Originally posted November 13th, 2011
By Michael Konik
The tragic hero, Sophocles taught us, is an otherwise great man (a warrior, a king) with a flaw that makes him perilously human, which is to say imperfect and prone to terrible mistakes that may or may not involve the family matriarch. Thanks to the magic of theatrical drama, we who witness the tragic hero’s downfall understand that he is us and we are him. The dread and disgust we experience at his failures provide a kind of cleansing (catharsis), and, the Greek playwrights hoped, a kind of wisdom.
“Learn from the mistakes of others” is the lesson. But it’s one that’s easier to talk about than master. Instead, we constantly repeat the mistakes of other — and then find new tragic heroes to feel bad about, whether or not they’re tragic or a hero.
Our latest protagonist is Joe Paterno, 84, the lifelong Penn State football . . . → Read More: Sophocles in Happy Valley
Originally posted October 9th, 2011
By Michael Konik
The People are occupying Wall Street, or at least some of the space around it. Barack Obama and Department of Justice head Eric Holder are cracking down on state-sanctioned medical marijuana with more aggression and harm than their predeccessors, those renowned drug softies George W. Bush and John Ashcroft. And although it’s more than a year in the future, everyone is acutely aware that there’s an election, a big one, that could be the fulcrum for a second Civil War…of words, and possibly more if the wrong people get power-mad at the wrong time.
In step with global climate change, primaries seem to be happening earlier each year, like great warbler migrations and cherry blossom blooms. Alreadty it’s politicking season again, and as surely as benumbed voters will eventually learn that some (and possibly all) of the candidates running for every office in the land have committed some act of malfeasance, . . . → Read More: What Does the Code Phrase “Family Values” Really Mean?
Originally posted December 11th, 2010
By Michael Konik
Rousing public sympathy for bottle-nose dolphins is easy, and it might get your documentary film lots of awards. Saving whales, polar bears, pandas, snow leopards, wolves, tigers, rhinoceroses, and imprisoned industrial fowl will get you sympathy, money, media coverage, and maybe even a little pot-stirring controversy. Championing a cause that involves something that isn’t capable of defending itself has a high rate of charitable success.
Yet when it comes to vulnerable people, our brothers and sisters in far-off places and right down the street, we’re not much interested. Raising the public consciousness, mobilizing the politicians, and getting results on behalf of millions of starving North Koreans, brutalized Sudanese, and tortured Congolese is never easy. Indeed, based on our official policies of “do nothing until our oil is in jeopardy,” we’re content to let tens of millions of human beings suffer unimaginable hardships nearly as horrifying as the . . . → Read More: Are Human Beings Worth Fighting For?
Originally posted October 27th, 2005
By Michael Konik
The chief goal of almost all elected officials, clergymen, CEOs, talent agents, executive vice-presidents, district managers, assistant managers, and onward down the chain of command, is to lord power over others. One can detect a quasi-sexual glee in the ministrations and machinations of those who can affect the lives of others. To the power-holder, the ability to say “no” is an aphrodisiac.
My prayer is that the lords of power might discover the transcendent joy in saying “yes.” When one has acquired power, whether through diligence, obsequiousness, or good old fashioned Machiavellian underhandedness, the urge, it seems, is to wield it cruelly. How liberating, how wondrous, to use that power to help people who need you. Not only does the world suddenly seem a nicer and more hopeful place, generosity of spirit, according to our sacred texts, is what God wants of us. This essential imperative has been perverted by . . . → Read More: The Lords of Power
In a world that increasingly seems to lack absolute values, where right and wrong have constantly shifting shades of meaning interpreted by courts, church pulpits, and the vicissitudes of public whim, “doing the right thing” can be problematic. How can anyone be sure he’s acting righteously if the notion of righteousness is constantly in flux? Einstein’s special theory of relativity covers some of these ideas, but only insofar as how to measure the speed of light, and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle suggests that by injecting oneself into the proceedings making a definitive judgment is difficult, if not impossible. So what’s a guy to do?
The answer for most people, it seems from casual observation, is to throw up hands, shrug shoulders, and honor the easier moral rubric, that of self-gratification and expediency. Faced with dynamic code-of-conduct guidelines, following the path of least resistance is far easier — and usually more rewarding . . . → Read More: Doing the Right Thing
Originally posted July 29th, 2004
By Michael Konik
Back when they used to write songs the way they no longer do today, the composer Johnny Richards penned these words: “Fairy tales can come true/ It can happen to you/ If you’re young at heart” and the penultimate stanza, “If you should survive/To a hundred-and-five/Think of all you’ve derived/ Out of being alive.”
