Learning the leadership lessons of King Lear
One rash decision in the corridors of power and the Kingdom comes tumbling asunder. Those studying Lear this year may be seeing some parallels between the chaos in British politics at the moment and the mayhem wrought by Lear’s impulsive actions. Shakespeare’s knack for staying relevant, hundreds of years after the first performances of his plays, is certainly visible in the calamitous affair that is ‘Brexit’.
Lear had a vision for his retirement – freedom to do as he pleased, a continued life of luxury
and privilege but none of the work or the responsibilities: To shake all cares and business from our age,
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburdened crawl toward death.
It chimes somewhat with the vision the proponents of Brexit had for Britain – more freedom to make trade deals with whom they pleased, no longer having to abide by EU rules or regulations and, of course, continued if not increased prosperity. Well we don’t know yet what the results of Brexit are going to be but it didn’t work out so well for Lear.
Cordelia, Kent and the Fool have the air of ‘remainers’ about them – all for maintaining the status quo, loyal to those in charge and desperately trying to highlight the possible dire consequences of the rash decision to Lear before it’s too late. Goneril, Regan and Edmund, on the other hand, are pure Brexiteers – scrap the boring rules and traditions, let’s take power for ourselves and be as ruthless as necessary to achieve our goals. (You might have guessed what my attitude to Brexit is at this point…)
King Lear was written in 1606 for the court of King James I, the Scottish King James VI, who had inherited the throne of England upon the death of Elizabeth I. The unification of England and Scotland was a contentious political issue in the early years of his rule, with much debate over the details of the union. James himself was strongly pro-unification, which is echoed in the central tenet of Lear: the Kingdom is better as a single entity rather than divided.
King Lear pits the younger generation against the older, something that also occurred in the battle over Brexit. Goneril, Regan and Edmund think the older generation are past it: ‘’tis the infirmity of his age’, and want to take over control of the kingdom: ‘the younger rises when the old doth fall.’ Goneril and Regan are delighted with Lear’s proposed retirement and even more delighted with Cordelia’s banishment. They have no intention of affording Lear the level of respect and authority that he has enjoyed as King and expects to continue. Edmund sees his opportunity with all the turmoil in the court and is willing to have his own father tortured in the name of his ambition.
With Brexit it’s been a little different – young people overwhelmingly voted to ‘Remain’ and older people voted to ‘Leave’. Young people wanted the status quo to remain, to keep the kingdom united, seeing the benefits for work, travel and trade in the EU area. Older people wanted massive change, to split the kingdom: to return to the pre-EU days of the British Empire, as they saw it having to answer to no one else. Since the Brexit vote there has been talk of Northern Ireland aligning closer to the Republic to avoid a hard border and another referendum on Scottish independence. The United Kingdom has not looked this disunited in a long time.
Lear ends with the noble Edgar becoming ruler of the reunited kingdom of Britain after the deaths of Lear and all his heirs. How Brexit will end no one yet knows but there is still time for the UK to pull itself back from the: ‘cliff, whose high and bending head looks fearfully in the confined deep...’