I think that Clinton standing up to the political challenge of the Paula Jones legal system as a political weapon crowd demonstrated a lot of character.
It would have if he had stood up to them, but he didn't. That's why he got into the fix he's in. If he had said "Sure I've had sex with government employees, what of it?" that would have shown some character. But he didn't. Instead he weaseled and misled and diverted. He clearly lied to the American people and to all those around him, then stood back as his fellow Democrats ran around telling everybody that he really hadn't had sex with this woman, Monica Lewinsky. Then when that story collapsed he tried, with remarkable success, to blame it on everyone except himself. He hasn't shown any real character at all through this entire thing, only a willingness to twist the law and to use every available tool to cling to his office. This isn't character, it's megalomania.
If he really had any character he would have told the truth up front and then challenged the "Paula Jones legal system as a political weapon crowd" to do anything about it. If he had told the truth up front, it really would have been "just about sex." If he had told the truth up front he would have been the clear winner in all this and he would never have been impeached. But he didn't tell the truth. One can only assume that this is because he has no character.
Ah, but the hell with it all. I had something of an epiphany today. This happens to me every once in a while. Those of you who engage in any sort of introspection know what I mean. For those who don't; this is where personal growth comes from. Sometimes, those of us who can, take a look at ourselves and realize something. It generally comes as an epiphany, that is, as a sudden bolt from the blue. Suddenly something that we hadn't previously understood makes sense and it seems impossible that we hadn't realized it before.
Partly because of the specific debates I got into today and the objective waste of time and effort of those debates, and partly as a result of watching George Carlin on HBO tonight and being reminded by him that, ultimately, it's all bullshit, I've come to the decision to direct my efforts to more important things than arguing here.
You see, when it gets right down to it, Clinton is not the problem. He's merely a symptom of a greater thing that is the real problem. I'm not even sure what this fundamental problem is, but I suspect it has something to do with the blind self-interest that guides most if not all people. But I'm not even sure that this is a bad thing. I'm certain that Mother Theresa, for instance, was guided by her own self-interest, it's simply that we were fortunate that it was apparently in her self-interest to help other people. I guess it must be the combination of blind self-interest and base motives.
It was blind self-interest and base motives that caused Starr and the people he was point-man for to pursue Clinton, but it was also blind self-interest and base motives that caused Clinton to swear to, and then violate, his oath. I still maintain that what they did may have been unethical, but what he did was criminal. Ethics are violated every day, and there's very little that we can do about that other than to register our dismay and condemnation. But the law is something different. Laws are the specific powers with which governments control our lives. We have deemed it necessary to give up some of our freedom in order to have the government protect us from the actions of others. But as soon as these laws, which are enforced by the government, do not apply to the government, we're in trouble. In order for the law to remain something that protects us, rather than something that is used to enslave us, it must apply to them as well as us.
The fact that the President of the United States (unless you really believe that he only inadvertently composed his answers in such a way as to convey the opposite of what he knew to be the truth) almost certainly committed perjury and has nevertheless been so rabidly defended by so many people is highly disturbing to me. But it's really just another step in the continued decline and fall of the American empire. If you haven't, read Toynbee's A Study of History. It clearly explains why civilizations collapse, and it will tell you where we are and where we're headed. Our civilization is collapsing, and if we hope to save anything of it, we must act now. The world is not getting better, and I don't see it getting better, but Bill Clinton and his short-sighted defenders are only hastening a process that started a long time ago.
The problems besetting us are many, and I have respect for anyone who is trying to solve any of them. But I can't escape the feeling that we're caught up in an avalanche and everyone is running around trying to stop individual rocks. I want to know what caused the avalanche and try to provide some underlying structure to the attempts to stop it. This isn't a political issue, or a social issue, or a religious issue. It's a philosophical issue, and that's where the answers will be found. It may already be too late to do anything, but it's my nature to try. But the specific issue of Bill Clinton's perjury is simply one of the rocks, and it drains my energy for no good purpose to debate the minutiae of it with people who are never going to change their minds anyway. And it's just my own blind self-interest and base motives that cause me to keep hammering away anyway. I should be better than that.
So I think it's time to bid you all "farewell," I'd like to say it's been nice, but for the most part it hasn't. And it's clear to me that if I continue to hang around here I'll just end up as bitter and twisted as... well, just insert the name of the person you feel to be most bitter and twisted here.
-Bob Lao-Tse |
