20 May 2011

DIRTY OLD MEN

When I look at Dominique Strauss-Kahn he appears to be an older man to me, even though we are the same age. Yet in his interaction with a hotel maid he appears to have deluded himself that he is younger. I just don’t get the sexual assault he is charged with. Why bother with someone who doesn’t want to have sex with you? Where’s the joy in that? But I’ve seen this kind of thing before. When I was a boss I periodically had to deal with sexual harassment problems always caused by men in their early sixties.

My take on men in these situations is that they probably want to be sure they can still do it. They haven’t yet reconciled to that image in the mirror or the idea that no one younger is going to be attracted to them, unless they are very rich- and how real is that? Almost anything young will do, as though their vitality could somehow be transferred. Whatever these men have accomplished in life, they are missing a priceless attribute of aging, which is the wisdom which comes with maturity. Rather than developing on the advantages of being relieved of passionate infatuations, they seek to return to the prerogatives of an age that is gone forever. Thus they make fools of themselves, and there is no fool like an old fool.

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