Written by Richard Butrick   

Sterling - Aghast I Am, Aghast

The parade[1] of moral outrage is worthy of the theater of the absurd. It has almost become a contest of celebrities as to who can score the highest on the aghast-o-meter. All to prove the purity of one’s soul - to convince (oneself?) and those about that there is not a vestige of bigotry or prejudice or malice lurking about in one’s thoughts or emotions.

But is this exercise in theatrics missing some important issues at stake in the public pillorying of Sterling? A. J. Delgado of National Review argues[2] that indeed that is the case as does Larry Elder of TownHall ( “A confederacy of Dunces”) among others.[3]

Privacy: the phone conversation incriminating Sterling was secretly taped by his mistress.

Context: the “conversation” was a heated argument between Sterling and his mistress. And, as the columnist-analyst Larry Elder points out, she seems to be egging him on. Moreover, Sterling appears to be demanding that his mistress stop shaming him in public by showing up with her “African American” friends. The African American part seems almost incidental. Those were the friends she kept showing up with. Nowhere does he make derogatory remarks about blacks. Elder further points out that characterizing people by what they say in a heated argument is absurd.

It is a typical case of a wealthy, elderly man wanting to appear to be the happy stud with desirable, adoring young ladies by his side. Thus to be the supposed envy of whatever smart set he wants to impress. But that doesn’t work if his ladies are seen at events with younger men. Much less at his signature events. He yells at her over his phone that she can sleep with whomever or whatever but not to embarrass him at his own events.

Thought Crimes: Reacting to Sterling’s enraged personal confrontation with his mistress as if Sterling had committed an actionable offense is dangerously close to trying to punish people for what they think or feel - the Orwellian nightmare that Orwell saw lurking behind the socialist dream of psychologically inducing (social engineering) people to have the right attitudes and feelings to make a socialist paradise.

Bottom line: back off the moral posturing. The dramatics don’t make you an alumnus of the march from Selma to Montgomery. The man is part jerk. Pretending to be what he isn’t to feed off the envy of others. Leave it at that.

[1] http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-obama-others-condemn-donald-sterlings-alleged-racist-comments-20140427,0,5791133.story \ axzz30Vo7f2UJ
[2] http://www.nationalreview.com/article/376828/even-donald-sterling-entitled-privacy-j-delgado
[3] http://www.nationalreview.com/article/376765/defense-privacy-dennis-prager