Prostitutes, Politicians and Dirty Money

We all start off in life with a naivety, an innocence that is precious and almost sacred. It’s a consequence of life that we lose that blissful ignorance of the world that we live in throughout our lives until one day it vanishes completely and we realise what depths of greed, selfishness and deceit some people who consider themselves human beings will stoop to.

Most people only glimpse the extremes of humanity that I’m talking about. If you’re one of those people then be happy in the knowledge that you’ll never know the heartache that can come from the dark abyss that exists in some people’s minds.

Take for example prostitution. I am one of those people who watched “Pretty Woman” and found it to be an enjoyable film. Julia Roberts played the lead role well enough and Richard Geer made the ladies swoon with his limited but perfectly suited acting abilities. The problem is that once you’ve actually experienced life (and I only think I really tasted life’s rich flavour after seeing the film) can you truly despise the film for what it is. A fiction verging on the criminally misleading.

Prostitution is not the doorway to a life of luxury where the next punter through the door is a suave millionaire ready to accept the ridicule of his peers and marry the hooker he hired for a night (or hour of executive relief). There’s a gap in reality here, a discrepancy between the cold stark truth about what prostitution really means to most of those people involved in it and the image that is often associated with it.

Prostitution doesn’t have to involve opening your legs though. It can simply be the sacrifice of the truth for financial gain. If you are hungry enough, avaricious enough, it is possible to discard reality and construct your own. The motivation for this is never pleasure, or love or friendship, or philanthropy.

It’s the purest of motives.

Money.

Politics can be the same. I say can because some politicians actually believe in what they espouse. In fact to a greater or lesser extent most of them do. You only get into politics for two reasons, principles and power. Sex and power go hand in hand so maybe “scandals” like the latest in the US surrounding Eliot Spitzer are not so surprising.

I’ve seen a lot of nasty behaviour in my life, but if you’re interested, the exact moment that I saw how low a human being can stoop for money it was 12:05 GMT on Saturday 17 March 2008.

It wasn’t glamorous, it wasn’t pretty and it changed my life forever.

Tags: Eliot Spitzer