Lust in Action

Why? I have a hard time understanding it even though it’s been happening from time immemorial and recently with more frequency (until now mostly with Republicans). I’m talking about those rich and powerful individuals who truly have it all, wealth, fame with stellar career success but then self destruct in that most tried and true way: pitiful indiscretion. It was my intention on writing about the Eliot Spitzer debacle since he announced his resignation as Governor but David Brooks has written such a succinct and insightful, case closed and no further explanation needed article in today’s NY Times that I almost decided against it. Brooks’ premise is that these men (they are always men – have you ever heard of the Alpha woman?) might have some Asperger like disorder that while not negatively impacting on their drive to become successful or appear charismatic, makes it harder for them to learn the social skills that most people acquire without second thought and which are needed to bond with people in a genuine way and enjoy real intimacy. The resultant loneliness and isolation can result in an irrational and dark end. It sounds plausible to me and it’s a more thorough and thoughtful explanation than anything else I’ve read. But it does nothing to dissipate the cloud of exasperation and anger that so many of us feel. I mean there must be legions of proverbial lonely guys out there who are reading about his meteoric rise to fame while eating their microwaved Kraft macaroni and cheese and looking at the pictures of his most photogenic and lovely trophy wife and children while asking that question in their minds: Why?

My first reaction after the reading the Times expose about the young woman from the Emperor’s Club who commanded such a high fee was pretty much the same one I had when we all first learned about Monica Lewinsky. This is what you’ve jeopardized your personal and professional life for? Yes, she’s an attractive woman but for $10,000 I was expecting Aphrodite, Helen of Troy or maybe Rita Hayworth. Instead we have a young twenty something from the Jersey Shore and a broken home with a somewhat eclectic taste in music (according to her MySpace profile). As a friend of mine said to me during Monicagate, “At least JFK did it with Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich”.

F.Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Give me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy”. I’ve read a few opinion pieces about this story that explores the premise of Spitzer as a tragic figure in a Shakespearian sense but then quickly dismiss the idea as not being even worthy of such a comparison. The Shakespeare connection intrigues me only because I’ve recently moved to a new flat here in Wellington and as I don’t have a television, I’ve exhausted all the available reading I have on hand except for a hardcover Shakespeare collection that belonged to my brother while in college. I’ve been perusing the sonnets and thought that there’s one particular piece, more so than any of the tragic plays, that is more appropriate to this week’s headline news:

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight;

Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,

Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,

On purpose laid to make the taker mad:

Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.