Shakespeare’s Problem Plays: Part 2 - Troilus and Cressida and Farce in Compliance as Tragedy

We continue our consideration of Shakespeare’s Problem Plays with today’s offering on Troilus and Cressidaas an introduction to problems in compliance. Today, we consider Troilus and Cressidaand how the title character was portrayed as a fool but the main action is around the death of other characters. The title characters of this play are not the main story, which takes place during the Trojan War. Troilus loves Cressida, who are both Trojans. Unfortunately Cressida is exchanged for another Trojan who has been captured by the Greeks. This part of the play concludes with Troilus going into battle in a very frenzied manner. Shakespeare seems to portray him as a hot-headed fool in love, but he does not die. We recently saw the tragedy of the victims of Larry Nassar go to a new level when Michigan State University (MSU) Interim President John Engler said (on the record) to the Editorial Board of the Detroit News, “There are a lot of people who are touched by this, survivors who haven’t been in the spotlight. In some ways they have been able to deal with this better than the ones who’ve been in the spotlight who are still enjoying that moment at times, you know, the awards and recognition. And it’s ending. It’s almost done.” This is not the first time Engler has played the fool in this horrific tragedy. He has consistently attacked, belittled and demeaned the victims of Nassar’s abuse. Yet, as Matt Kelly wrote in a Radical Compliance blog post entitled “Another Compliance Lesson from Michigan State, “The crisis at MSU is, foremost, a crisis of mistrust." In “Michigan State Reorgs Compliance Again”, Kelly wrote about the University’s effort to so obscure any compliance function as to make it basically non-functioning. What does that tell you about MSU’s commitment to ethics? Unfortunately everything you need to know. Perhaps the best way to sum all this is up is as a tragedy. Tomorrow Measure for Measure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices