The ‘Unsexing’ of Society—Shakespeare Saw It Coming

LewRockwell · Nov 5, 2026

“Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty.”

— William Shakespeare, Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 5)

I saw Macbeth a few months ago, and this time something clicked.

A king is murdered for his throne. Macbeth gains the power he wants, only to discover that power has consumed him. Ambition becomes paranoia, then violence, then madness, then death. It is usually described as a tragedy about ambition.

But Shakespeare was seeing something larger. He was writing about what happens when we sever ourselves from…