I'm going to violate one of my core policies. I'm going to talk about the former California Governor by name. My longtime policy has been to refer to Arnold Schwarzenegger by the name Priscilla. Why Priscilla? Because he deserves to be mocked and because I can. I'm doing this post only because I want to put a period on my views of him and then put him out of my mind permanently.
As everyone undoubtedly knows he's been outed as a philanderer with an illegitimate child. It's hardly shocking. I watched Arnold in the movie Pumping Iron in 1977. He was a putz and a manipulator then and nothing has changed. I saw him deliver a keynote address at the 2004 Republican National Convention. I thought it was a good speech, full of powerful words and moving images. The only problem was it was all bullshit.
Arnold's problem is that he sold his soul a very long time ago. He started down the "I'll do anything to succeed" path early on and never strayed. If you watched Pumping Iron you saw exactly who he is. A massive ego backed by a man who had absolutely no regard for anyone else. A sociopath who viewed those around him as objects, valuable only for what they could do for him. I don't think Arnold veered from the path of righteousness during his tenure as Governor, he was well down that road long before. In truth, he was never what he led us to believe.
Arnold never let morals get in the way of his goals and pleasures. He used steroids by his own admission. His sexual appetites and drug use are fairly common knowledge and, again, freely admitted to.
My point is this. Arnold chose the immoral life a long time ago. The consequence of those iniquities are what you see today. The spotlight has finally been turned on him with full intensity and he can no longer hide what he is. You cannot set aside basic human decency and morality and continue to represent yourself as a paragon of virtue forever. The price of sin is death, be that of the body or the soul, and his soul is as dead as his career and his marriage.
I take no pleasure in his downfall but I do take satisfaction that he has finally been unmasked as the douche bag that he has always been. He will never again be what so many thought he was.
What Arnold has done is part and parcel of what is so wrong with our society. Elites who put themselves on pedestals made of cardboard and lies. Celebrities famous for being famous, with a total lack of anything resembling a moral. Politicians who believe they're above the law and societal values and are shocked and angry when called on it. Arnold isn't even the tip of the iceberg. He's more like a wart on a whale's ass.
I keep hearing pundits tell us to ignore the person and concentrate on the message. That's exactly backward. If the messenger is flawed so is the message. If the author lies his words are worthless and should be dismissed without a second glance. If the man is amoral he should be shunned and separated from polite society.
Goodbye and good riddance Priscilla. May you never again trouble us with your disease and your lies.
Six
3 comments:
The common thought for a great amount of our history was that you elected a moral man, and as such he would make moral decisions. You DONT vote for a message, a platform or a party, you vote for a man that you have faith will make good decisions, especially knowing that life will throw curve-balls to those in power. A man that you chose based on his character should react the way you want him to when a new and unexpected situation arises. The concept of electing a message and not a man is relatively recent and has been highly damaging.
The only thing I can say is that Arnie was a perfect fit with the Kennedy clan, they couldn't keep their pants on either
Thing is, you don't vote for a message. You don't vote for airy rhetoric. You don't vote for whoever hands out the largest bribes. You don't vote for the best looking candidate.
You vote for someone who will represent you when the chips are down, who puts their constituent's interests and well-being above their own. You put your trust in this person that they will be honest, forthright, and useful to someone other than themselves.
Ahnold was none of these things. Most of the people running for public office anymore don't even come close.
In the case of the former governor of California, good riddance to bad rubbish. I recall all too well the nastiness surrounding the former governor and the insistence by many residents of California to throw him out. Once Arnold threw his name in the pot, it was a nonstop circus as people lined up left and right to vote for him, for no other reason than they were star-struck. He had no record of successful public service nor any thing substantial to stand on aside from his empty persona of being an actor, of being paid to play make-believe.
The rumors of Donald Trump running for president reminded me too much of when Arnold was running for Governor of Cali. Empty suits with nothing but loud rhetoric.
/rant off.
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