Too Moral

I blogged this quote just over a year ago, having found it in my notes from a lecture series I attended in Prague. Seems ever more relevant in a week with the news about Frist and Delay. Eda Kriseova, spoke on "Literature and Nationalism" and is a friend and biographer of the Czech president and writer Vaclav Havel. About his waning popularity, she said:

Havel is "too moral" for the ordinary person. They prefer the lying and stealing pragmatic bureaucrat since they make them feel comfortable with their immorality.

I often wish we had leadership in modern American politics, which inspired the public the way Havel I'm sure there are multiple reasons why we don't: the modern newscoverage, which benefits the more telegenic most greatly; the way politics attracts the power hungry and repels the intellectual, for example. But, boy, there's the sting of truth to Kriseova's remark, too, isn't there?