What is wrong with Anthony Weiner?
Most of what is wrong about a lot of us! Especially men! Or maybe it is just most obvious with men.
The problem is not that Weiner (pronounced like "wiener": someone from Vienna, as in "Wienerschnitzel") is sexual, or even sexually out of control. All the evidence is that most people--that's right: most--are not strictly monogamous, or even faithful to their mates. More couples than we would like to know about deal with infidelity; often successfully.
That Weiner only recently married, and that his wife is pregnant with their first child while, at the same time, Weiner was playing sexual games online with several women he had never met, suggests a serious problem with his commitment to his wife. That is a character issue, and it is not flattering. It makes one wonder about his fitness to be either a husband or a father.
A lot of people are like that, too. It might be lamentable, but it is scarcely an astonishment.
Anthony Weiner is a human being.
What is astonishing is Weiner's stupidity and arrogance. It is the arrogance of power. It is the arrogance of aristocracy; the arrogance of political power. And arrogance is always married to stupidity, because arrogance always assumes a lie about one's own superiority.
We have all seen and heard politicians interrupt people talking to them--lecturing them about interrupting a Senator, or a member of Congress--because of their high position. "I will speak to you as I please: you cannot speak like that to me!"
Arrogance corrupts: absolute arrogance corrupts absolutely. Anthony Wiener is arrogant. And stupid.
Any sensible person, any ordinary, sensible person, knows that sending pictures of your crotch to people you do not even know, on the internet, is stupid. to think it won't become public knowledge is stupid, and it is a stupidity resting on arrogance; the belief that you are above ordinary people and rules and ethics.
The issue is not sexual dalliance. It is that, but more than that. It is the assumption that being king, or bishop, being rich or titled or a member of Congress puts you in a special class, beyond the rules of decency and accountability.
People like Anthony Weiner are arrogant and foolish. They are Prince Philip in plainclothes.
It is his judgment that is the issue. Good judgment is not guaranteed by intelligence.
Anthony Weiner might or might not stand for what pleases us politically. He is out of touch with common sense. He has believed a lie about himself, and he lied about that, too.
Arrogance does not elevate you. It humiliates you, because it is self-delusion.
"I'd rather be. . . ."
Most of what is wrong about a lot of us! Especially men! Or maybe it is just most obvious with men.
The problem is not that Weiner (pronounced like "wiener": someone from Vienna, as in "Wienerschnitzel") is sexual, or even sexually out of control. All the evidence is that most people--that's right: most--are not strictly monogamous, or even faithful to their mates. More couples than we would like to know about deal with infidelity; often successfully.
That Weiner only recently married, and that his wife is pregnant with their first child while, at the same time, Weiner was playing sexual games online with several women he had never met, suggests a serious problem with his commitment to his wife. That is a character issue, and it is not flattering. It makes one wonder about his fitness to be either a husband or a father.
A lot of people are like that, too. It might be lamentable, but it is scarcely an astonishment.
Anthony Weiner is a human being.
What is astonishing is Weiner's stupidity and arrogance. It is the arrogance of power. It is the arrogance of aristocracy; the arrogance of political power. And arrogance is always married to stupidity, because arrogance always assumes a lie about one's own superiority.
We have all seen and heard politicians interrupt people talking to them--lecturing them about interrupting a Senator, or a member of Congress--because of their high position. "I will speak to you as I please: you cannot speak like that to me!"
Arrogance corrupts: absolute arrogance corrupts absolutely. Anthony Wiener is arrogant. And stupid.
Any sensible person, any ordinary, sensible person, knows that sending pictures of your crotch to people you do not even know, on the internet, is stupid. to think it won't become public knowledge is stupid, and it is a stupidity resting on arrogance; the belief that you are above ordinary people and rules and ethics.
The issue is not sexual dalliance. It is that, but more than that. It is the assumption that being king, or bishop, being rich or titled or a member of Congress puts you in a special class, beyond the rules of decency and accountability.
People like Anthony Weiner are arrogant and foolish. They are Prince Philip in plainclothes.
It is his judgment that is the issue. Good judgment is not guaranteed by intelligence.
Anthony Weiner might or might not stand for what pleases us politically. He is out of touch with common sense. He has believed a lie about himself, and he lied about that, too.
Arrogance does not elevate you. It humiliates you, because it is self-delusion.
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