Phelps, Bale, Acton — and D.C.

by Steve Pauwels/Londonderry, NH

Lord Acton, meet Michael Phelps. Or, perhaps, Christian Bale?           

We’re reminded recently of the 19th-century British commentator’s shop-worn — but ever useful — bromide about power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely. Seems like that warning would well-serve both the above-mentioned twenty-three year old swimming phenom and the cinematic, Dark Night superstar.

Phelps, having collected his historic eight gold medals at Summer Olympics ’08, has gone on to very publicly demonstrate use for H2O besides the 200 m freestyle: several weeks ago a British paper published a last November photo of a partying Phelps, his snout wedged in a marijuana water-pipe.

 Around the same time, TMZ’s website released equally unflattering audiotape of volcanic actor Bale leveling an interminable, profanity-addled tirade at a cinematographer. The crew member’s offense? Distracting Bale during a filmshoot from the soon-to-be-released Terminator Salvation.

So, Phelps, apparently dizzied by sudden fame and bankability, not only acted moronically, but did so with maximum visibility. He’s “a kid trying to grow up in the most intense spotlight known to any athlete”, concurred freestyler silver-medalist Dara Torres. Indisputably one of the most recognized Homo sapiens on our planet, Phelps partook of an illegal substance in a crowded, doubtless cell-phone-camera-heavy setting. What was the newly rich-n-famous Olympian thinking? Simple answer: he wasn’t.

Ditto for “Batman” Bale. The rampaging Welshman evidently wasn’t aware a less prickly, more appreciative attitude would, career-wise, better serve him — recall that, until landing the monumental Caped Crusader gig a few years ago, Bale was firmly stationed, at best, in Tinsel Town’s mid-level ranks.

Abraham Lincoln might have been reflecting on this pair, and seconding Lord Acton, when he suggested, “If you want to see a man’s character, give him power” — celebrity power obviously not excluded.

Thumbs-up to both malefactors for promptly apologizing when their misbehavior became global water-cooler chat. Nonetheless, Phelps/Bale remain painful illustrations of that cautionary, Actonian epigram. True, the damage these headliners can wreak via sloppy stewardship of mere stardom is comparatively limited — but it’s still power abused.

More vexing, however, is the clout shoddily, even corrosively, wielded by the big-shots who craft our laws, determine our tax rates, and decide the quality of our national security. Tax-cheats nominated to federal postings? Legislators leveraging office perks to fatten their nests and favor folks back home? Word games played to cloak government’s irresponsible spending or double-standards? It appears Washington, DC also needs fresh reacquainting with Acton’s timeless admonition.

A rascal promoted to prominence remains a rascal; which is why voters would be well-advised to install only men/women of proven integrity into society’s most influential berths. American founder Samuel Adams advised, “The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.” A century later, historian Philip Schaff designated “Republican institutions … in the hands of a corrupt and irreligious people … the very worst and the most effective weapons of destruction.”

 It is recorded when George III was informed his adversary General George Washington would voluntarily return to civilian life upon victorious conclusion of America’s Revolution, the English monarch declaimed, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.” Likely, an accurate evaluation because, selflessly honorable before power was bestowed upon him, “the Father of Our Country” remained thus afterwards.

Great leaders come from great men – precisely the kind demanded by the crises presently rattling the whole world, those who can be trusted to settle on right decisions even if they are difficult ones. Courageous, self-sacrificing, often solitary figures, they deplore pandering, understanding reflexively that keeping the populace happy is not power’s highest mandate. Instead, they ceaselessly ply their situation to reinforce principles of proper living and a healthy society. Sports/entertainment icons who conduct themselves churlishly oughtn’t serve as cultural lodestars. Nor government officials who hawk what serves their long-term ambitions at the expense of long-term national well-being.

War-hero Washington, as all know, moved on to his indispensable role as President Washington. His successor in that office, John Adams, once wrote, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

So, when is the time to discover our leaders’ agreement, or disagreement, with those convictions? To unearth our consequential persons’ intrinsic greatness, or lack of same? Before they become consequential, that is, before we plant them behind the levers of power. A spoiled celebrity modeling boorish behavior is undesirable enough, barely tolerable. An unprincipled Washington potentate venally dispensing rules for our lives is exponentially worse. Both reach and remain at their station because, disregarding Lord Acton’s insights, we put up with them.