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Rebirth of a nation
Iran's burgeoning democracy movement against the power of the fundamentalist establishment is led by students in blue jeans who like American music.
By Daryl Lindsey
[07/23/99]

Reform's raison d'être
Reform Party activists prepare for what could be a showdown between the forces of Ross Perot and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.
By Sarah Keech
[07/23/99]

The Kennedy way of grief
Is the clan's Irish stoicism linked to its history of alcoholism, risk-taking and self-destruction?
By Joan Walsh
[07/22/99]

It could have been me
John F. Kennedy Jr. didn't make any serious judgment errors in his decision to fly to Martha's Vineyard on Friday night.
By Phaedra Hise
[07/22/99]

What's in a name?
Upon the death of the scion of America's greatest political dynasty, a quick survey of American politics reminds us how much it helps to have a famous name.
By Bruce Shapiro
[07/21/99]

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Yes. These people are egomaniacs. The Kennedy legacy is one of megalomania and moral blindness as much as it is of public service. I was chilled to the heart by the weird fact that this accident occurred on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Chappaquiddick -- when another woman was dragged to the bottom of the sea by a Kennedy, who fled and lied about it and got off scot-free. The Kennedy travails have often been compared to Greek tragedy, and the comparison is a just one. It's the dark theme from Greek mythology of curses visited upon generation after generation after generation.

For this entire week during the horribly protracted search for the bodies, I wouldn't utter a single public word about any of this because of my pagan superstition about the disposition of corpses. I found it enormously wrenching. My thoughts have been besieged by images from classical literature. I couldn't help thinking of Hector, the great hero and crown prince of Troy, as his body was mutilated by Achilles and dragged around the walls of his parents' citadel, followed by the ritual burning of his body.

I thought about "Antigone" and the way that play begins with the impious exposure of Antigone's brother's body, left out for the flies; then Antigone breaks the law to go out and scatter a handful of dust on her brother's body so it would not be totally exposed to the elements. The scene kept coming to mind because Kennedy's body was out there someplace -- whether in one piece or a hundred -- and his sister Caroline was in seclusion and didn't formally emerge until the body was found and recovered.

And I thought also of a famous passage in Virgil's "Aeneid" about the death of Marcellus, a very promising young man who was the adoptive son and heir of the Roman emperor Augustus. Marcellus' death at age 20 produced enormous mourning among the Romans, since he embodied the future of the dynasty. That theme of the young man cut down recurs in this case, but we have to remind ourselves that John F. Kennedy Jr. was not 20, but 38.

Which is middle-aged.

Right. But it still falls under the archetype of Adonis, the beautiful young man whose blood is shed to regenerate nature. In fact, Gore Vidal very wonderfully cited this metaphor about JFK Sr. to explain the enormous popular outpouring after the assassination that made him mythological -- even though the actual achievements of his presidency were fairly limited. That John Jr. was 38 --

And had accomplished fairly little, given the expectations.

I agree. I'm not one of those who feel he had a big future as a political leader. He was too low-key, too amiable and laid-back to be a hard-nosed politician at the level of senator or, for heaven's sake, president. And at 38, he still had not managed to produce children, which I find striking. There's a parallel with the melancholy Albert of Monaco, who was similarly both gifted and perhaps cursed by having a very charismatic, stylish and famous mother. It's interesting how Albert's sisters are such strong, ferocious personalities. They're fiery, while Albert seems stymied, almost obliterated, unable to form a major, mature relationship with a woman or to produce heirs, which are crucial for the realm.

What did you make of the fact that the plane went down in full sight of his mother's estate; it's like he never got over her.

So true. He never did. In a certain way John Kennedy Jr.'s beauty was a kind of narcissism. His physical perfection came from entrapment in a youthful persona. He never developed as a persona beyond that of the handsome, loyal, affectionate, wonderful brother --

And the wonderful son.

Yes. The fact that he went down with two sisters is also interesting -- it's like a little family went down together there. And the woman he chose had his sister's name. People say, "Oh, Carolyn Bessette was just like Jackie." She was no Jackie! It's absurd. There's a tremendous elegiacal rush to find good things to say about this young woman, but she seemed to have lost energy as a personality the longer she was married to John. Pictures of the young Carolyn Bessette show what vitality she had. She was like a romping lioness. She exuded joie de vivre and an ebullient sensuality that she lost. As the years went on, she became this outwardly sour, Calvin Klein clone, a kind of Aubrey Beardsley android.

What did that woman do with the enormous opportunity presented to her as the wife of John F. Kennedy Jr.? She did nothing. She utterly lacked Jackie Kennedy's sophisticated interest in art, music and culture. All she seems to have represented was the shopaholic side of Jackie. Now that's a judgment on John also, since this is the mate he chose. He chose a woman who made herself thinner and thinner and thinner when they were trying to start a family. She got more and more fashion-conscious, more and more a fashion cipher. A recent piece in the New York Post called her -- with no insult intended -- a "lanky clotheshorse," and I thought, yes, that's what happened, she became more and more contracted and wizened, as a socialite who bloomed only at chic parties. She reserved her smiles for important or rich people. Her family called the two of them "soul mates," but she may have been a dead end for him as a personality.

But on the other hand, we must recognize what an awful burden it is to be the son of a famous man -- much less the only son of a martyred saint, as JFK Sr. became. And I think all of us who admire JFK Jr. do so because we realize what opportunities he had to be a total wastrel and an arrogant ass.

Exactly.

We're in effect honoring him for emerging intact from the psychological Nazi interrogation booth of the mega-celebrity forced on him from his earliest years, when he was surrounded and protected by women. It appears that Jackie herself was worried about him and described him as a sort of space cadet who would suddenly tune out and not notice what he was doing. It was his way of coping. His going off into dreamy detachment could have been a factor in this disaster.

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