{"id":719,"date":"2016-09-19T23:19:24","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T06:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/?p=719"},"modified":"2016-09-19T23:19:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T06:19:24","slug":"oedipus-as-the-modern-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/2016\/09\/19\/oedipus-as-the-modern-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Oedipus as the Modern Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two graduates from my high school have expressed the goal of becoming prime ministers of Canada. In order to be the best prime ministers they can be, they’re attending university to gain the knowledge and experience that will eventually help them to govern the country. I wouldn’t be surprised if those two did end up being prime ministers one day. What sets them apart, perhaps more than their determination and drive, is their curiosity: they’re curious about the problems that Canada faces, what causes them, and how to solve them. This curiosity is what audiences through time would’ve recognized not only in their political leaders but also in leaders of many intellectual fields. Curiosity is what\u00a0ancient Greek audiences would\u2019ve recognized in their own leaders \u2013 leaders like Oedipus. Like my fellow graduates, Oedipus is curious about why things are the way they are and what they could be. What sets him<\/em> apart, however, is that he becomes an obsessive problem solver. Oedipus takes an excellent quality to have as a leader \u2013 curiosity \u2013 and takes it one step too far.<\/p>\n

The play opens with a problem being presented to Oedipus. From the very beginning, we see that Oedipus takes his role far beyond that of a king: encouraged by his desperate subjects, he elevates himself almost to the level of a god. He wants to know the cause of the plague; from there, he can find a solution. As the answers he seeks seem to be further obscured by his own questions, Oedipus does not see this as a hint from fate or the gods to stop pursuing the truth; instead, he pursues knowledge with even more determination than before. Normally, in other situations, this would\u2019ve been the appropriate course of action. In the crises that plague our world, we expect our leaders to get to the root of whatever problem we\u2019re facing. We live in a time that upholds science as the highest authority \u2013 there are not gods or fate when in the modern world. If we cannot find an answer, we find another approach. To thrive in this world, curiosity is one of the best traits that one can possess. It\u2019s a world that Oedipus, had he not been at the mercy of the gods or fate, would have loved.<\/p>\n

But one cannot know everything, nor can one control every variable in a situation no matter how much information there may be. And that\u2019s where the play\u2019s staying power comes from. Even now, in an age where science reigns supreme and the only things that are real are the ones that are visible, there\u2019s so much we don\u2019t know yet and much more that we may never know. Oedipus is a lot like who we are as a culture today: we have this insatiable desire to know everything that we can, to use what we know to have as much control over our lives as possible. We hate not knowing how exactly to eliminate poverty, we hate not knowing why loved ones get cancer. It\u2019s unacceptable to simply not know. We have to know, even if it harms us.<\/p>\n

Oedipus had to know. Even if the knowledge destroyed him.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if my two fellow graduates will ever become prime ministers of Canada. Maybe they’ll discover a different passion while they’re in university. Maybe they’ll drop out of school altogether to join a circus or something. What do I know?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two graduates from my high school have expressed the goal of becoming prime ministers of Canada. In order to be the best prime ministers they can be, they’re attending university to gain the knowledge and experience that will eventually help … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":765,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/a1lieblang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}