Decay Point - "No Judgements, Man" Culture Begets Weiner, Spitzer and Filner - Granite Grok

Decay Point – “No Judgements, Man” Culture Begets Weiner, Spitzer and Filner

Credit: presstv.ir
Credit: presstv.ir

The news is freckled with absurd stories about the malbehavior of political candidates and elected officials.  So what’s new?  Well, the absurdity that lies in the details and what it portends for our society for one. There are many freckles, but let’s stick with one.  The one that keeps darkening with daylight surfacing more salacious and repugnant details almost daily this past week.

The Weiner.

Talk about symptoms of civilizational decay and desiccation. We’re witnessing decay reified in the mouldered buildings of Detroit and the wilted fruits from our interminable civic insouciance and our cultural solipsism. Indulge in self fetishization and ignore all else. What can go wrong?

Let’s face it. In my lifetime the bar under which the perps of unacceptable disgrace could slither has fallen to a miniscule level from the ground. It’s becoming more and more difficult for a perp to disgrace himself to the point of eliciting a stigma that sends him or her (but let’s be honest, it’s usually a “him”) into oblivion.  Do what you want. If it’s truly despicable we’ll send you a sternly written letter and completely throw it in the “no big deal” bin tomorrow.

The legendary Nixon resignation essentially stemmed from lying about the “cover up” and that was supposedly worse than the deed itself.  Though the purportedly loathsome creature felt enough shame to step down.  It was never proven that he was even involved in the initial crime; he just tried to cover it up.  You know, lie about it.  And that’s all it took for him to be gone.  That was then, this is now. Think of where we are.

It is entirely plausible that a man, who was forced to resign from Congress in disgrace about two years ago, Anthony Weiner, has a shot at being the mayor of the country’s largest city. He was not forced to resign for any old reason, like philandering, embezzlement, or bribery etc.  No, he resigned for an entirely new reason.  He decided to whip out that which should not be, take a photo of it, and send it around to various women unsolicited.  And did it again and again and again.  Sending pictures of his privates to various women, none of whom were his wife, is what brought him down.  He initially came out and denied it (surprise!). But the evidence (which was pretty hard evidence, no pun intended) began to mount and was so strong that even members in his own Democrat party could no longer look the other way and urged him to step down and resign. He did. Begrudgingly.

You’d think that would shame him enough to reflect, repent and attempt to redeem himself for a bit, like working for a charity or something.  Nope.

He resurfaced about four months back or so, claiming that he’s a changed man with a desire to share his “vision” of New York City and run for mayor.  And what happened earlier this week? It came out that as he was sharing his “vision” back in March, he was also “sharing” visions of his distinctly male characteristic with others again. Again, none of whom were his wife, but effectively strangers, and he was forced to admit it just the other day.  And just yesterday he admitted that there were at least three such incidents since being forced to disgracefully exit the Congress. Since.  After he was supposedly getting help and working on his marriage.

Perverted? Yes. But that’s only half of it, not even the tip of the story.

Think of how he views his fellow citizens, his neighbors, his friends, his former constituents, his country. He must hold them all in such contempt and himself in such lofty regard that he truly believes he could get away with such behavior while seizing power.  Get away with baldly lying about such perversions while knowingly circulating hard evidence that could surface and be used against him at any moment.  He did this without the least bit of circumspection, but with a callous disregard for propriety, civility and respect for others.  That’s either astonishing arrogance or a man in need of serious psychiatric help or both.  But it’s definitely not the behavior of a leader, a public servant, nor an honorable man.

He has (maybe had) a chance of winning.  The culture I grew up in was a morally virtuous one.  Sure it wasn’t perfect but it sought to be more perfect and not by looking the other way, but by placing those that stray back onto the moral path.  In my lifetime, however, the non-judgmental, stigma averse culture has grown like a black mold over our society, smothering and suffocating that once morally vibrant culture beneath.  This has a price and it’s a steep one.

People like Anthony Wiener, Eliot Spitzer, the touchy feely San Diego Mayor Bob Filner think they can do whatever they want and get away with it. They think that if they’re caught, they can simply apologize and feign redemption. And after a brief respite, they can play the “Hey, don’t judge, man” culture card as if it’s a “Get out of jail free” card and continue on with their self serving political agenda.

At what point do we judge?  At what point do we say that is wrong, either get back on the path or begone? A society cannot be a society if it doesn’t share the same values and virtues. And a free and civilized society shares virtues imbued with honor, dignity, respect and a healthy sense of right and wrong.  And when one betrays those virtues, they are to be judged and judged harshly.  Deeds forgiven?  Yes. Deeds forgotten? No.  Second chances? Depends, but you’ve got to work for it and truly redeem yourself.  No free passes.

Alternatively, we can continue to look the other way for fear of judging and enable a truly deviant miscreant to gain real power undetected.  Or, more likely, protected by the fearful enablers.  Then we’ll really be in trouble.   Oh… wait…

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