Sir, - The current furore in the world's press over the Clinton affair(s) is becoming quite farcical. What the President did - and the butler didn't see, but the Starr report has made common knowledge - was disgraceful, especially as it was such a public and sleazy betrayal of his wife, his daughter and his family.
But is his behaviour to be wondered at in the moral climate that obtains, not alone in the United States, but everywhere today, when, whatever one does, however hurtful or shocking, is simply "one's own business" that impinges on no one else?
Sex is big business worldwide. It sells like hot cakes. It is the greatest money spinner in broadcasting, in films, shows, books, magazines, plays, etc. Nothing is sacred any more. Marital fidelity has become something old-fashioned, to be sneered at, as i the gossip columns in magazines and newspapers, even in one of our own Sunday publications, where so many exes have become "an item" with other exes - Beautiful People all, to be envied and admired. How confusing this must be for young people who look to grown-ups for leadership and guidance!
Mores have become coarsened and cheapened, even in conversation. One frequently hears successful writers pepper their language at public readings with the now indispensable "p----d" and "f-----g" and "s---e" that are greeted by loud, if sometimes nervous guffaws.
There is no doubt that, as in the Clinton debacle, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and acts as the most potent aphrodisiac, and to hell with whatever pain, hurt and humiliation are caused as a consequence.
But one wonders too how whiter-than-white are the morals of those who are loudest in their condemnation. There is indeed something rotten in society. - Yours, etc., Vera Hughes,
Moate,
Co. Westmeath.