Bozo Sapiens

I disagree with the idea that the situation (political office, power), not the person, is responsible for what happened in South Carolina. Sex drive provides the motive, expedience removes the inhibition, and power provides easy opportunity. The primary problem isn’t that power corrupts, but that we elect expedient people who think there is nothing wrong with cheating, even though they know to say otherwise in order to get elected. Expedient people put self-interest above the common good, because they take pride in their opportunism.

Although some politicans might think they are entitled to cheat because of their status, I recall when experts used to say that it was low class people who are pomiscuous. I think "because I am worth it" plays on the audience's resentment of high status but doesn't really explain the facts of what happened.

You make your point well, but I'm not sure I agree. The conclusion of the Stanford study (Ducher Keltner, Deborah h. Gruenfeld, and Cameron Anderson, "Power, Approach, and Inhibition,"/Psychological Review/, vol.110, no.2, 2003, pp.265-84) was that the sensation of power is itself disinhibiting: people chosen at random, not through the selective rigors of election, will still behave with greater self-indulgence when they are put in a position of authority.

Perhaps this is the reason we in America adhere to the "George Washington principle:" the idea that our officials should be held to a higher standard of morality than ourselves. We realize the temptations of power and hope to elect people with the strength of character to resist them. Of course, the result is often as you describe: opportunistic people simply lie about their motivation to gain power.

The world is full of opportunists and there is certainly no need to mark one class of people as inherently more or less moral than another. My point, though, was this: power can induce a form of split mind, where politicians can sincerely champion moral principles that they do not apply to themselves.

"As the governed, we are willing to cut our governors quite a lot of slack."

Wait up, my scissors left scant slack. I am unforgiving on such hypocrisies and betrayals. The main betrayal that irritates me so is this practice of trumpeting agendas, beliefs, and ideas that you clearly do not support, selling something to people that you personally would never buy. The family structure, marriage, religion, political stances, public agenda, laws, rules, regulations, death penalties, abortions, these people come across as Coke salesmen who only ever drink Pepsi, they are liars, they are cons, they are frauds, completely and utterly disingenuous. You promote happy marriages but could never fathom a life without a mistress and rampant infidelity, then why not just admit to us all that you believe the concept of marriage and monogamy to be a sham that may need to be reexamined as a model for human cohabitation? You denounce, deride and condemn homosexuality, yet sneak around and visit same-sex partners, why not admit that homesexuality may simply be a part of human nature and that bigotry against it is severely unproductive, hurtful and wrong? Why not just be honest with us? We are adults, we can handle it, we need to have some discussions on these matters. We are told that the world is supposed to be a certain way, and then behind the curtains, people's hearts and desires and passions play out the exact opposite, well, why can't we examine why we have passions, desires and thoughts that run counter to what we've been told? Will we discover that what we've been told has been a lie? The world may not be as flat as they would have us believe? The Earth may not be the center of the universe? Is our paradigm so fragile that it cannot bear scrutiny or even honesty about its own very nature? Stop believing we have things figured out and start examining these things that we take for granted, but are repeatedly shown to be in error. Are our morals and ethics constructed rationally, or do the harm us in some ways by denying us the freedom to go with the flow of the stream rather than fight to bloody pulps against it, getting crashed on the rocks of zealotry and moral bigotry?

Marik,

Well – and passionately – put! It's true that we should reject politicians who pretend that the world and the human heart are not as they are – but the fact is than many people still hope for existence to be made simpler. The promises politicians make, even at best, are like New Year's resolutions: a hopeful picture of a life freed of complications. Only the rarest, like Lincoln, would be willing to say, "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." If we allow our leaders to admit their humanity and powerlessness, we must also admit that we should take more responsibility ourselves. Simplistic views like bigotry are a form of laziness; accepting a complex world requires getting in mental shape.