Ep. 61: Worst King Ever
Young Heretics
Spencer Klavan
4.9 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2021
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The royal history of England is a story of triumphs and mishaps—but is there a plan behind it all? For that matter, is any of us free to affect the course of history? In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan walks through Shakespeare's tale of war and loss, asking what the medieval kings can teach us about our present crisis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Let's talk about history and fate. |
| 0:08.0 | This is something that is on... I get this question a lot, right? |
| 0:11.0 | Do you think that we're fated to go down a certain path? |
| 0:14.0 | Or do you think that individuals can make a difference? |
| 0:18.0 | One person can stand up and make a difference. |
| 0:21.0 | And that's one of the oldest questions in literature, |
| 0:24.0 | the oldest questions in political philosophy. |
| 0:26.0 | Sometimes you talk about the great man theory of history. |
| 0:29.0 | Someday when we talk about Warren Peace, |
| 0:31.0 | we will talk about the question of Napoleon, |
| 0:34.0 | whether Napoleon was just a sign of the times |
| 0:37.0 | or whether he changed the course of history, all of this stuff. |
| 0:41.0 | And it's particularly important in big moments of crisis like ours, right? |
| 0:44.0 | To wonder whether things are just fated to roll along |
| 0:48.0 | as the cycle of regimes carries forth, |
| 0:51.0 | or whether individuals can change things and make a difference. |
| 0:54.0 | Obviously, I do believe that even though certain historical trends indicate |
| 0:58.0 | that certain things will go a certain way, |
| 1:00.0 | you nevertheless have the ability to affect things around you. |
| 1:04.0 | And this is the question that I think is playing a lot in the mind |
| 1:08.0 | of William Shakespeare, a person who we talk about a lot on this show, |
| 1:13.0 | in his history play, King John. |
... |
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