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Jonathan Lear and Andrew Sullivan

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from: Jonathan Lear

Gary Condit, Religious Disputes, and the Wisdom of Socrates

Posted Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001, at 12:44 PM ET

Andrew,

It seems it's Gary Condit who is seeking the publicity ("Condit, Reversing His Course, Now Heads Toward Spotlight," New York Times). And I do think he has some explaining to do. In the spirit of Oscar Wilde: to lose the person you are having an affair with does seem a bit careless.

I am curious what you think about a particular quotation in the article "Religious Arrests Cast a Pall Over Afghanistan Aid Efforts." A number of foreign aid workers from the United States, Australia, and Germany have been arrested for teaching Christianity to Afghani citizens. According the Times, Abdul Ghafoor Afghani, the Taliban's chief of protocol, said, "They were trying to show a video about Jesus, from his birth to his, what is the word, I think it is crucifixion." What do you think about the phrase "what is the word"? Why is it included? If this were the French foreign minister speaking, the quote would not record the search for a word, nor do the "ums" of English speakers get recorded.

I can only think of two explanations. The one I like is that the reporter and editors are psychoanalysts-in-the-making: They take moments of pause to reveal something about the inner workings of the speaker's mind. Here in the microcosm we can see resistance of a Muslim at work: He has a mini-block before he can find the word "crucifixion." The other explanation is that the reporter wants to stress that he is an alien. And it makes me wonder whether we know how to cover disputes that arise from religious belief. Kierkegaard asked whether in all of Christendom there were any Christians: In part he meant that the radical nature of the Christian message had gotten lost in deadening social practices. Does it seem quaint to us that the Taliban should take the Christian message so seriously?

And today it is reported that Kathy Boudin was denied parole for her role in the murder of a security guard and two policemen. It seems to me that Boudin and Bob Kerrey are grotesque mirror images of the late '60s. They both have in common that they urgently wanted to do something noble, but they had no idea what nobility was. Both turned to authority figures for the answer. Kerrey turned to the military and the government, Boudin turned to the anti-military and the anti-government--and both were led to participate in the brutal killings of innocent people. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people--students, friends at cocktail parties--dismiss Socrates as a bore. "He was always looking for definitions, but why do we need them?" As though Socrates was a lexicographer. His point was that if we don't know what's noble and, more important, if we don't know that we don't know, it can easily become a life and death matter. And in our own case it might lead us to do something that, without our understanding it at the time, is utterly shameful.

Jonathan

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Jonathan Lear

Gary Condit, Religious Disputes, and the Wisdom of Socrates

Posted Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001, at 12:44 PM ET
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Jonathan Lear is a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His most recent book is Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life. Andrew Sullivan writes daily for andrewsullivan.com, writes the "TRB" column for the New Republic, and is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.
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