In the Academy Award-winning 1984 film Amadeus, F. Murray Abraham brilliantly portrayed Antonio Salieri as a mediocre court composer who was so threatened by the meteoric rise and prodigious talents of Wolfgang Mozart that he spent the better part of his life mired in spite, trying to bring Mozart down. The film, expertly directed by Milos Forman, takes huge liberties with history (in actuality Salieri’s antagonism toward Mozart was little more than a vague rumor) while conveying a subtle message about the rather pathetic nature of the human condition and the mercurial nature of genius.
Tom Nichols, writing for The Atlantic, observes that the Jan. 6 hearings have provided Americans with a similar glimpse into the pathos of mediocrity as they’ve shone an unforgiving light on the pretensions of several unelected nobodies from the political right, “the men and women who were certain that their moment had finally arrived,” and whose delusional pretensions of future greatness inspired them into acts of treachery significantly exceeding their pay grade.