.

(No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--)

It is the daily heartache that consumes us and makes us wish for that comfort and relief that can only come from an end to the bitter struggle of daily living. This is where Hamlet finds himself a servant to his own fears consumed of the anger, consumed of the frustration, consumed of the injustice that he wishes for a deep and permanent sleep. Suffering the thousand natural shocks of daily living is something to be freed from.

But he has come to this as do those tortured souls not from the premise of weakness but from a life filled with struggle to win, to proclaim justice, to stand up and claim his righteous place in the world.

(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.)

To stand and fight, it is in the constancy of this battle within him and that outside of him fought against him that he finds solace in a quiet sleep, yet his conscience and the fear and dread prevent him from such an action and he wishes to fight against the slings and arrows and by opposing them end the war.

To be, or not to be--that is the question

And so we come to, “To be or not to be.” And therein lies the essence of truth in all of humanity. To live under the misery of another’s oppression or to take arms against these trouble and oppose them and in so doing the battle would either end their lives or end the oppression. The latter seems infinitely a better solution. Hamlet poses a question, is it better to suffer in silence or have the courage to fight the oppressor and in so doing, undo the oppression? If the oppressor wins then death ends the villainy if the oppressor loses, life starts once again anew -free. "To be," offers hope. "To be," thus compels us to fight, and "to be," also builds a conscience, for death is the final arbiter of all that is to be.

Hamlet is in all of us. We become him sometimes early and sometime late in life, but we do become him. It is an eventuality that must come “If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.” - Hamlet by William Shakespeare