Kennedy family history is subject of a PBS show. I learned a few things from the program. It turns out the father of the clan is a successful and powerful business man that made his fortune from illegal alcohol during the prohibition period.
There program does not explain why the Fed is not getting him for this activity. The IRS also spares him too. The answer is very simple. Money means power in the real world. He would spend money on politicians of all stripes and this protects him from all the hassles stemming from any government agencies.
He has an eldest son who also happens to have the same name as the father Joseph Kennedy. He is the favorite son of the father. The father has an ambition to be the president of USA. He was the supporter of FDR. He was appointed as US ambassador to UK as a reward of his political support of FDR. However, he is an isolationist and refuses to let US involves in the war among nations of Europe at the beginning of WWII.
However, this runs contradict with the policy of expansion of US by FDR and he soon was falling out of favor in the political arena. When US joins the fight against Germany, his sons join the military as a patriotic act. The eldest son was a bomber pilot. He was a volunteer of a danger bombing mission and his airplane loaded with bombs blew up mid air over Atlantic.
Jack Kennedy was the second son in the family. He is a physical unfit for any military duty because of his health problem on the back. He was born with a deformity on his legs. He has uneven set of legs, one leg was longer than the other and this causes him severe back pain and in bad health all the time. He has to rely on pain killer to control the pain.
There is another member of the family who was diagnostic as retard. She was later undergoing a lobotomy and ended up confined to sanitarium the rest of her life. These are not known to me before.
The flamboyant life style of the family, partying with many celebrities and local politicians makes them the subject of much envy. This is totally different from the other political families with similar background.
The psychology of Robert Kennedy is also well documented. The political infighting of him with LBJ is well known. But I would not spend all night to view the documentary on two occasions. The rest of the family political involvement is partially history and partially ongoing.
The documentary proves the point that one’s past is does not matter in politic and how one uses one’s wealth is critical. This reminds me the pardon of Bill Clinton to another business man John Rich. Money could buy so many exception treatments.
Politic and morality are anathema to each other. This is reality. The church of the Dark Age likes to advocate morality as a way to give its legitimacy to govern. The current debate of using torture, military violence on the name of national security and the repudiation of torture and using noble idealism such as human right and justice as the standard of behavior reminds me the fact that morality is simply secondary in the eye of the politicians.
Obama is a realist as Bill Clinton. They are not much different. It strikes some people that there is little different between the W Bush foreign policy toward Afghanistan and Iraq and Obama’s. Some would claim that the recent brouhaha between Dick Cheney and Barack Obama really makes not much difference. It is only a matter of degree and there is no fundamental difference.
Morality has no place in the real world of polity. This is why the spin doctors working for a regime would like to come up with new slogan for their policy. They would not use the term morality in general. They would divert the attention of public into a very narrow define goal as a way to substitute the boarder meaning of a term. Redefining the meaning of term is part of the job of political reality.
This is another way to set the agenda and the way to control the mindset of the public. This is why there are so many culture critics put out books on distortion of meaning of words. “Say what your mean and means what you say” is the most familiar slogan of these critics. They are sometime disguised as a linguist talk. They are political in nature.
History of Bruce Lee is put on TV again. This is a revision of the role of Bruce Lee philosophy and its impact till today in pop culture and business. This is a reminder of what reality can do to an iconoclast. The political interest is too powerful to let these revolutionary to rock the boat and turning everything on its head. Powerful families are not exception.
Bruce Lee is a revolutionary that set himself apart from the rest of the tradition of martial art that has origin 4000 years ago from India. He is creating his niche in this field and modernizing the field with new thinking and practice.
Movie, music and games are still under the influence of Lee legacy. If he is still alive, would he be as beloved as he is today? Would he be another cult leader? Or would he become hated figure like Microsoft’s Bill Gate?
One family against the power of many families also very influential is bound to turn into fiasco. Kennedy is one good example. And this is why Obama refuses to play to role of a revolutionary. If he wants to stay in power and holds on to the Oval office for another term.
No Comments Yet
No comments yet.
