David Seaton's News LinksJust a note on this incident. People are treating it like a joke, but my instinct tells me that it something significant. It is a very weird and revealing detail of a very powerful, influential person.
The fact that both socks have identical holes is strange. Socks have to worn very hard for that to happen. Holes this size don't appear suddenly: when he put them on that morning, he was aware of holes. Practical questions arise: does he ever change his socks? Does he wash his feet regularly?
I don't want to get into psychobabble, but is seems to me there is something perverse, perhaps hostile, about this behavior in someone this important. If any clinical psychologist is reading this, I would very much welcome a professional take on the Wolfowitz socks mystery. DS
6 comments:
It means aristocrat. My mother used to joke that my father was so cheap that he wore ragged underwear and she would buy some for him and sneak it into his drawer. It wasn't cheapness. "Gentlemen" don't buy their own socks or underwear, it being a dull mundane distasteful task that is beneath them. Someone else -- a wife or servant -- will do it for him or in Wolfowitz' case, it didn't get done. Gentlemen also don't take off their shoes in public, so there is usually no risk of showing your toes.
So he's in charge of a bank that loans money to people gentlemen usually don't associate with. It's not much wonder that he is advocating restricting lending.
Nice comment, but no cigar. We know from the saliva comb job in Michael Moore's film that Wolfie is a bit of slob and I think if you look at his background, (Polish/Jewish), it is anything but "toffee". If he was from an old New York, German-Jewish banking family (Warburg/Goldman/Sachs variety), maybe I could buy your theory.
"Gentlemen don't take off their shoes in public". Gentlemen *do* take off their shoes in mosques and I'm sure that the visit to the Turkish mosque was not some improvised, "hey y'wanna visit a mosque?", but part of the official protocol. In other words he knew he would be visiting a house of worship of an important ally and that removing his shoes was part of the program.... Like I say, I'm not sure how to interpret it, but I know there is something important here.
Maybe it's not so deep: He is separated from his wife (since 2001), who would have normally taken care of specifics like these when living with him. A mistress, expecially the type Wolfowitz has, doesn't take care of trifles such as socks... besides, she is too busy convincing him to "democratize" the Middle East.
Yeah, but I've got this idea that piggishness and slovenliness are statements of rebellion or hostility or selfishness, at least a kind of perverse narcissism. I was kinda hoping that some psychiatrist would weigh in with "anal-recessive" and so forth. Juicy Freudian stuff.
The guy prides himself on his knowledge of the Middle East. He should have known that he'd have to take his shoes off to go into a mosque. But then, his knowledge of Iraq had a lot of holes in it too. Didn't bother him then, doesn't bother him now!
wonder what his pockets are like....
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