[lbo-talk] Straussian moralist as high rolling gamber

Jacob Segal jpsegal at rcn.com
Sun May 4 00:05:26 PDT 2003



>
> 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

If Bennett ever endorsed Aristotle's definition of virtue as a mean between extremes, which I would "bet" he has, then If he's gambled millions of bucks I'd say that Bennett has fallen short of his own standards, win or lose.

Jacob Segal



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