[lbo-talk] Straussian moralist as high rolling gamber

[andie nachgeborenen]

No, the point is not that what he does is immoral, In facr, he's probably got an illness, comulsive gambling. We ingulge in glee because he's a hypocrite, Mr. high-and-mighty precahing to all of us about self restraint when  -- lo! he can't. And his litany of erxcuses (it didn't hurt anyone, he can afford it, it's no one else;s business) -- while all true, is just the sort of thing he and his followers reject in others. Elmer Gantry, recall, like to drink and screw, two perfectly delightful activities, especially the latter -- it wasn't his doing them but his denouncing them as immoral while doing them that made him a hypocrite. jks

Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
On Sat, 3 May 2003, Jim Farmelant wrote:


> Bennett says that he sees no moral issues with his gambling.

I'm not sure I do either. He says it's never been secret and he's
declared all his winnings and losings to the IRS. He was quoted in 1995
in the Las Vegas Review-Journal of all places saying, "I've played poker
all my life and I shouldn't be on my high horse about it." That seems
pretty straightforward to me.

Just because you're a moralist doesn't mean you think everything is
immoral. Bennett says he's never considered drinking, smoking or gambling
to be sins in themselves. I agree with him, and so presumably does
everyone on this list. So where's the crime? High stakes poker is legal
in modern casino America.

Unless there turns out to be tax fraud or some hidden family suffering
here, the hypocrisy seems to me to be entirely on our side. It's like
we're more Catholic than the Pope.

Michael
___________________________________
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <../attachments/20030504/8e322b5d/attachment.htm>