ESSAY 3

[kwilliams]

Murphy’s 2007 Are We Rome? examines the relationship between what
Rome has experienced in its past and the lessons that can be learned
for America’s future. Murphy’s paradigm of America’s similarities with
Rome can be found in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, which is not
only a play concerning Antony’s problems regarding his affair and his
sense of duty, but is also a play that symbolizes America’s struggle
with foreign policy today. Antony must manage his relationship between
his Egyptian lover and his responsibility as one of the triumvirate,
or the three leaders of Rome, just as America must deal with its
relationship between its foreign adversaries and supporters and its
relationship with its own people. In Shakespeare’s Antony and
Cleopatra, for example, Cleopatra’s foreign status and the way the
Romans treat her can be seen to mirror the struggle that America has
with foreign countries and America’s sense of disdain for them.
Another character, Caesar, is a rigid, business orientated ruler who
disagrees with Antony’s relationship with Cleopatra, reflecting ways
some American politicians disagree with America’s way of handling
certain situations, such as foreign affairs in Venezuela. Antony,
Cleopatra, and Caesar serve as metaphors for the ways certain aspects
of foreign policy and affairs can affect American society. The
problems outlined in Murphy’s text exemplify the dilemma represented
in Shakespeare’s play regarding Rome’s view of self and others, and
also serve to represent America’s dilemma as a whole (according to
Murphy’s text). In Shakespeare’s play, Antony can serve as the
misguided American government, and Cleopatra represents America’s
shaky alliance with Venezuela. Antony shuns his duties at home and
tends to his foreign lover; just As America avoids the problems within
its borders and ignores important issues abroad. Shakespeare’s novel,
along with Murphy’s book, can shed light on how America can improve
its perception of what is or is not significant.
America’s relationship with Venezuela exemplifies one important
point brought up in both Murphy’s text and in Shakespeare’s play
regarding misplaced importance. Murphy brings up an central point when
he stresses America’s need to understand how nations interact with the
America, and how those interactions can affect America: “How people in
the outside world think and behave, and respond to America’s thinking
and behavior, are variables that must be taken into account. They are
as important as objective factors like the strength of the economy and
the size of an army” (Murphy, 2007). When strong countries, such as
the United States and Rome, take their power for granted and ignore
other influences, they can ignore a potentially dangerous situation.
In Shakespeare’s play, for example, many of Antony’s fellow Romans
despise the Egyptian Cleopatra and shun her as nothing short of a
source of “gypsy’s lust” for Antony. (Shakespeare, ed. Braunmuller,
1960). However, these Romans had underestimated Cleopatra’s power, and
Cleopatra turned a normally powerful and levelheaded military leader
into a person bound by his love for her. Antony disregarded
Cleopatra’s influence on him when he disregarded his obligations as a
ruler, falsely overestimating his power: “Let Rome in Tiber melt and
the wide arch /Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space,/kingdoms
are clay; our dungy earth alike/ Feeds beast as a man” (Shakespeare,
ed. Braunmuller, 1960). Antony falsely believed that Cleopatra’s
happiness was more important then his responsibilities as one of the
triumvirate. His love for her and his importance placed on her were so
strong that when Cleopatra betrayed him by fighting for Caesar, Antony
could not take the strain and killed himself, but not before losing
many important battles.
The U.S. is at risk for making the same mistake with Venezuela.
According to Michael Shifter in his article Why Venezuela Matters, the
U.S. is currently underestimating Venezuela’s importance to the U.S.
“Venezuela under Chavez potentially poses a challenge to U.S. policy
objectives, leadership, and core values in this hemisphere…Such
conjecture should in and of itself be enough to warrant the highest
level of U.S. attention and concern. In this regard, American
indifference has been especially surprising” (Shifter, 2003). America
disregards Venezuela since it believes that all Venezuela is important
for is oil. In fact, according to Santos in his article What Soured
the U.S.-Venezuela Alliance, despite strained relations, the U.S. and
Venezuela have almost doubled the amount of trade between them in
recent years, and Venezuela is now the United State’s number one
source of oil. What is dangerous about this sense disregard is the
fact that Venezuela’s leader, Hugo Chavez, has become increasingly
outspoken in his disregard for the U.S. and its policies. Chavez has
good relations with many other important Latin American leaders, so
such feelings of disregard on America’s part can risk relations with
almost all other Latin American nations. Murphy cites a dangerous
result of this underestimation when a Roman named Varsus
underestimated the power of the Germans he and his legions were
fighting and suffered heavily, resulting in the death of him and ten
percent of the Roman Legion. America may have a powerful military, but
it cannot be sure that it can stand up to the power of all the Latin
American countries, and do so without their resources. America depends
on foreign nations on export products such as food and natural
resources, especially oil. The United States cannot afford an oil
embargo put in place by Venezuela, especially in today’s dire gas
shortage. Though America, like Rome and Antony, is a commanding
military and economic power, it should take heed Murphy’s message and
consider the outsiders that it depends on for its necessities, or risk
the consequences that Rome, especially Antony, faced.
The consequences of Antony’s actions in the play are a direct
result of his way of handling his duties and his obsession with his
foreign lover. One of these reasons is explicitly mentioned by Antony
himself: “These strong Egyptian fetters must I break/ Or lose myself
in dotage” (Shakespeare, ed. Braunmuller, 1960). Rather then choose to
balance his time with Cleopatra and his duties as an important
soldier, Antony chose to use all his time for Cleopatra. Antony was
well aware of the effect that Cleopatra had on his sense of duty, but
Antony chose to ignore this threat, which proved a fatal mistake. When
