The Quality of Mercy

Unlike most people I've talked to lately, I'm feeling somewhat ambivalent about the crucifixion of Mel Gibson.

I have to admit that I'm no fan of Gibson's and have been not-so-secretly gratified to see him brought low. Actually, I liked the guy's early work--such as the Mad Max trilogy, the Indonesian thriller with that terrific cross-dressing dwarf, and that other low-budget film where he played a very sweet fellow with a low IQ. I even liked his troubled, out-of-control cop franchise, and have to admit Mel does the tortured soul on the edge of losing it quite well.

But when I learned he belonged to this weird sect of unreconstructed Catholics spawned of Holocaust deniers, and had become the hero to millions of religious fanatics by turning the Christ story into a slasher movie, I had to rethink my admiration. And it seems the futile debate over whether his Passion flick was anti-Semitic or not served only as a device to sell product. Why not just leave him be on that score and stay away from the movie because it's a weak film?

Now Mel gets a snoot-full and has hell to pay for letting his private demons loose for the world to see. Anti-Semitism, of course, like racism, misogyny, and cacophagy, is always ugly and despicable. I haven't nearly the generous soul of Shakespeare's great hypocrite, Angelo of Measure for Measure, who urges us to "Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it..." These faults are to be roundly condemned in act and actor. But, to muddle another Shakespearian anti-hero, here's the rub that gives me pause: Mel is being pilloried not so much for his heedless outburst or his anit-Semitism as for his prominence in the public eye.

Had anyone else--at least anyone of normal obscurity--rattled off the same rubbish, it would have died right there by the roadside or in the drunk tank. Mel Gibson's words live on, however, and will be known and memorized by generations to come, not because they were astonishingly original or uniquely articulated, but because they came from Mel Gibson. Obviously that's the price that must be paid for the public renown that's made him a rich and powerful man. But nonetheless, it's hard to argue that the nature of his current dilemma stems primarily from his thoughts and words rather than his position in society.

I think we all have an obscene or bigoted verbal outburst lurking in us somewhere. The objects of your insensitivity or bigotry may be somewhat different from mine, but don't waste my time trying to assert your immunity to racial, religious, cultural or sexual prejudices. If unplanned circumstances happen to conspire against us, we all should be entitled to at least one ugly diatribe without career-ending repercussions.

I don't mean I'm entitled to act upon or enforce my darker thoughts, nor would I expect a pass for such behavior if I were running for public office, but unless we want to start down a very slippery slope of self-righteous rigor in our social relations, human behavior has to be treated with a certain amount of unmerited tolerance.

So back to Shakespeare: The plot of The Merchant of Venice puts some smug, irritating, and anti-Semitic pillars of Venetian society at the mercy of a Jewish money-lender. who is told at one point that he has every lawful right to vent his anger at Christian bigotry with the blade of his knife against the chest of a rich, but troubled businessman.

When all legal paths to save the merchant's life are blocked, Portia tells Shylock, "Then must the Jew be merciful."

Shylock resentfully replies, "On what compulsion must I? tell me that."

Portia's answer is, thankfully, more famous than Mel Gibson's remarks will ever be:
"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown...
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy."

Mel Gibson may be getting his just deserts, and we obscure nobodies may be entitled to gloat, but somehow I'd feel better if it were more a matter of principles and less of personalities. It leaves just a bit of a sour taste in the mouth when my prejudices are vindicated by condemnation of prejudice in someone else.

In short, I question whether I hate bigotry more than I hate Mel Gibson. Until I can resolve that honestly, I'm reluctant to pile on the poor bastard.