I went to see the musical, "Wicked," in San Francisco last week. Of course, I latched on to the socio-political themes in the play. Two quotes, both from the character of the Wizard, stuck in my head.
In the show, the Wizard is more manipulative, pretending to be doing things for the good of Oz and to be subjugating the animals for the greater good, but it becomes clear through the course of the evening that he is doing these things only to remain in power, and that his scapegoating of the animals (pun intended) is because"one sure way to bring people together is to give them a really good enemy."
And from the song, Wonderful, the Wizard sings:
Where I'm from, we believe all sorts of
things that aren't true. We call it - "history."
A man's called a traitor - or liberator.
A rich man's a thief - or philanthropist.
Is one a crusader - or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist.
There are precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities,
So we act as though they don't exist.
This rings true, for who does not know that "History is written by the victors, not the vanquished," and "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"?
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