April 1999 : Ann MacKinnon Kucera
THE CREATION OF A HERO
We have lately witnessed an extraordinary confrontation between our president and a massive group of legalists and moralists. One would assume that the mostly law-abiding citizens of the country would have backed the moralists in their efforts to bring Mr. Clinton to justice, but unless the constant polls of public opinion, taken to assess the effect of his having been brought before the congressional bar were faulty or dishonest, his popularity has increased rather than diminished. Indeed the polls show that his popularity has increased from a so-so condition to that of overwhelming approval since the discovery of serial lifestyle. Although the populace now agrees that he has also broken the law and shown signs of being dishonest and unreliable in his position of power, it does not want him removed from that position of power. One commentator expressed his surprise at this state of affairs and said that Clinton should be eternally grateful to Monica Lewinsky for changing him from a barely acceptable president to an object of irrational adoration, for he could see no other explanation for the change. It is a mystery defying reason and deserving of intense scrutiny.
We intelligent, educated, thoughtful, cautious adults who make up surely twenty percent of the population cannot make head nor tail of the situation. The hierarchy of our society is shaken up; common sense is offended. Anxiety is the order of the day. We have the future of the country, its precedents, its necessary legislation to look to. Will husbands leave their wives, will children disobey their parents ? Will a number of laws have to be re-written ? I cannot see a good way clear before us in the tangle resulting from the clash between our elected representative and our other elected representatives.
The duller or more ignorant half of the population has fixed its heart upon Clinton, and so has a good hunk of the thinking people. There ought to be identifiable causes for this outpouring of love and I have tried to narrow them down to three.
"This poor Scandinavian hero-worship, that whole Norse way of looking at the universe and adjusting oneself there, has an indestructible merit for us. A rude childlike way of recognizing the divineness of nature, the divineness of man; most rude, yet heart-felt, robust, giantlike, betokening what a giant of a man this child would grow to!"
I find it proper, though not very polite, to compare us to the early, uncivilized Scandinavians, for our people do not have the mellowness of the more established Europeans. For in our country the continually arriving immigrants and the constantly moving native born have often to start over again acquiring new language and new habits of thought from always rubbing against strangers. We have only a thin coating of educational and theological varnish to hold us together while underneath seethes warring views of worthwhileness, practice and purpose. Indeed we are childish, rude, and though we have some scattered leaders and scattered elements of civilization, there lacks a unifying vision or model for us to follow. Perhaps the real American Dream consists of a sullen independent desire not to be disturbed, not to change, not to be put upon, to drag the feet, not to embrace ideas.
Carlyle lists the attributes of the primitive hero:
It is said of Jimmy Carter, whom we saw occupying the presidential seat, that he was not at all what he appeared to be but was merely a construction of his handlers. Clinton also is partly himself and partly an artificial construction built up by his very smart public relations people. To be sure he is himself big and strong, the chosen one stepping forward, and after recent events, we realize that he sincerely recognizes Nature. As for brave and courageous, he might be frowned on for dodging the draft, which may not have shown cowardice, but only an unwillingness to put himself out for others. His present continual foolhardiness and love of gambling seem to require a pretty high degree of courage.
He is generally viewed as a man of genius; I have heard it many times. It is probably based upon his having been chosen as a Rhodes Scholar. But since 1969 or earlier the Rhodes Scholars have not been selected for their academic brilliance but for their leadership potential, which he had in quantity at that date, as big man on campus. The real men of genius are behind him, hidden in the offices of the White House.
To return to Mr. Clinton as a natural man, one would think that there would be general disapproval among all us puritans over his sexual excesses However, the demographics of the country have changed dramatically. When I lived in Puerto Rico I was surprised to find the windows of the houses barred for fear of rape, all unescorted females (even ugly ones) obliged to remain in the stuffy tropical indoors for protection after dusk. I was told that the men think it is their manly duty to attack as many women as possible. My Cuban professor told me that the New England Puritans are the traditional enemies of the Central Americans, because of their prim and stuffy ways. An election poster in San Juan showed the candidate's name and face, the office sought, and a fine pair of big muscular hairy arms.
As for beautiful traits of pity, it has been difficult to make Clinton look like Dr. Schweizer or Mother Theresa, but both he and Mrs. Clinton are kept to a hard schedule of visiting the poor, the old and the undereducated, where they sigh in a heartfelt way, scattering alms and also promises to make things better.
Before Monica he was just the president, liked for his partially mythical qualities by the hair-worshipping populace, before whom he was constantly paraded, and disliked for his inattention to order and for his prodigality by the more worrying part of the country. After Monica he appeared to possess that final gift of Nature which he had hitherto lacked. It will be interesting to see if the worshipping majority will stomach his Jovial excesses lately revealed.
Ann Kucera