Shakespeare?

[Eway]

Dear Teachers,

I read this from True Pleasures by Lucinda Holdforth:

"Men are tribal. They endorse the hierarchy. It's like a footy team, or Shakespeare. You have the captain or the king. He's the boss."

Why Shakespeare? What does this tribal idea have to do with him?

[the concierge]

maybe because in the days before 'democracy', in shakey's day, everywhere was run by kings, princelings, dukes, tyrants, get the picture?

[bhaisahab]

Dear Teachers,

I read this from True Pleasures by Lucinda Holdforth:

"Men are tribal. They endorse the hierarchy. It's like a footy team, or Shakespeare. You have the captain or the king. He's the boss."

Why Shakespeare? What does this tribal idea have to do with him?

What indeed?

[David L.]

Men need a leader, and put someone in their bunch up there on the pedestal, as the leader and the epitome of the best that we as men are about and want to achieve. They (OK- we) need the sense of a hierarchy, a pecking order, so they can jostle and wrestle and test out their testosterone, and aspire to then challenge and overthrow. Add a dash of grandiosity to the stew, and look at history.
Trouble is, this pedestal varies in height: do we, as cavemen, look up to the caveman who grunts the loudest and clubs and drags the most cavewomen into his cave?
Or do we value and aspire to more cultural ideals?; and in literature, Shakespeare is at the pantheon.

So, whether head caveman, captain of your football team, or Shakespeare, hoi polloi have this proclivity for constructing hierarchies -who's more important than who - and who's the alpha male...............for now.
(It's not just writing 'the great American novel'...the secret wish is, 'the greatest...')