Fair

The controversy surrounding the case of Anthony Wiener points out an interesting characteristic of our human nature in that we tend to judge a person’s behavior on the bases of how much we like them. Moral, ethical and legal activities take a back seat to personality. Wiener who sent naked pictures of himself to young women is being asked to resign even though there is precedent to the contrary in the case of former President Clinton. Wiener sent the pictures to several different women on his Face Book site and then when questioned about it proceeded to lie to the public numerous times over a ten day period before finally admitting to the deed. Now fortunately for most of us lying is not a crime. President Clinton, on the other hand, had sexual relations with a young woman, who was working in the White House while he was president. He then said on national television that he did not have sexual relations but it was later proven that she performed oral sex on him. This led to the ridiculous conclusion, that she was having sex with him but he was not having sex with her. He then compounded the problem by saying under oath that he did not have sex with her. Now lying under oath constitutes a crime.
The reason given that Wiener is being treated more harshly than Clinton, is that people generally do not like Wiener but they do like Clinton. This brings me back to the point of human nature. We tend to make allowances for people we like and it goes even further in that people who look presentable tend to get a better reception. Many studies have shown that men who are tall and women who are attractive are looked upon in a favorable manner. Just another example of the many ways that life is not fair. When a child is treated unfairly and dad tried to console him by telling him that life is not fair, he is just getting the child prepared to face the world as it is. When legislators run around passing laws to make life fair they are going up against human nature and more times than not it doesn’t work. How many times have you heard the phrase, “you can’t legislate morality”.