Scalia: "Remember Polonius Was an Idiot"

Something that high-school lit teachers forget is that ol' Bill Shakespeare cast Polonius as an idiot, not a sage.  In fact, Plotonius was a suck-up.

Scalia:

“[A] platitude I want discuss comes in many flavors. It can be variously delivered as, ‘Follow your star,’ or ‘Never compromise your principles.’ Or, quoting Polonius in ‘Hamlet’ — who people forget was supposed to be an idiot — ‘To thine ownself be true.’ Now this can be very good or very bad advice. Indeed, follow your star if you want to head north and it’s the North Star. But if you want to head north and it’s Mars, you had better follow somebody else’s star.

“And indeed, to thine own self be true, depending upon who you think you are. It’s a belief that seems particularly to beset modern society, that believing deeply in something, and following that belief, is the most important thing a person could do. Get out there and picket, or boycott, or electioneer, or whatever. I am here to tell you that it is much less important how committed you are, than what you are committed to...Quoted at Cold Fury

Damn, that guy was smart!