Sex sells, but does it matter

I heard someone point out some of the great men who had more than one woman. Ike, Kennedy, Clinton. The list went on and on. Men who had the capacity to inspire and to lead and to achieve greatness for themselves and for the country. Yet were never satisfied in their sexual lives with the women in their lives. Though knowledge of their infidelities were known, the sheer magnitude of how powerful these men were caused people around them to accept these weaknesses or indiscretions. None of the men mentioned were brought down by these sex scandals and finished their careers at historic high points and are literally legends of our society. I am not here to defend infidelity. Remember we are here to be real, we are here to understand how Realism deals with the here and the now. Operating on that premise, how much does it really matter than men in positions of power cheat?

I do not want to focus on family relationships or biblical precepts, those are for a longer discussion. Throughout each of the those men's careers as with
General Petraeus, they were having affairs on a regular basis while performing their duties without flaw. The war was won with Eisenhower at the helm, the US flourished with JFK and through his vision reached space. The US prospered economically with Clinton. Where, I challenge you, did their multiple relationships impact their mission? Nowhere except in the personal live were they really affected. I feel that as a man we have the ability to separate our positions from our sex lives. Maybe it's the whole we only think with one hemisphere thing. Maybe it is how we can view sex as purely physical and detached because of this biological imperative within us to breed. I know that this mindset can be a challenge to women to understand. We are wired different. Now this fact those not give us license to not be responsible and honorable but it is an explanation. Marriage is a vow and promise and we should do all we can to keep our word. Men, even great men, are just men. Weak, greedy, untrustworthy, fearful emotionally. Yet within our professions we can be the exact opposites.

Should sexual indiscretions be brushed aside? I am not sure. I think they should be looked at on a person to person basis. Should we allow a biological process to bring down some of the greatest people in history? I don't think so. The Russians used sex to gather some of our secrets throughout the cold war. They had female and male agents who's sole purpose was to use sex as a way to blackmail our representatives. What if we took that weapon away? What if we just made a policy that having sex no longer disqualifies you from leading or performing? We would not be condoning the act. What we would say is those actions are to be dealt with on a personal and family level. If it begins to effect your duties or performance then it becomes the business of your superiors or the American public. We have already created a culture of disposable people through a woman right to choose. Let's not create a nation of disposable leaders because of the American public demand for false purity.