Note: Epictetus, Seneca, and Aurelius analyzed fictional characters like Medea and Achilles from the Stoic point of view. So this month I apply the Stoic mindset to the crooked thinking of fictional characters in the TV stories of the original Perry Mason (1957 - 1966). Perry Mason quoted Justice Learned Hand about “faith in the eventual supremacy of reason.”
The Case of the Wintry Wife (Season 4, Episode 17, 1961)
Laura’s Impressions: Tyrant, thy name is Laura. Domestic despot Laura domineers over her family not only by keeping a tight fist on the purse strings but also by playing up her disability. Laura blackmails her accountant Roger into blowing up her husband Walter’s workshop. The sabotage would destroy Walter’s invention whose success would enable him to become financially independent and thus get shut of Laura and marry his lady love Phyllis. Laura’s diabolical scheme will also blow poor Phyllis to kingdom come.
My Stoickal Take: First, we had better get off our high horse about Laura the Terrible. How can we indict tyrants, says Musonius Rufus, when we are worse than they are? We have the same impulses but not the same opportunity to indulge our worst will to dominate and control other people.
Second, recall Socrates saying somewhere that the tyrant is the most miserable of specimens. Sullen over being feared, grumpy over being hated, ever suspicious of plot and conspiracy, always keeping an ear cocked for grumbling in the ranks. How unhappy it must be to know everybody will exhale with relief upon one’s death and exchange high fives in the parking lot of the funeral parlor!
Third, as for Laura’s vassals: they choose to be tyrannized. They all
had the wherewithal to support themselves with jobs and get out from under
Laura’s yoke. They could have voted with their feet a long time ago.
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