In his 90s and still performing in Las Vegas, George Burns liked to sing “Young at Heart” between cigars. Retirement communities have co-opted the tune to suggest there’s joviality on site, not just 24-hour medical attention. And more than a few septuagenarians I know quote freely from the song to illustrate that the wrinkles around their faces do not paint an accurate portrait of the soul that resides out of sight.
It’s a lovely concept. Unfortunately, so much of being an adult requires sublimating the youthful impulses and crazy dreams we once harbored. We have children . . . → Read More: Young at Heart
Originally posted June 17th, 2004
By Michael Konik
The other day I received an email from an address I didn’t recognize. The subject line said “Children Porn.” I considered forwarding it to the FBI, but that would have required opening it, which I didn’t want to do. In today’s political climate, I imagined all sorts of horrible scenarios involving illicit materials found on my hard drive and newspaper stories quoting neighbors saying “he seemed so normal.”
Even if you believe that the age of consent ought to be lowered to something that more accurately reflects the increasingly adult and sexualized outlook our teenagers seem to have, it’s difficult to imagine anyone but the most principled pedophile arguing for the legalization of child pornography. This kind of material confirms our worst misgivings about the abuse of power and the exploitation of the defenseless. It exemplifies some of our most troubling human impulses. The people who produce child pornography are . . . → Read More: Looking at Child Porn
Originally posted December 11th, 2003
By Michael Konik
My barber was incredulous. “Do you believe it, Mikey?” he said, gesticulating with scissors alarmingly close to my ear. “Only three more weeks and this year is over. I can’t understand how this year went by so fast. It seems like we celebrated New Year’s just yesterday.”
Franco is in his late-forties. His eldest daughter is going to college next year. He’s losing his hair and his youthful good looks. His days are accelerating.
For all of us they are. It’s a universal phenomenon, it seems: The older you get, the faster life seems to race away. If there’s a scientific explanation for this, I don’t know what it is. (Something having to do with string-theory and quantum physics, perhaps.) I do know, however, that the older we get, the more acutely we’re aware of mortality, of the impending end. We see death more frequently as we get closer to . . . → Read More: It’s Almost Over
Originally posted October 28th, 2003
By Michael Konik
Those who support a woman’s right to choose to abort an unborn fetus have a number of stirring arguments to support their position. The most compelling (and most frequently proffered) rationale goes something like this: “A woman should have the right to do with her body what she wishes. She is the master of herself — not patriarchal society, not fundamentalist Christians, not the federal government. Choice should rest with the individual woman, not with the external apparatuses that seek to control her.”
Why then, I wonder, don’t pro-choice advocates feel similarly about legalizing prostitution? Surely if a woman may choose to terminate an inchoate human life she should be permitted to accept money in exchange for sex. It is her body, after all. And, as the argument goes, “A woman should have the right to do with her body what she wishes.”
Originally posted October 28th, 2003
By Michael Konik
Those who support a woman’s right to choose to abort an unborn fetus have a number of stirring arguments to support their position. The most compelling û and most frequently proffered û rationale goes something like this: “A woman should have the right to do with her body what she wishes. She is the master of herself û not patriarchal society, not fundamentalist Christians, not the federal government. Choice should rest with the individual woman, not with the external apparatuses that seek to control her.”
Why then, I wonder, do so many pro-choice advocates not feel similarly about legalizing prostitution? Surely if a woman may choose to terminate an inchoate human life she should be permitted to accept money in exchange for sex. It is her body, after all. And, as the argument goes, “A woman should have the right to do with her body what she wishes.”
We're really sorry about our most recent trading loss. People will say we require more oversight, and, in this case, maybe they're right. It shouldn't have happened, and we'll take steps to make sure it doesn't happen for a third time.
The $4,000 or so ($4,882) of your money that we failed to bring back from our annual company trip to Hollywood Park Racetrack and Casino will in... Read More-->
If you’re reading this essay on MichaelKonik.com, you know that this is a reliable place to find “me,” the me who shares his ideas with the world, whether or not any part of the world is interested. This is where I unilaterally invade my privacy, allowing strangers...
North Korea is launching rockets, Syria is slaughtering its citizens, and the Filipino community is organizing a massive get-out-the-vote campaign for a crucial election (not for something boring and unimportant like a public office but a cause that’s got folks passionately engaged: the American Idol finals). So...
Sometimes our chaotic, unknowable, seemingly random Universe arranges itself with perfect symmetry. In these moments of bracing clarity, authored by a Creator (in whatever guise or nomenclature you prefer) whose sense of irony is matched only by her/his/its sense of wicked humor, our innate foolishness and learned...
Poet Robert Pinsky. Pianist Laurence Hobgood. Text, music, and the moment -- what we hear on the new POEMJAZZ recording is two giant artists making something greater than the sum of its parts. While Pinsky recites his lovely words with his unlovely (but weirdly attractive) voice, Hobgood, the longtime arranger and accompanist [...]
