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Ultimately, our species despite our intellectual denials, is driven by primal instinctual
needs to procreate and the ramifications of this base line concept are overpower.
The President of the United States, the most powerful nation in the world, economically,
militarily and culturally, a man in his fifties, did willingly use his position to
obtain sexual gratification from a woman in her early twenties. She willingly participated
in the situation driven by the basic instinctual and biologically established principles
of finding a mate who could provide her with protection and give her offspring elevated
above all. (Desmond Morris’ Naked
Ape deals with the mating practices of humans in an understandable manner, it
is worth considering this issue in the light of human species needs.) When he spurned
her, she resented deeply the rejection and this drama, in the history of the United
States, is the result of her emotional reaction and disappointment.
The outcome of the Lewinsky - Starr - Clinton scandal of the late 1990s is not the
main event. Clinton’s continuance as president, his resignation, or impeachment,
matters little. It is the process, the recognition that species taboos and established
mores are in effect at all levels of society and that our collective awareness of
these is being reinforced. The personal
conduct of the individuals in Western Society is being put to the test, are we all
living lives befitting a television soap opera, or do we expect more of ourselves
and our conduct, in terms of sexual conduct and marital fidelity. Adultery is a
reality, the promises made in a marriage
ceremony are done before others and witnessed by
them as a testament to the importance we place on this concept. The bond of a promise
in marriage is considered a contract.
The President’s
wife (right), who supports her husband publicly, does not have the right to dismiss
her husband’s promises and though she may forgive him for his indiscretion, this
case is hinged upon the marriage promises and they are more important in the mind
of the public then the legal utterances of innocence under oath.
All across America families, husbands, wives, children are engaging in a dialogue
about the President’s conduct but in reality, because of the personal nature of the
circumstances, they must bring the issue home and apply it to themselves. The question
of what is acceptable behaviour, responsible sexual conduct, a caring relationship,
what is love, the limits of power, position and authority, the propriety of worker
employee relationships, all of these and many more are being openly debated. People
are talking about things that matter. Some intellectuals have criticised this event
for distracting government from the “real” issues those of the economy, world peace,
national progress and so on, but the interaction of men and women is far more important,
deserving international debate and widespread consideration.