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The Editors – A Higher Standard of Misbehavior
We keep reading the news about leaders American and otherwise, doing nasty things they clearly should not be doing, and wondering how much of a man’s bad behavior in the bedroom, hotel suite, or Twitter feed is the proper business of public debate.
The benchmarks, we suppose, range from JFK to FDR – and perhaps even to Mrs. Roosevelt. We the American public know a great deal today about the things each of these three iconic Americans did, in some cases with whom, that we are universally glad not to have known at the time of the doing.
Yes, hypocrisy is ugly, to say nothing of the various body parts implicated in any of a few recent public-figure scandals. But there ought to be a line somewhere about what disqualifies a man or a woman for public office, or for our vote.
DSK certainly crossed that line: assault is assault, if that proves to be the truth. And Rep. Wiener, the rank foolishness of the photos sent out across the vast electronic seas makes you not so much a moral danger, but perhaps a mental one. The departed governor of California surely deserves hell from his family – current and soon-to-be-former – but had he done brilliantly in office, who ought really to care come voting day?
We feel, in the final analysis, that we know too much about the wrong things about these men, and still not enough about their fortitude on the public behalf, their creativity in managing our collective concerns, and their true hearts. More of the clarity and commitments of, say, an FDR or a JFK, and less of pandering interest in the various underpants of all involved, would serve the nation well.
Randall Bloom – Poem (“Three Graces”)
The first offers
nothing, but the second
a thought for grace, a
memory
of admiration, or a hope
for something better
than the way
before us.
The branches blossom,
the shade uncovers
words overwhelmed
by light, and a
sheltering
grace
returns.
The Editors – The Hearts of Men (Who Run the World)
Considering the reputation and self-presentation of the IMF’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn, we work hard to resist the thought that he sure *looks* guilty enough. The former governor of California, Terminator, Kindergarten Cop, et cetera, et cetera, at least spares us the personal trial of deciding how guilty we presume him to be as we debate the significance to our public and private lives of what these men did, and what men, quite generally, do.
History was unkind to both in meaningful ways. An ordinary economy would have allowed the governor to impress friends and enemies alike with his honest and earnest firmness, and belief in a smaller and more sensible government (if not, alas, a smaller and more sensible governor). He’d have been a good counterweight to the unions and other organized interests in the state, had things been more or less as they’d been before. But there were no good options post 2008, and California was filled as much as any other state and more than many with the long-lingering effects of poor personal financial decisions, malicious banks, and sleepy regulators.
Strauss-Kahn, remarkably, was considered quite brilliant at his job even in the face of global financial disaster. Hard to know why on the merits, but his job was certainly one of the few at which one cannot – short of assaulting the maid – fail. He directed considerable lending of other people’s money generally without collateral, on the principle that economic ideas ought to drive the global economy. Hard to do that too terribly wrong, unless one tries too hard, and Strauss-Kahn has a reputation for many excesses but not for excess of effort at the central work of his day job, for which the world really ought to be grateful.
Are there lessons from the travails of these men? Not many that might regard the governing of states or global ubernational banks, but perhaps a lesson here or there about the folly of all men’s work, and, just at the level of a whisper, the false hope for perfection. None of us, it turns out, are that much better than others, and that ought to limit our hopes not only in the habits of men, but in the workings of institutions that might at times seek to save our souls, or our accounts.
Randall Bloom – Poem (“Over”)
Never a good thought to
conclude
that the thing itself – the constellation
of time and place, of apprehension
and – to say it simply, of hope –
is lost.
Aspiration may be the point,
or merely the hint of
direction, but it stays
close
and the few words
we build our public places,
we set stone,
upon, still sit square
and express some
centered
notion of
common
creation
that
demands
regard
Benjamin Franklin – Letter (To Thomas Paine)
TO THOMAS PAINE.
[Date uncertain.]
DEAR SIR,
I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For without the belief of a Providence, that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion, that, though your reasonings are subtile and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be, a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind, spits in his own face.
But, were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.
I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it. I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friendship, and therefore add no professions to it; but subscribe simply yours,
B. Franklin
The Editors: The Healing Progress of Nothing Dramatic
The world is still with us, or so the observable evidence suggests, with this Saturday’s predicted Armageddon either delayed, canceled, or merely imagined all along.
And Donald Trump is no longer talking about President Obama’s lack of a valid, stamped, sealed U.S. birth certificate, one having been recently issued to the public by the state of Hawai’i.
And already, a number of presumed and hoped-for presidential candidates are dropping by the wayside, more often than not because the fringe hatreds that can gather a few thousand fierce supporters, enough to draw a crowd during the pre-game, remain unwanted by the broad sweep of Americans.
Less and less seems to be happening for the moment, and we are all so clearly better off for it.
The.American.Word. 