Re: E-85

rexim asked "Can't a guy engage in a little hyperbole anymore?"

There are a couple of problems here. First is that the "sound bytes" (I chose the spelling "byte" intentionally), especially the short comments that are dictated by posts or email, lack real context, and second, because of this tend to be more extreme than perhaps intended. Part of this is that the world generally, and the US in particular has become more polarized, with a lot of comments being, intentionally or unintentionally, provocative and extreme. Middle ground, logic and rationale, and just plain reasonableness and civility seem to have vanished. The shortness dictated by web posts and email results in short attention spans and lack of context (I was at the memorial last week for the son of a close friend, a delightful young man, but who was described as having "the attention span of a gnat"). Thoughtful discussions seem to have disappeared. While the "Silent Majority", supposedly those holding moderate views, may have been silent at some point in the past, at least the impression from the media and especially the Web is that there are no moderates anymore on any topic, only extremists. "You are either with me 100% or against me 100%". No more "I agree with you on some points, but disagree on others" or "I agree with what you say, but not with the way you say it."

The "Caesar's wife" rule is a fundamental one for public figures and self-proclaimed spokespersons. For those who don't know what the Caesar's wife rule is - Caesar's wife must not only conduct herself properly, but she must have the appearance of conducting herself properly. Public figures are held to a higher standard than the rest of us, in part because we entrust them to lead us and provide wisdom, and in part because they are the examples people follow. When I was finishing grad school, I taught at a community college nearby. On my first day, one of the greybeards took me aside and repeated this to me, with the explanation that a teacher in a public school system must not be seen in a bar, "even if you are not having a drink." There was a clause in our teaching contracts that included among the causes for firing "moral terpitude", which was explained to me to include the appearance of moral terpitude, not just actual immoral acts (recall this was in the 1960s, when everyone "knew" that college students were all "hippies" and did all sorts of questionable things). In the current terms, this means that if Gore is to be the spokesperson for the environment, he must practice very visibly what he preaches.