Legacies

"Barack Obama only acts with regard to his legacy. He doesn't act morally."

Naomi Klein said this today, on Democracy Now, and I've heard it elsewhere.

Moral actions are judged good or bad after they have been done.

Acting morally means you act with a regard to how the action turns out.

One way an action turns out is that it is judged.

So there is no functional difference between acting morally and acting with regard to your legacy.

The only way I can make them different is to bring in something monotheistic such as the strictures against pride (can't have people aping the god-King).

In this case acting with regard to your legacy is acting proudly.

What is being said here is not left wing. It is only a monotheism retweet.

What we are probably dealing with (North American thinkers) is Puritan rubbernecking.

Democracy Now was encouraging people to rubberneck puritanically.

So as I've often said, this isn't progressive. This is a bad case of beautiful soul syndrome.