An ancient Chinese tale of democracy, and other ancient tales.
Jun 30 2017
There's the quaint tradition of the people respecting authority, but the people have been known to dismiss that one. The people tore down the Berlin Wall. They decided the tradition of allowing the wall to contain them was irrelevant. In the late 18th Century, the French decided that the quaint tradition of a king having a head wasn't worth honoring anymore. We could arbitrarily decide one day to cease respecting any number of arrangements that long ago settled into tradition but have become irrelevant to our needs and desires.
In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen explains how the Republican Party defied centuries of tradition and the wishes of Grand Dowager Empress Dou herself to subvert American democracy, getting cheesecake all over the place, and maybe actually helping the people realize that plenty of traditions (and leaders) can simply get pitched into history's great dumpster of old stories.
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Jeff Dorchen
Jeff is a visual artist, songwriter/musician, actor, essayist, fiction writer, poet, playwright and screenwriter. He's been a playwright, songwriter, and performer with Chicago's Theater Oobleck since 1988, a writer and actor with Red Baron Films since 2000, and a contributor to This Is Hell! since 1996. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
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