Revisiting the Re-Ethicist
This week the columnist known as the Ethicist, also known as Randy Cohen, does not respond to reader mail. (Perhaps it was a quiet week in the Ethicist's mailbox.)
Instead, he quotes
a letter written by Thomas Jefferson and ponders pleasantly about that for a while.
The quote is this: "Never suffer a thought to be harbored in your mind which you would not avow openly. When tempted to do anything in secret, ask yourself if you would do it in public. If you would not, be sure it is wrong. "
Possibly I have a dirty mind, but to me, that quote cries out for a little Freudian reading. As in: Well, how would you feel about avowing your lustful thoughts for a slave woman?
The Ethicist avoids this topic, however, as it is the 4th of July tomorrow and the Ethicist, unlike the Re-Ethicist, prefers not to make waves.
He does mention slavery, however--it would be awkward not to-- and writes, "Jefferson's inability always to heed his own advice makes him not hypocritical but human, and it does not gainsay the wisdom of that advice."
Wrong!Of course Jefferson's inability to heed his own advice makes him a hypocrite. And all the more human for it. After all, Jefferson's primary reason for not freeing his slaves was economic; he was a terrible businessman and constantly in need of money, and he simply couldn't afford to free his slaves and live in the style to which he was accustomed.
What we must take from Jefferson instead is the fact that, even if he was not always strong enough to do the right thing, he knew what the right thing was, and he wrote words that inspired generations to come to make better choices than he did. Jefferson is fascinating because he is so human. A hypocrite, yes. But surely we are all hypocrites about some thing or other; one can not dismiss a person's life and work because of hypocrisy. Jefferson's value comes from the fact that he helped to create the rhetoric and the idea of freedom for all people, and it is for these enduring accomplishments, rather than his personal failings, that we should remember him.
If you disagree, take a visit to the
Jefferson Memorial in Washington, something I try to do whenever I visit that city. The words on that monument leave me with a feeling of immense humility, and usually get me a little choked-up. In some lives, it is actions rather than words that matter most. In Jefferson's, it is the words that matter.
