Question of
Inconsistency between Spitzer’s Sex with a Call Girl and Prosecuting
Prostitution Rings
By
Edwin L. Young, PhD
March 14, 2008
I will leave discussion
about whether the Governor should resign to others. However, the fact that an Attorney General is
arrogant, insensitive, and has a revolting style of publically castigating
wealthy Wall Street barons for their illegal acts and contemptuous exploitation
of their unsuspecting, sitting-duck clients is not sufficient reason for
turning about and convicting him as a criminal.
Quite the contrary!
First, I would surely like to see
prostitution decriminalized. However, I
would also wish that such a law would be enacted with assurance that it still
be a crime for organized crime to be involved with prostitutes or prostitution
enterprises in a business and controlling way.
Second, I would like to
offer my opinion concerning the sexuality of politicians. In the early sixties, just beginning my
career as a psychologist, part of my job entailed making psychological assessments
of prospects for high-level positions such as manufacturer’s representatives,
pharmaceutical sales, high level automobile and real estate stales as well as
making assessments for the full range of other occupations. One thing especially stood out and that was
that with these highly intelligent, sales oriented men, there was very
frequently a pattern of high scores on sexual motivation and a need to
seduce. These two trends were typical of
those who had a record of success in their brand of sales.
Over the past fifty years
or so, I have also noted that the news media often reported stories of ‘sexual
indiscretions’ among politicians (male).
I surmised, and research backed this up, that politicians also tested high
on both of the above-cited sales skills.
I inferred that they must also have the same pattern with respect to
sexuality and the need to seduce. As a
matter of fact, I inferred that quite possibly it was necessary for a
politician to have this pattern if they were to succeed. This is consistent with biosocial
evolutionary psychology. Of course,
there probably were so me exceptions to these observations.
If I am correct, then the
alternative trend may be worse. That is
to say, excluding those who have this pattern of sexuality and seduction would
leave us with the seats of high government office inevitably being occupied
with mediocrity.
This raises the ultimate
questions for contemporary American culture and its values and socio-political
institutions. First, can we continue the
current puritanical and prudish orientation in the media that is forcing the
selection of an inferior breed of politicians?
Second, is the current trend of flushing out sexual indiscretions of
one’s opponents and ‘hypocritically’ using these as battering rams in political
campaigns also forcing hypocrisy and, more importantly, forcing the selection
of an inferior breed of politicians?
These two questions, again, suggest that there is a system of mutual
facilitating and maintaining both hypocrisy and mediocrity in our political
culture and general culture as well.
Therefore, I conclude
that there may be a system involving factors in our culture related to politics
that is mutually instigating, self-propelling, and incapable of
self-correction. Could this be the cause
of what many consider the decadence, decay, and waywardness seen in our major
political institutions such as our Executive and Legislative bodies?
Someone has to have the
moral and political courage to stand up and say “Enough of this seventeenth
century puritanical, self-righteous opportunism!” It could not hurt for us to take a clue from
our European contemporaries who have long since risen above this petty
scatological preoccupation and its use for destructive political opportunism.
The media expresses
puzzlement over Spitzer’s visiting prostitutes and prosecuting prostitution
rings. I suppose media anchors have to
talk with ignorant indignation about matters such as the Spitzer affair since
that is how the lowest common denominator public reacts and thinks. That is the only conclusion I can make for
the media seeing an inconsistency in his behavior.
In
fact, for me, it makes perfect sense to me that Spitzer would vigorously
prosecute prostitution rings. He had a
sexual liaison with this particular call girl that must have been a great
comfort in the midst of his highly demanding career. From my long experience as a psychologist, I
have come to understand that most high energy, brilliant, ambitious men also
have extremely strong libidos and are far more prone than most to be
adventurous. They also tend toward
sexual experimentation. They usually
marry women who are quite pleased with the sexual prowess and lack of
inhibition with respect to exploring novel and ‘unconventional’ sex practices. Of course, some of these wives probably may
not possess these traits. Regardless of
the wife’s sexual preferences, these men often lead lives that leave them
little time or comfortable circumstances fully to indulge their huge and
unconventional appetites. Men and women
with average libidos and a lack of desire for adventurousness and exploring
sexual novelty are not likely to understand those on the high end. Similarly, the sexually average are not
likely to understand those with extremely low libidos or sexual drive or
desires.
Let me assume that you
have the capacity for stepping, with empathy, into the minds and bodies of
those who are highly above average and trying to imagine what their careers and
life patterns are like. If this is your
case, then you may be able to understand that a person with powerful
physiological, sexual, pressure that is being suppressed by the demanding
structure of their occupations would seek a non-marital outlet. They would be likely to do so even while
being very much in love with their spouses and devoted to their children. Our hyper-moralistic society and
anachronistic, invasive of personal life, laws have made seeking non-marital
outlets with prostitutes or others, man or female, illegal and punishable by
law. An intelligent, well-educated
person with an understanding of American moral and legal history and culture
and of social anthropology is likely to believe that criminalizing prostitution
or non-marital sex moronically irrational.
(Something Europeans concluded long ago.) On the other hand, these same intelligent
people would find the domination of prostitution by organized crime or street
pimps to be even more odious and absurd.
I too find our retrograde
laws with respect to private sexual behavior to be barbaric. Please, someone take corrective action
against these archaic laws.
Speaking of the media’s
pursuit of audience bating victimless, innocuous, salacious stories about
politicians’ affairs, consider the immense damage done to the course of history
by the incendiary coverage of the Clinton-Lewinski falatio story. An unintended consequence of media’s
scavenging of this story that was intentionally egged on by Republican sour
grapes attack dogs was the immobilizing of
The media seems hell-bent
to pursue, swallow, and regurgitate every fly of verbal innuendo uttered or
past harmless shadow in the campaigns of Barack and Hillary. Yet, they construe McCain’s endurance of
Take a look in the mirror,
media people. Your image there will make
Boris Lugosi’s Dracula look like and angel by comparison.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/august96/panel_morris_8-29.html
Perot on McCain