Neither angel nor beast

The governor of New-York was forced to resign after the revelation of his using the services of a high-end escort service. Europeans observers were shocked by the price the gentleman was paying (hourly fees being in the $ 3,000-5,000 range), a disturbing sign of sky-rocketing inflation in the United States. American observers viewed his lack of personal morality as a proof of unfitness to public office. Who is right?

It is a constant principle of Puritanism that private behavior is a good indicator of public capacities. What makes this principle slightly inconsistent is that Puritanism also places a wall around sexual activities, which are supposed to be actively hidden from public view. In practice, the indicator is therefore discretion rather than actual morality, and can only be used if dissimilation is considered a political virtue.

More importantly, history does not seem to conclude in favor of the puritan principle. Many among the great political criminals of all times preferred mass murder as a channel for releasing their libido, to mere personal excess. Savonarola was impeccably abstinent, Aurangzeb, the most cruel of all the Great Moguls slept on the floor and seldom took time to visit his own harem, Philip II of Spain ruled his empire from a monk cell in the Escorial, while his troops where annihilating entire populations. Stalin was famous for having water poured into his glass instead of vodka, and using a modest office in the Kremlin. Adolph Hitler was anything but a womanizer. Ascetic personal behavior is no more a guaranty of political fairness, than debauch the sign of a statesman.

One does not need to suffer from a divided self to be capable of minor personal disorders while being at the same time completly able to run a government. Blaise Pascal wisely said: “Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast”. What we need are competent politicians innocent of public crimes, rather than dangerous fakirs or even incompetent saints.

Abiding with the law certainly remains a legitimate requirement for politicians in a civilized country. In this respect, however, a reasonable scale should be applied. No one would consider a parking violation as a good motive for losing office (unless one is mainly in charge of parking policies). Corruption, a major public vice, is of much more importance.

Prostitution is a specific concern, less for its illegal character, than for its potential encouragement of sexual slavery, an unlikely possibility when consenting adults contract at the surprisingly high rates the Governor was willing to pay. In his case, embarrassment and matrimonial tensions could have been considered enough of a punishment, particularly at a time when financial abuse and white collar crime – Eliot Spizer’s specialty when District Attorney – is one of the most serious dangers we are confronted to.

This is yet how the world goes.