ride goeth before destruction.  What a powerful remark.  Proverbs 16:18.  To be sure, the remark comes from a book that many now consider to be outdated.  But it reflects a most profound truth.  No matter how good we are and no matter talented we have, modesty should have a place in our lives.  In particular, we should never suppose that we are above the very laws that we are engaged in enforcing—especially when we are enforcing those laws in a most public and righteous manner. 

I have, of course, alluded to the fact that Governor Eliot Spitzer, who was involved in an escort service called Emperors' Club VIP.  To many individuals, Spitzer was the very epitome of an upright attorney—someone who drew a hard line in the sand between right and wrong behavior.  I have little interest in talking about the specifics of the Spitzer scandal.  What intrigues me is the horrible moral shadow that he is casting.

As I have just noted, no one came across more righteous in terms of enforcing a certain level of public morality than Spitzer.  And when I reflect upon that truth I ask myself over and over again the following question: Who among us can hope to have the confidence of others that she or he is a truly upright person. 

The damage that Spitzer has done in the public sphere lies in the fact that he has further tainted the moral-political climate, making it yet that much more reasonable for a person to be suspicious of another’s public presentation as an upright person.  And this much is unequivocally clear to me: There is a direct correlation between an intolerable society in which to live and one in which we believe that decent people do not exist or, in any case, are few and far between.  From walking down the street to making a purchase, life becomes absolutely intolerable if we cannot assume moral decency on the part of strangers. 

Sustained moral decency requires among other things that persons are capable of exercising considerable self-command and foresight.  Exercising foresight is in fact a form of self-command; for one stops, as it were, and gives thought to how things are apt to play themselves out. 

I am no criminal.  But I am thoughtful enough to see two things: One is that nowadays it is way too easy to leave an electronic trail regarding what we have done.  The other is that when we are engaged in inappropriate behavior with people there is a possibility that they might turn on us for reasons that we think have next to no probability of coming about. 

Spitzer, as it happens, is a victim of the latter: A worker for Emperors' Club VIP became disgruntled.  But he also left a considerable electronic trail using a cell phone and withdrawing the needed money from his bank account. 

How could he not have thought that these things would not be a problem for him?  Recall the passage with which I began this essay: Pride goeth before destruction. 

Foresight and self-command does not require that we be saints, and so have absolutely pure hearts.  Rather, foresight and self-command require simply that we recognize the ways in which things can go wrong (foresight) and that we have the will-power to resist taking the course of action in question given that the ways things can go wrong are evident enough (foresight). 

Pride is an impediment to our exercising foresight and self-command.  More than anything, Spitzer is a victim of none other than his own pride. 

I think that we are social beings and this means that to a considerable extent our powers of self-command and foresight are influenced by the moral climate of the society in which we live.  There are exceptions, to be sure.  However, the exceptions are few and between.  And my worry is that increasingly it is becoming reasonable to spurn even those who are righteous.  The principle here is “Better Safe than Sorry”. 

Trust is becoming unreasonable.  And when an ever so visible and vocal person, such as Spitzer, flounders so mightily, we have an overflow of damage.  There is, of course, the damage to his personal relationship.  And that would seem rather irreparable.  In terms of the public trust, though, another major pillar in the wall of trust has been destroyed.  And that is a very bad thing for society. 

Spitzer claimed that politics is not personal.  Alas, he got that unequivocally wrong.  For no matter how personal and private he would like his wrongdoing to be, a point that holds to some extent: There is the simple and inescapable truth that Eliot Spitzer’s wrongful behavior has unavoidable symbolic significance. 

The lesson that we should all learn from the Spitzer scandal is that indeed modesty is a virtue.