{ Friday, March 31, 2006 }
This from an interview with Robert Caro, author of The Power Broker
You see this with lottery millionaires all the time. They ditch their wife of 35 years and spend their money flying back and forth to Vegas in a Learjet with 5 hookers, a tub of 40s and a bucket of cocaine til every penny is gone. Or Michael Jackson. Or Dennis Koslowski.
This was interesting: Caro described LBJ as a pragmatist, a realist who also managed to remain an idealist. I didn't know that he had voted against civil rights again and again. He voted against it for over 20 years, because the group holding the most power in the Senate were the Southerners, and he had to ally himself with them to accrue power to himself. Then the first thing he did once he was in office was pass a civil rights bill.
LINK | 12:59 AM | TB
"You see this with lottery millionaires all the time. They ditch their wife of 35 years and spend their money flying back and forth to Vegas in a Learjet with 5 hookers"
Whoa. That's kind of negative, isn't it? In the context of the rest of your post (power reveals) this sentence makes it sound as if you are suggesting that people will always act in selfish ways if they are allowed to. But it sounds like Robert Caro was trying to make the opposite point: sometimes people do good when they get enough power. Power (and money) don't necessarily corrupt, they simply reveal. Yes?
Lawrence Krubner | March 31, 2006 2:53 PM- Caro admits he is obsessed with power earlier in this interview.
- Yes what you quote is negative, but it is in support of Caro's proposition that power reveals, not that Power corrupts, just some negative examples. I totally agree: power can be used for good. Oprah is an example of that. She gets a lot of flak, but she has done a lot to get people to give their time and money to people who have less than they do.
- Robin: that passage is amazing. Thanks for posting it.
Caterina | March 31, 2006 3:46 PMThe group of Dems that held power in the South and that had to be appeased were known as "the Solid South". The southern states elected Democrats exclusively for 100 years after the Civil War, as southerners blamed Republicans for the destruction of the South.
No President could ignore their power, not even JFK, who had to exclude Sammy Davis Jr. from his inauguration party because it would offend southern senators.
Andrew | April 1, 2006 4:57 AM{ Post a comment }
Caro is a brilliant writer. I love the details in his work. ( R.Moses ) Yet I think that he gets things confused. Part groupie, he loves the people 's power that he writes about, he is probably too ashamed to admit it; yet he goes on until he reaches his breaking point, and then finds everything under the sun to destroy them.
Strodl | March 31, 2006 6:10 AMHe is playing on our voyagerisium. I have heard it said, that it is all too easy to point fingers and criticize the inventor, yet try doing it yourself!!
Better yet, look in the mirror, see if you could stand up to that acid test ?
I detest critic’s whom only review, never design a single blessid thing.