Antony chose to fight with Caesar, against the advice of his men, he
did so because of the word of his lover, a foreigner. His own men
advised that he not fight because “Your ships are not well manned;/
Ingrossed by swift impress. In Caesar’s fleet/ Their ships are yare,
yours, heavy. No disgrace/ Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,/
Being prepared for land” (Shakespeare, ed. Braunmuller, 1960).
Caesar’s ships were faster, better manned, and Caesar himself was more
equipped for sea battle then Antony was. However, because of his high
vision of himself, Antony did not heed his advisors’ warning, but
rather decided to fight simply because Caesar asked him to. His
lover’s assertion about the effectiveness of her ships added to
Antony’s sense of inflated ego. Then, when entering the battle, Antony
fled after Cleopatra, effectively losing the war with Caesar. If
Antony had stopped to consider his advisors’ advice instead of his
sense of military prowess, and had not been so swayed by the word of
his foreign lover, Antony could have won avoided that particular war,
altering further events in the play.
The United States government can be seen as a direct descendent of
Antony’s follies. Like Antony, the government has ignored important
issues and had paid attention to issues that were not as important, if
important at all. According to Shifter’s 2007 Why Venezuela Matters,
“Continued chaos and escalating violence in Venezuela would not only
inflict damage on the country itself, but could well undermine the
ability of neighboring countries to achieve and maintain social
peace” (Shifter, 2003). The United States has a special interest in
maintaining the peace between Venezuela and surrounding nations since
many of America’s needs are outside its own sphere in Latin America
(which include Venezuela and the surrounding countries). If these
countries go at war, America’s main oil supplier could be threatened,
which would also threaten America’s mainly oil based economy. The
Venezuelan government, which contributes to these wars, has been under
fire by critics for taking away many human rights by asserting power,
the most recent of which being Chavez’s bid to increase his power and
influence over Venezuela. In fact, a bill had been sent to congress to
address the escalating violence and human rights violations in
Venezuela. According to Congressional bill H. CON. RES. 50, America
asked the congress permission to call “on the Government of Venezuela
to uphold the human rights and civil liberties of the people of
Venezuela” (Library of Congress, 2007). This bill has been passed to
many branches of the government, and has since been left forgotten.
Individuals may say that the government is busy and did not have time
to pass this bill, and that many other important bills are trying to
pass through. This may seem true; however, another bill, passed a few
months ago, did not have any trouble getting through and passing in
Congress. Bill S.RES. 597 was simply a bill to designate “June 2008 as
`Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!' Recognition Month” (Library of
Congress, 2008). This bill, introduced the day before, passed the next
day. Even though the civil rights violations and escalating violence
in Venezuela can have a catastrophic affect on America and its
economy, it apparently was not as important as a date for an
unimportant saying. “Wait! Don’t tell me- Venezuela is not important
to American foreign policy” may as well have been the bill sent to
Congress. The United States, like Rome and Antony, ignore important
events and may suffer the consequences that Antony faced- the fall of
America.
Luckily, there exists in Shakespeare’s novel a character that
America can take heed to follow, and prosper. Octavius Caesar never
took his attention away from the important matters of Rome by
remaining pragmatic in his goals, without becoming sidetracked by
emotion or folly. Throughout the novel, Caesar stood by his reasoning:
“Let his shames quickly/ Drive him to Rome. ‘Tis time we twain/ Did
show ourselves I’ th’ field; and to that end/ Assemble we immediate
council./ Pompey/ Thrives in our idleness” (Shakespeare, ed.
Braunmuller, 1960). Caesar’s attention to his goals paid off: he won
two wars against Antony, despite being the weaker military leader, and
the war against Pompey, despite Pompey’s vast experience in sea
combat. Caesar did not need an aptitude for military leadership
because he listened to his advisors and voice of reason, and paid
attention to what Pompey was looking for in them. Caesar was aware of
his enemies and critically assessed his objectives, remaining
determined to reach them, unlike Antony, who allowed himself to be
sidetracked by Cleopatra. If America was to become as astute as
Caesar, many erroneous policies could have been avoided.
Murphy’s assertion that America must be cognizant of the
situations outside its sphere is fully supported in Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra. Antony was not aware of the events around him,
remaining fully devoted to his own idleness, and failed. Caesar was
fully aware of his adversaries and many situations outside of Rome,
and succeeded. If America does not want to suffer the same fate as
Rome, and if America wants to continue to be a world power, it must
learn to be aware of situations outside its borders, and appreciate
the importance of people that are not American. The worsening
situation in Venezuela is just one of many problems that America has
with foreign policy. Hopefully, America will take heed the lesson that
can be learned from Murphy’s Are We Rome, Shakespeare’s Antony and
Cleopatra and the mistakes that it has made in the past so that it can
have a better future, and pays attention to how experiences in other
countries can affect America.




References

Library of Congress (2007, Jan 1). Calling on the Government of
Venezuela to uphold the human rights and civil liberties of the people
of Venezuela. (Introduced in House) (1st session) H. CON. RES. 50.
110th Congress
Library of Congress (2008, Jun 19) Designating June 2008 as `Wait
Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!' Recognition Month'. (Introduced in Senate)
(2d edition) SRES 597 IS. 110th Congress

Murphy, C. 2007. Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of
America. New York: Random House.

Santos, A. (2008, Jul 15). What Soured the U.S.-Venezuela Alliance?
The Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/


Shifter, M. (2003, Jul 16) Why Venezuela Matters. In the National
Interest.
http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Vol2Issue28/Vol2Issue28