Lives Of Blamess Domesticity Poem by gershon hepner

Though Papuan cannibals can’t read
and mostly haven’t heard of electricity,
I wonder whether any of them lead
a life of blameless bourgeois domesticity?
To be a bourgeois you don’t really need
to read, but if you are a cannibal you should
subscribe to New York Times so you can feed
on politicians for your livelihood.

Inspired by the story in the NYT on Febbruary 21,2008 alleging that John McCain has had an improper relationship with a lobbyist, Vicki Iseman (Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn W. Thompson, David D. Kirkpatrick, “For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risks”) . “Mr. McCain,71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman,40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.” On the same day the WSJ had an article about Boris Johnson’s plan to run against Ken Livingston for Mayor of London (Aaron O. Patrick, “Across the Pond, a Disheveled Wit Takes on ‘Red Ken’: Boris Johnson Yuks It Up In Bid for London Mayor: The ‘Cannibalism’ Flap”) :
Mr. Johnson’s image as a bumbler I an act, says James Griffin, a classics professor at Oxford and Mr. Johnson’s tutor there. In 2006, for example, Mr. Johnson wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the Labour government, in criticizing its leaders, was following the tradition of the Conservative Party, which once indulges in “Papua New Guniea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing.” After Papua New Guinea’s government complained, Mr. Johnson said that he meant no offense to Papuans, who “I’m sure lead lives of blameless bourgeois domesticity in common with the rest of us.”

2/21/08