Power and Abuse
Perhaps it's true that there's no aphrodisiac like power. It goes to one's head, results in what the ancient Greeks termed hubris, unbridled arrogance. And hubris partners very well with hypocrisy. For those imbued by their station in life with an unhealthy degree of ego and arrogance seem to feel that all is rightfully accorded them. While denied others, for they can do no wrong; nothing should be denied them.This is history repeating itself. Those, it appears, so enamoured of denouncing the wrongs that others do, so fearlessly committed to bringing malefactors under the law; corrupters of the common good to an accounting of their venal and immoral ventures, often harbour a kernel of curiosity themselves. That kernel grows exponentially to become an overwhelming need to experience those very forbidden anti-social acts for themselves.
This is human nature; their particular brand of human nature. And former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was an exemplar. Pontificating and warning and wielding the sweep of condemnation of those who skirt the law to achieve their ends, endearing himself to those who felt themselves victimized by the high and the mighty whose wealth has been achieved by underhanded means.
The high esteem in which he was held was sufficient validation for his single-minded commitment to the common weal. For a while. But once certain challenges have been met bored minds and sky-high egos turn elsewhere for satisfaction. And it was empowering to flirt with the same kind of illegal acts he so publicly vowed to bring to justice. And there's nothing quite so elusive, yet so sought after as the forbidden.
There are, unfortunately, no victimless crimes. It's not he himself who is the victim here. He imagined how tantalizing it would be to act out the very immoral acts he accused others of. He succumbed to the allure of society's forbidden acts. And clearly it was more important to satisfy his ego and appetite than worrying about detection. He was, after all, above reproach, the knight who armoured himself in shining glory.
The greater the wealth and privilege and power the greater the public humiliation, the farther the fall from grace. There is no defense against the airing of private grief for his wife. And he deliberately, willingly, sacrificed his young daughters, choosing to satiate his lust rather than shield them from the collapse of their trust in their father.
What a colossal failure of a man.
Labels: Heroes and Villains, Viewpoint
posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 14, 2008
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