Why do Polanski and Letterman, Senator Ensign create so much discussion?
To paraphrase Tolstoy, decent people are all alike, but indecent people (and that includes all of us) are indecent each in their own way. Polanski, (heinous) Letterman (naughty) and Ensign (arrogant) have provided interesting material this week, sounding themes that may be similar, but really are different and many of us (me obviously included) are deeply interested.
Certainly, we have always been drawn to the sordid doings of powerful men. That is nothing new. For some people it's good for a little fun and a few laughs. Part of that fun maybe sorting out what is simply naughty and what is really heinous. Now we all get to be judges and philosophers.
But seriously folks, there really is something about these kinds of transgressions that draw us in. Suppose the story was that Letterman had hit one of his employees in a fit of anger or that Polanski had assaulted someone physically but not sexually. Would that generate so much discussion? I doubt it. An apology would be issued and perhaps, appropriate jail time served, but people would yawn and move on.
The escapades of powerful people are exciting among other reasons because they tend to turn the tables - a kind of Roman holiday for our times. Things start to look a little different when these things come to light. We always knew something was up with Letterman, many people are saying this morning. Now we know! It's like the pieces of a chess game get moved around a bit. Alliances shift, sometimes real (and psychological) kingdoms are torn asunder, acquired or lost. That's excitement!
Moreover, when prominent people screw up in this way, (btw, everyone else does too) they serve an additional psychological purpose for some people. These public figures become juicy targets on which to oceanic sexual guilt. This is not necessarily a good thing.
While it is good to cultivate our sense of what's right by talking about what's wrong, sanctimonious hysteria and even sexual jingoism, and gloating will stop people from making emotional progress. You would think by the sound of things, we have a populace of purely moral people. We certainly do not!
America has become a waterfall of pornography, rivers of it flowing from every computer terminal and television into our living rooms and offices, sex scandals by the minute. Our society is marred by unbridled sexual (and other kinds of) greed.
Yes, this week's news cycle has delivered great material: first Polanski and now Letterman and today's NY Times article on Senator John Ensign's moral lapses and unethical actions.
Roman Polanski has been served up as a true sexual villain, but more than that -- he is a nexus of negative sexual stereotypes, true academy award material: Now at 76 years old in addition to being a rapist he now qualifies for that archetypal role: lecherous, dirty old man (with a young, beautiful wife, yet!). He should go to prison just for wanting sex at his age. Not to mention that he is French and an "intellectual" And we all know how immoral those French intellectual artists are.
This morning we have Letterman: with his jaunty disarming humor making a joke of something that really is not so funny. And now a US Senator, complete with contrition, trying to make everything okay with a staffer he slept with and her family by "arranging" payments and compensation unethically.
Are anyone's hands clean? You and I know that the stuff that we're all made of is often more fragile than tissue paper. Fortunately, so long as we have Polanski (heinous), Letterman (naughty) and Ensign (haughty) we can all feel a little less guilty.
