The scandals which broke this week regarding the sexual activities of top generals are an old and familiar story. Henry Kissinger once said and created the maxim: "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac," Power is a real love potion, affecting the parties involved in frequently tragic ways. Go back to Samson and Delilah, Anthony and Cleopatra, Napoleon and Josephine, Jack and Marilyn, Bill and Monica---the participants and victims are legion.
Women are attracted to the powerful, and men find it hard (an apt choice of words) to resist the lures of a sexually aroused woman. Reason and good sense are swept away in the vortex of a passionate affair. Another crude but accurate male epigram comes to mind: a stiff prick knows no conscience.
And then the old Aristotlean definition of tragedy comes into play. Aristotle defined tragedy as the fall of a man from high estate. Look at David Patraeus. A general compared by many to Eisenhower, Marshall, Washington and Grant, a Renaissance man of many parts, brilliant and seemingly beyond reproach, he is now a tragic hero or an overrated bum, according to your view. Most of all, he is a very human man who could not resist the allure of power and the desire that accompanies it. Whether he seduced or was seduced doesn't really matter; the end result is the loss of a talented man to public service. That is an old and familiar story.
At a breakfast meeting earler this week, I wisecracked to a friend, 'It's amazing what that tiny piece of the human anatomy can cause," and my friend replied, "Yeah, but it has all kinds of connections."
As pointed out men have sought power and women have sought out those men who have it. It is not new and it will not stop here. Since it is almost inevitable, should those who engage and are found out be sacked or should some allowances be made for man's weakness and for women who want to become the other woman.
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