Private v Public: Thompson

From the very first line I liked this article. "The preoccupation with private vice has become a public vice" succinctly sums up the feelings I've had on this subject for a long time. A concern for the personal morality of public officials is reasonable up to a certain point, but it should not extend to every aspect of life, especially those aspects not immediately pertinent to the person's office. Bill Clinton messing around with Monica Lewinsky is something I have always viewed as almost completely irrelevant to his position as President of the United States. Being unable to resist sexual temptation seems to me to have little to do with being able to negotiate with foreign nations or evaluate legislation or military tactics. However, a Secretary of the Treasury with a past of shady or incompetent tax filing is a different story, because the monetary integrity involved and the level of competence in dealing with money is immediately relevant to the office of Treasury Secretary.

I also agreed with Thompson's rejection of the argument that public exposure of private life is an altogether undesirable thing. Certainly there are things we would not need to know about a private individual that are useful to know about public ones. Is an individual excessively loyal to friends and family members, even when they are less qualified in certain areas than non-friends and non-family members? Does a person have a chronic tendency to lose his or her head when confronted with an intensity-charged scenario? These and many other things are unnecessary to know about every private individual, but could be vital in selecting a public office holder.

Nobody likes a yes-man, but the more I read Thompson the more I feel we are very similar in our conception of ethics on many levels. This is partly vindicating and partly frustrating, because while it allows me to have some affirmation of my own beliefs, it also makes entries like these rather uneventful. So, for those of you hoping for a rousing declamation of Thompson's moral judgment, sorry to disappoint you. Maybe I'll generate some moral outrage during the class discussion.