I will be posting weekly about the connections between Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the tumultuous cold war. I will create an artifact that helps tell my story.  In this week’s edition, I am going to focus on the human tendency to violence and conflict.

Our world is not a place of innate peace and cooperation. For all we have in common we seem to have an innate ability to distrust others. It seems simple to trust but it seems as if it is human to distrust others. Shakespeare is known to speak on those themes in depth through his stories. During Macbeth, Shakespeare explores several themes that have have a connection to major themes linked to the start of the Cold war. Conflict is an essential element of humanity. It is intriguing to look at the role that power dynamics play in the cold war and their connection to the events that take place in Shakespeare’s play.

Conflict is a bit broad so allow me to break it into two major categories

1. Active Conflict
2. Inactive Conflict

I have always found armed conflict to be the much more fascinating of the two but through the study of the cold war, I have gained an appreciation for the more insidious squabbles that have less of a clear resolution. When I say inactive conflict I mean it is disagreements and disputes that don’t rise to the level where a physical attack, fight, or any action is required to rectify the situation. Conflicts like these range from massive world-altering disagreements to the simple distaste you may feel when someone says something you don’t like. They, unlike physical conflict, serve a different purpose and represent the squabbles that actually leave a much more immediate impression between the 2 parties. Inactive conflicts are essential to humanity because it allows us to solve problems in a way that allows for growth and sharing of knowledge.

If we all lived in bubbles of safety we would never have to challenge our opinions, and would as a result, never learn.

In Macbeth’s act 1 we explore the consequences of seemingly small events that can end up leading to much more critical conflict. The conflict between Duncan and Macbeth boils underneath the surface until boils over in the murder of Duncan.

This is an example of an active conflict that came as a result of unresolved conflicts that began inactive ones. In the cold war, it is difficult to simplify the conflict to its parts but the concept or the development of conflict remains the same. The character of the two world powers makes solving the cold war in one blog next to impossible but I can make comments about how the disagreements built to the point were tensions were high enough that the world was one mistake away from a world war.

Conflict is a part of the human experience. It is impossible to live a life as a human without conflict, you are going to anger someone no matter what you say. It doesn’t matter if you are a world leader or a blue-collar worker life is full of conflict. Life is defined by how you manage the tides of conflict. Planning your life around containing the largest of the tides and enjoying the calms in the storm of conflict.