The Character Diminishing Characters by Selwyn Duke Bill Clinton is not a man of sterling character. This belief isn't just reserved to members of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" mind you, even many of his apologists will make that admission during their brief but honest moments. It was no easy trick getting a man who's so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew elected either; it required a Machiavellian combination of slick propaganda and slick presentation. The former was provided by spin doctors like former Clinton propaganda minister Dick Morris, and the latter was covered by Clinton with aplomb; after all, demagoguery is an art that is certainly is his wheelhouse. One of Clinton's main hurdles, was the character issue; in a character battle he couldn't stand toe to toe with anyone, but he didn't have to. You see, the idea that character "doesn't matter" was shouted from the mountain tops, and hearing the call of the wild ones people embraced it in droves. It played well in Peoria, as it is a concept that is tailor made for a cynical day and age in which many people have ceased to believe in virtue, and therefore don't require it from their leaders. There's one little problem though: the idea that character doesn't matter is a lie. It is said that actions speak louder than words. You may say that character doesn't matter, but do you really believe it? Does the way you conduct your own life, your actions, bespeak of just the opposite? The answer is that they do, and I intend to prove it here and now. If a thesis, such as character doesn't matter is correct, it should be consistently applicable; so, let's examine some other situations in which character is a factor. Let's say that you owned a business making widgets, and you needed a manager to run it. Now let's say that someone approached you and said: "have I got the guy for you! He's a liar, completely corrupt and duplicitous -- you can't trust him as far as you can throw him, but he sure knows widgets! Would you hire him? We all know the answer. But let's take this further; would you want to be investigated by a cop who had poor character? Would you want to be tried by a judge who had poor character? Would you place your child in the hands of a nanny or day care provider who had poor character? Would you want a chef with poor character cooking your food [don't send your food back to such a chef, or it might come with a little something extra]? Would you bring your car in for repair to an auto mechanic who had poor character? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, either your reading comprehension leaves something to be desired, or you're a masochist. Now, if you wouldn't want a person with bad character to perform any of those roles, why would you be amenable to the idea of such a person occupying the highest office in the land? The fact is, that character is central to ANYTHING you might do, and impacts on everything you do. This is because there are certain prerequisites for doing any job well, and first and foremost among them is that you care enough about your fellow man to want to do right by him. If I have poor character though, I only care about three people: me, myself and I. This is why former President Bush was right when he said, "You can't be one kind of man, and another kind of president." The idea that character doesn't matter was and is such utter nonsense, that one has to wonder how it ever made it to first base in the American psyche. The reason is a distressing one, and speaks volumes about our collective national character. You see, to focus solely on President Clinton would be a mistake, because he tells us something about ourselves. The government is only a reflection of the people, because one way or another, due to acting rightly or acts of comission or omission, people make the government what it is. This is why Jefferson said, "People get he government they deserve" - Clinton cast ONE vote for himself -- we did the rest. And we did the dirty deed, because Bill Clinton is the man in the mirror; he reflects a nation that has been spiraling downwards morally towards the nadir of Hades. To be more explicit, it's human nature: many Americans don't want to judge others on the basis of character, because they know they won't pass the test either. Too many of us have committed adultery, have lied as a matter of course quite cavalierly, and have in general failed to cultivate virtue in ourselves. Doing so takes a back seat to fun, games, and materialism -- it's just not a priority in a society that has become comfortable and complacent. We need to justify our own misdeeds and ethical failings, so we embrace moral-relativism and wouldn't even dream saying the emperor has no clothes, because doing so would be tantamount to raising up a mirror that revealed our nakedness as well. This is why the characteristic statements of American presidents have degenerated from "I cannot tell a lie," to "It depends on what your definition of the word 'is' is." Our second president John Adams said in 1798, "Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people, it is wholly unfit for the governing of any other." A people of poor character will not govern their own lives well enough to live peacefully in a free nation; they will not control themselves from the inside, so they will have to be controlled from the outside by a controlling government. This is why a people with poor character cannot sustain a democratic form of government. If we want to sustain ours and bequeath it to our children, we're going to have to make some changes to that naked man in the mirror. We'd better see a tailor before it's too late. |
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