So what do you think? Will Tiger’s adultery cost him anything more than a brief period of shame and embarrassment, and a few million bucks if his wife decides to divorce him? Will he be any less adored as a celebrity? Any less feted for his athletic greatness? Will any of his endorsements be cancelled?
I suppose we were overdue for some famous person to be outed for an indiscretion. They’ve been coming ’round like clock work of late. So much so that the nation gasps, wags its collective head, than moves on to the next thing. Celebrity indiscretions seem to go with the turf. After all, when everyone is telling you you’re larger than life, why shouldn’t you act like it? And if our celebrity heroes can get away with larger-than-lifeness, why not the rest of us, too?
Tiger Woods’ fall into “transgressions” (his word) is sad. It’s also pathetic, pathetic for what it says about the state of our national morality. Live and let live has become the order of the day. We’ll get over it. Tiger’s wife and kid will get over it. The students in his special school will get over it. His fans will get over it.
And that’s just the problem. The nation keeps “getting over” these moral outrages, and the only thing we learn is that, while there may be some momentary awkwardness associated with being found out, sooner or later, they’ll get over it.
And we’ll keep getting over it until adultery – or lying, embezzlement, fraud, or whatever – becomes the “new morality”, just like fornication, recreational drug use, and abortion. Hopefully, though, Congress will pass a law to make sure that no federal funding goes to support adulterers.
T. M. Moore
