I was just a child when Deep Throat happened. I'm not sure if my memories are mine or were told to me over my lifetime, but Deep Throat has always been one of my great heros in America. Deep Throat risked his high paying/high power job to bring down a crooked person. He struck a blow for Americans and against insider political maneuvering and for what is great about America.
Except he didn't. I am disillusioned. Deep Throat was a whiney bureaucrat who was upset over getting passed over and so said "Nah Nah Nah" to the Big Man. I always wanted Rehnquist to be Deep Throat. See, that would have been cool. Deep Throat didn't even tell Woodward and Bernstein he was going to reveal his secret- two people who have kept it all these years, and he cut them out at the last moment-- there's loyalty for you.
Philosophically, this bugs me-- I have always considered pure motives to be more important than pure results. In other words, I find it morally repugnant to do the right thing for the wrong reason- and Deep Throat did the right thing, but for entirely the wrong reasons. Here's a special ***THHPTTT**** for you Deep Throat- your Porn-tastic moniker is apropos for the subservient vision of you it calls to mind.
4 comments:
Re: Doing the right thing for the wrong reason.....If you really think into things.....more than the average person.....it's hard to do the right thing without thinking of how it will help you (or make you feel good.....which is, after all is said and done, "helping" you) in the end. I'll pretend that I hate to reference a sitcom (but I don't)and say that it's like the "Selfless Good Deed" episode of Friends.
As far as Deepthroat goes, I suppose I lean more towards commending him.....I damn sure don't blame him! But I don't claim to know all (or any of) the facts.
I perhaps wasn't so clear on this-- I agree that actions seldom have "pure" motives. I have warm fuzzies when I do something that I consider is good. I also don't beat myself up when I intended to do something nice and it flopped. Great example: Someone once gave me a "day of beauty" package- a sweet thoughtful kind gift-- and a huge nightmare for me- I HATE that kind of stuff. She got huge kudos for the thought and effort but I HATED it.
This is kind of the opposite- he was trying to out manouver Nixon, and inadvertently did something good for the nation- hey, that's good, but I don't think I should admire you for it.
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After thinking about this for a few minutes, here are my thoughts about your thoughts:
First, I agree with your assessment but for myself, I'm going to take it one step further. There's an eensy teensy part of me that still goes around singing songs from "The Man of La Mancha" and to find out how the Deep Throat saga eventually came down did absolutely nothing for those romantic notions. It's kinda like the time I had to give a seminar in graduate school on this very interesting scientific phenomenon. To this day the procedure is still used to create a cell line that aids in the clinical diagnosis of viral infections. Anyway, I researched and researched, found the original paper in which it was described, and discovered that it was all a fluke. A "no one really cares about this" discovery. Oh man. I was crushed. Gone was the image of the hardworking scientist slaving over his work to make life better for mankind. Now the same thing has happened with the Deep Throat stuff. Sigh. I'm gonna miss this mystery. I guess it's back to "What really happened to Marilyn Monroe/Amelia Earhart/Jimmy Hoffa?"
Or who was on the grassy knoll...although that one never had the romantic notion for me.
Here's to Windmills.
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