Infidelity: An American Social and Political Obsession

If one wanted to know the difference between being an American and being a European, this article from France’s Le Figaro newspaper would be a very good place to start.

From Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky to client number nine Eliot Spitzer and ‘Kristan,’ Europeans have looked at the effect that sex has on American politics with a collective shake of the head.

In discussing the first press conference of New York’s new governor David Patterson, Pascal Bruckner writes for Le Figaro:

“A few weeks ago when the new Democratic governor of New York, David Patterson, a blind man, succeeded the once-incorruptible Eliot Spitzer who was found guilty of frequenting call girls, what did he do first? He called a press conference to confess to having cheated on his wife several times with colleagues from his office. … This stupefies Europeans, who still remember the outrageous Lewinsky affair: instead of announcing his political program, here is an official repenting out of fear that his exploits will one day be exposed to the public. In short, the world’s leading power, which is currently losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has revived the practice of torture and twice in-a-row elected one of the most incompetent heads of state in modern times, is up in arms over these measly tales of sleeping around!”

Bruckner goes on to recommend:

“Americans should be urged to take lessons in civilization from the old world: on this side of the Atlantic, as shown in cinema, literature and theater, everyone cheats and is cheated on, and people survive the infidelity of their partner. Real fidelity is more demanding than a strict physical abstinence, and if the love is strong, it will overcome these episodes.”

By Pascal Bruckner

Translated By Kate Davis

April 30, 2008

France – Le Monde – Original Article (French)
A few weeks ago when the new Democratic governor of New York, David Patterson, a blind man, succeeded the once-incorruptible Eliot Spitzer who was found guilty of frequenting call girls, what did he do first? He called a press conference to confess to having cheated on his wife several times with colleagues from his office.

His wife, in turn, acknowledged some escapades of her own, and swore that she and her husband had overcome these challenges. This stupefies Europeans, who still remember the outrageous Lewinsky affair: instead of announcing his political program, here is an official repenting out of fear that his exploits will one day be exposed to the public. In short, the world’s leading power, which is currently losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has revived the practice of torture and twice in-a-row elected one of the most incompetent heads of state in modern times, is up in arms over these measly tales of sleeping around!

What’s going on when the entire press, from the gutter papers to the very serious New York Times, covers this private matter ad infinitum? Let us recall the disappointments of former Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer: a destroyer of financial corruption and a champion of the fight against prostitution, he himself frequented a ravishing 22-year-old brunette, Ashley Youmans, alias Kristen, for whose services he was paying between $1,000 and $5,000, drawing on, it seems, money from his campaign fund.

Here again, nothing out of the ordinary for an old European with broad experience in the unpredictability of human nature: like Captain Haddock , blind drunk and chairing a meeting against alcoholism, the fathers of modesty in the United States, the enemies of vice, of feminism and of the freedom of morals, invariably end up in the arms of prostitutes, their nostrils filled with cocaine and their hands in the safe. Every moralist eventually ends up falling one day into the sin he denounces: isn’t the Catholic Church itself, which advocates chastity and subjects homosexuals to public obloquy, covering up the actions of thousands of pedophile priests who rape and abuse children?

The first lesson from old Europe: Beware of any virtuous discourse. Eros takes revenge on her critics and delivers a formidable kick in the nose to the prevailing Puritanism. What should we think about these American family therapy associations that explain that “the reactions of a betrayed wife resemble the symptoms of post-traumatic stress shown by the victims of traumatic events,” like September 11, 2001? What can be said about the seminars for unfaithful spouses who are reeducated like dissidents in the former Soviet empire?

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the United States.