US politics is the theatre of the absurd – The Mail & Guardian

Do you remember that iconic scene in Ridley Scott’s epic movie, Gladiator, where Russel Crowe’s character, Maximus, disdainfully bellows out: “Are you not entertained?”  His ire is directed at the citizens of Rome who have flocked into the Colosseum in the hope of witnessing men and women either being torn apart by tigers and lions or killing each other with all sorts of weapons. I am reminded of that scene by the politics in the West, especially the United States, which has become the theatre of the absurd. It seems not to exist for the people to choose their best representatives, but for entertainment as it lurches from one ridiculous scene to another.  In the past month the world has been entertained every week or so by one or the other shocking event. It started off with US President Joe Biden sounding as if he is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic basket when he participated in the globally televised public debate with former president Donald Trump.  US citizens had not yet come to terms with the reality that Biden could possibly be beyond being the commander-in-chief of the world’s largest military and nuclear arsenal, only to be...