Torah Ideals

Someone is Always Watching

“Someone is always watching.”  Movie fans will recognize this as the punch line from “Ocean’s Eleven,” the line arrogantly uttered by Andy Garcia that ultimately drove Julia Roberts back into the arms of George Clooney. Political observers may recognize it as a line that should have been uttered by soon-to-be-former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich when he found himself the subject of state and federal investigators.

Instead, in October 2005, the governor commented: “This kind of examination isn’t a bad thing if you’re confident that your systems are working and that you know that you try to do things honestly, ethically and responsibly.” That was three years before his was indicted on corruption charges for seeking to sell the vacated senate seat of Barak Obama to the highest bidder.

The pathological character of yet another corrupt elected official is hardly a subject worthy of our time. However, this particular combination of denial and arrogance is truly breathtaking. Just this week the AP reported that, despite relentless media coverage of Blagojevich’s taped profanities and gross improprieties, together with the lowest voter approval ratings in the history of civil service, the governor appears confident that he will come through with his political career intact:

“You would think he would see his life collapsing around him,” said Chicago defense lawyer John Beal, who was in the courtroom with Blagojevich this week and noted how carefree he seemed. “But he was the center of attention and seemed to love it.”

At the beginning of the last century, the invention of electric lighting, telecommunication, and cinematography began to change the complexion of modern society. With the introduction of technologies scarcely imagined a generation before, the leader of European Jewry, the venerable Chofetz Chaim, contemplated what lessons these innovations might offer. Here, observed the sage, a spiritually sensitive Jew could find an opportunity to make himself more deeply aware of the universe’s spiritual nature and the factors that will determine every person’s ultimate reward in the World to Come.

Previously, the natural cycle of night and day imposed a strict order upon human activity. Because most people in those times could not afford the limitless supplies of candles necessary to transform night into day, all activity was cut short early by the long nights of winter, and only in summer could the workday stretch late into the evening. Now, inexpensively and with the flick of a switch, the night could be expelled and the secrets of the darkness instantly revealed.

So too, that which we consider private and secret will one day become illuminated for all to see, when each of us will stand alone in the blinding spotlight of Divine Judgment to account for the decisions we make in this world. The light of truth will transcend the boundaries of secrecy and dispel the shadows of moral twilight. All our obfuscating excuses, defenses, and rationalizations will vanish before objective vision and brilliant clarity.

Technology also teaches us to beware the false comfort of selective memory. Cinematic recording taught the world that actions do not vanish when they are finished; they can be caught and preserved as images, as can voices and conversations. Anything we do may last forever in the public record, just as everything we do will survive our brief passing through this physical world to testify either for us or against us when we arrive at our eternal destination.

Similarly, telecommunication connects every corner of the world with every other, so that our lives are no longer lived separate and apart from the vast majority of human society. Especially today, when cellphone images can catch us at any moment unaware, and when the Internet can make any image accessible to the entire planet and impossible to retrieve, we cannot help but reflect upon the universal significance of our actions and the permanence of everything we do.

With increasingly frequency, the media report stories of individuals subjected to the shame of unwanted publicity in the form of presumed-private indiscretions or long-forgotten photos taken in moments of immature impetuosity. It may offer some small comfort that this kind of embarrassment can be traced back to biblical times:

If Reuben had known the Torah would record his actions, the sages tell us, he would have carried Joseph back to the safe custody of his father rather than merely dissuading his other brothers from committing murder. If Aaron had know the Torah would record his actions, he would have gone out into the desert with a band of musicians to greet his brother, Moses, rather than merely greeting him with joy in his heart. If Boaz had known the Torah would record his actions, he would have served Ruth a grand banquet rather than merely a meal of parched kernels.

If such spiritual giants as these could lose focus of the ultimate consequences of their actions, how much more careful must ordinary mortals like us be? When we lose our tempers over trivialities, when we act deceitfully in business or fail to rectify the error when we are undercharged, when we malign our neighbors and teachers with malicious gossip, when our conduct in synagogue shows a lack of respect for our God and our tradition, in all such cases we are demonstrating the same kind of arrogance and unawareness that has brought down so many politicians who believed that they were above the law and that their actions would go unnoticed.

As much as we might like to spin acts of questionable morality in our own favor and allow the haze of forgetfulness to obscure our improprieties, we will find no escape from the full consequences of our actions when we come to stand before the Heavenly Court. On that day, if only I had known will prove a feeble defense. How much better to study God’s law, to repent our misdeeds, and to commit ourselves to lives of virtue by dispelling the morbid illusion that our actions go unnoticed and our commitment to a higher purpose goes unrewarded.

December 16, 2008 - Posted by torahideals | Culture, Philosophy, Politics | Blagojevich, Culture, Jewish Philosophy, Politics