The New Colosseum: The Internet

So John and Elizabeth Edwards have become the latest sacrifices to the new Colosseum: the Internet. Thumbs down to John's for his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter! Then the mob turned to Elizabeth. This sad situation may have actually happened to her, but she doesn't have the right to decide how to handle it herself. Thumbs down for Elizabeth! The mob has no respect for her decisions about her own private life. The blogosphere will support or condemn her, according to the dictates of its own mob-heated blood lust.

Yes, I know he was a candidate. But he's not now. Various people have written, oh, but if he was the nominee and this had happened. Well, it's done. He's another politician who got caught with his pants down. What's new about that? If they don't all do it, then most do.

I'm not the first to ask why we're spending all this time looking into Edwards' affair when John McCain got a media pass about his lobbyist friend. Was there fire with that smoke? He is a candidate -- and already has a history. If we care about Edwards who's not even in the race, then we ought to care about McCain. If we care.

I don't care that Edwards had an affair or that he lied about it. I think he might've seen the potential explosion if he was found out, but hey. Would I have expected him to tell his entire staff etc. about it? Are you nuts? The point of an affair is not to get caught. Otherwise, you divorce. Yes, I gave him an insignificant amount of money -- and I'm still happy about that. I feel compassion for the Edwards family -- including John -- even if he deserved to have his face slapped. He's a good man who made a mistake. Good for Elizabeth for sending him to the interview by himself.

Rielle Hunter? She made her own choices. She's a big girl.

Meanwhile, we might as well just line the Edwards up with thousands of wild animals and men - -both armed and unarmed -- that were wiped out in this greatest of civilization's most remarkable amphitheatre still standing in Rome. The reason? Watching men and exotic beasts run for their lives, being tortured, and killed with quite elaborate backdrops and sometimes theatrical stories was the ultimate entertainment:

Romans could have free spectacles; it was a right of the citizens to join banquets offered by the rich and famous, and to enjoy shows in the circus or the amphitheatre. The games were offered by the emperor and the nobility to get social consensus. Panem et circenses were given to the public so as to distract their attention from more important matters.

(Did you get that? To distract their attention from more important matters. And this didn't even come from the Rove-inspired McCain campaign.)

The Colosseum was constructed in the literal and symbolical heart of Rome, just as the Internet now provides the veins of a global world. Where do we choose to place our attention?

Special boxes were provided at the north and south ends respectively for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins, providing the best views of the arena. Flanking them at the same level was a broad platform or podium for the senatorial class, who were allowed to bring their own chairs.

There is some question as to whether Christians actually were among the many massacred in the Colosseum, but according to this source:

...the most popular fights of all were combats between the powerful gladiators. When the Christians refused to sacrifice to the emperor and worship his false gods, they were accused of treason and thrown into the arena to combat wild beasts. When one member of a family was accused the whole family would be thrown into the lions den, small children included.

Should we just throw the whole Edwards family to the lions, or is that too much? Thumbs up, or thumb down?

Beth Arnold lives and writes in Paris. To see more of her work, go to www.betharnold.com.

 

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Comments

[ceti]

09:54 PM on 08/12/2008

The collosseum analogy is apt, as is the Decline and Fall of the American Empire. The Edwards' case is a textbook example of what exactly the internet is turning out to be (or at least the comment boards of every major media outlet) - an egalitarian savage commentarium for both the high and low to engage with the sensationalist corporate media and for trolls to express their most basest prejudices and hatreds. In this way the crowds feel a part of the spectacle and feel empowered by their ability to heap abuse on public personalities, but it is a spectacle as old as Rome. Like the gladiators, dissidents, or prisoners of wars thrown to the lions, these modern day sacrifices serve an important purpose in giving a false sensation of power to the otherwise powerless, who as citizens lose more and more power every day. This is the same for the magazines at the grocery store that make and break celebrities, as we fiddle while the whole Earth burns.

[gelfling545]

07:28 PM on 08/12/2008

I would like to note two things which John Edwards has not done:

1. He did not divorce his sick wife for another women

2. He did not propose to make his former paramour first lady, unlike a certain republican presidential candidate.

[freda]

07:22 AM on 08/12/2008

Sad to say it is not done. It now looks like there might be a criminal investigation which doesn't bode well for the Dems. Can you believe anything that comes out of their mouths? Now undecideds will see Obama in a different light because of Edwards.

[PennP]

02:48 AM on 08/12/2008

Curious scandal, where the most extreme rhetoric is found in the reactions to the reactions.

[Hufferton]

12:36 AM on 08/12/2008

Very good article, nice analogy: 1 Thumb Up!

John and Elizabeth Edwards: 2 Thumbs Down!!

[tahoeprogressive]

01:01 PM on 08/12/2008

Good article. Why do we have to jump all over the Edwards family. John admitted to making a mistake. It's up to Elizabeth alone to decide how she will live her life from now forward. Obviously she puts family first. Let's give them space and time to heal the wounds. I gave money to the Edwards campaign because I agreed with the message, not because I worshiped the messanger.

[Hufferton]

02:21 PM on 08/12/2008

Understood. Others and you are just more compassionate than I am when weighing all the facts and the consequences.

[nobillary1]

10:54 PM on 08/11/2008

It's not the Dems. It's The Media. They couldn't let the Edwards story go after the first few announcements. They had to pile on more heartache for his wife and children by rehashing it over and over and over again, for days and days and days and they're probably STILL not done. That family has a heap of healing to do, why can't the media let the poor family get on with their lives and let them be?

To The Media, I say: THUMBS DOWN!

[BehindTheScenes]

06:34 PM on 08/11/2008

Of all the pieces I've seen on the Edwards' affair, this is the best. Thank you, Ms Arnold! When I read the large number of comments posted on Huff Post and elsewhere that display an obscene blood lust over John's indiscretion, I'm dumbfounded. Your analogy to the Roman coliseum is perfect. Has no one made a mistake? Has no one ever tried desperately to protect their family and themselves from the results of their own bad judgment? There's such a self-righteousness - almost a moral delight - in these condemnations over this affair, even from progressives. And to see Elizabeth Edwards condemned as a mealy-mouthed enabler or as an ambitious political wife who cares about nothing but fame is beyond belief. How does anyone here know what has gone into her decisions? This jump to conclusions, and assuming the worst, and being delighted that we are thereby so superior, is the real obscenity here. Yes, it was a serious indiscretion with serious consequences. That's news. But forget the moral indignation as if such a mistake is the greatest of sins, too great for forgiveness. And please let Elizabeth Edwards make her own decision, which is going to affect her, her children, the life she had tried to build with John over many years, the lives of connected families and friends. How dare others condemn her for not following the formula they think fits all cases of spousal infidelity!

[Luigi53102]

06:11 PM on 08/11/2008

Hey, Beth - Does living in Paris make you smarter, or does it just seem that way?

You have nicely touched on the Dem's penchant for lining up the circular firing squad when one of their own falls short of perfection.