Pubdate: Fri, 09 May 2003
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (MA)
Copyright: 2003 New England Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/897
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Bill+Bennett

THE BOOK OF VICES

It's a delightful, wicked pleasure to see a pompous, moralizing stuffed 
shirt like William Bennett, best-selling author of the "Book of Virtues" 
and elitist scold of the lecture circuit, hoisted on his own petard so the 
world can see his feet of clay. The revelation that a man who makes a 
living denouncing the vices and pleasures of others has lost $8 million to 
what appears to be a compulsive gambling problem moved even the buttoned-up 
Michael Kinsley to declare himself among the party of sinners and rejoice 
at the Humpty-Dumpty act of the "virtue magnate."

Liberal commentators have gathered 'round to kick the hypocrite while he is 
down -- it's payback time for what the right, led by Mr. Bennett, did to 
that sinner Bill Clinton. Conservatives who loudly championed the 
"character issue" are lamely reduced to making the same libertarian 
arguments in Mr. Bennett's defense that he has himself rejected when they 
are applied to divorced people, marijuana smokers, homosexuals and others 
who fail to meet his virtue standard.

It is difficult to define when a vice rises from a trivial fault or act of 
self-indulgence to the level of a crime or an antisocial behavior that 
should be discouraged or prohibited by law. There's general agreement on 
drinking to excess in public and failure to bathe, but the consensus breaks 
down when we get to tobacco, marijuana, gambling, adultery, consorting with 
prostitutes and the making and enjoying of pornography.

The libertarian argument that people should be allowed to do what they like 
in the privacy of their own home without interference from government so 
long as it does no harm to others is a pretty good starting point for a 
discussion on the regulation of vice. Conservative intellectuals should be 
encouraged in this line of inquiry now that one of their number has been 
revealed as just another sinner.

If Mr. Bennett had not been in the business of telling others what to do, 
his gambling would be a private matter between him and his wife and heirs. 
Gambling, as southeastern Connecticut will attest, is a social blight, 
bringing with it crime and economic decline, but Mr. Bennett has 
nevertheless broken no law. We should extend to him the same respect for 
privacy and individual freedom that he denies to those who like to drink or 
smoke dope, want to get out of a bad marriage, or express the noble emotion 
of love through physical intimacy with a member of the same sex.

In what is either classic denial, arrogant elitist sentiment or the 
inclination to defend what is left of his private life Mr. Bennett says he 
can "handle" his gambling problem. Let's take him at his word and leave him 
alone, provided he assures us he is through saying he is morally superior 
to anyone, at least in public, for money. Before he vanishes for good from 
the public stage, we recommend he go to church and heed the words of the 
deepest thinker on this subject: "Let he who is without sin cast the first 
stone."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom