Skip to main content

Popularly Wicked Political Satire

Amy and I were privledged to go see the "Broadway Across America" performance of the musical hit Wicked at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake last week. This is a charming retelling of the Frank Baum classic, The Wizard of Oz, that fills us in on the details of the relationship between Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west, and Glinda, the good witch of the north.

Like its inspiration, Wicked is a political satire masked as a fantasy musical. Where the original was a parody of government meddling with the prices of silver and gold. (Dorothy's slippers are silver in the book, and the name of the magical place, Oz, is the abbreviation for the word ounce.)

In this telling of the story, the wizard isn't so wonderful. In fact, he makes up false enemies of Oz to build fear to make him appear "wonderful." Glinda is also not quite as "good" as her title would have her. Though she is not a bad witch, she is not completely innocent either. Elphaba is not wicked at all, but is made to appear so, along with all of the talking animals in Oz, to further the political agenda of the Wizard. I couldn't help but think of George Bush's claims the Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to justify an invasion a few years back as I watched the show.

Listen to the lyrics in this video clip, and you'll get a bit of a sense of whereof I speak.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Agregate Demand and the US Savings Rate

In my last post, I touched on the differences between the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and Ludwig von Mises. Immediately aftward, I was directed to this story in the New York Times. It seems that americans are saving more instead of spending the their money on consumer goods. Up until this downturn, about 70% of the US Economy was consumer spending, and in 2005, the US Savings rate was negative 2.7%. The "stimulus" is supposed to stimulate spending to get money moving again. But it isn't happening as planned. Folks are saving for down payments because they don't expect to get zero down home mortgages; they're saving to replenish their decimated retirement and college funds. The austrians believe that the best way to "fix" the economy is to allow the "malinvestment" created by the false signals in the economy (from the open market ops and deficit spending) to be liquidated and the resources repurposed into better investments. It...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adoption Bibliography

Eventually, I will post the rest of my paper, but I think it appropriate to post the Bibliography, and I have some use for having it available online. This represents only the sources used in my paper, not the full extent of sources considered. “Adoption is the Best Option” http://adoptionisthebestoption.yolasite.com/ (a really good example of misleading appeals to emotion.) Alternate Religions Educational Network. Alternate Religions Educational Network (AREN) http://www.aren.org/ . accessed Nov 26, 2009. Babb, L. Anne. Ethics In American Adoption. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey 1999. Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS) http://www.bchfs.com . Accessed Sept 9, 2009. Barrett, William P. “Americas Most (and least) Efficient Charities.” Forbes Nov 2004 Bender, Karen E., & Nina de Gramont, eds.. Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, & Adoption. San Francisco, CA: MacAdam-Cage 2007 Berne, Emma Carlso...
3 comments
Read more

Calling Evil Good and Good Evil: LDS Policy on Unwed Pregnancies

The opinion piece below was written for publication in the Salt Lake Tribune concurrent with the LDS Church's October General Conference. The Trib couldn't fit it in, so it is published here. My vote in the sustaining was communicated to both the First Presidency and my local ward Bishop separately. This weekend, members of the LDS Church will gather in their great and spacious building on North Temple for their semi-annual General Conference. During one of the sessions, members will be asked to raise their hands in sustaining votes for church leaders. I will not be in attendance, so I will use this article as a means of casting my vote in the negative for all of the Church’s General Authorities who promote and support the church’s policy of “encouraging” all unwed mothers to relinquish their babies for adoption. This encouragement comes in the form of extreme pressure from church leaders and devout family and friends. This policy, which the church stops short of saying is...
3 comments
Read more