In order to live with integrity, we must stop fragmenting and compartmentalizing our lives. Telling lies at work and expecting great truths in meditation is nonsensical. Using our sexual energy in a way that harms ourselves or others, and then expecting to know transcendent love in another arena, is mindless. Every aspect of our lives is connected to every other aspect of our lives. This truth is the basis for an awakened life.
When we live with integrity, we further enhance intimacy with ourselves by being able to rejoice, taking active delight in our actions.
– Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg, quoted in Mother Tongue Annoyances
Bill Clinton famously compartmentalized his relationship with Monica Lewinski, convincing himself his relations with her were neither sexual nor related to his performance as president. He did not convince much of country.
Compartmentalization is a useful coping mechanism for politicians. It allows an individual to focus despite a welter of conflicting demands, anxieties, behaviors and beliefs that might otherwise be distracting, if not disabling.
Discussing troop deployment in Bosnia with a Congressman as an intern goes to work under the Oval Office desk, for example. Or taking a "no new taxes pledge," then shifting taxes to local governments and raising fees. Or proclaiming your independence from the President while voting with him.
You don't have to disagree to be "independent," after all. A fee isn't a "tax." And just because someone does a job for you, it doesn't have to involve "relations."
We have ample evidence that compartmentalization is a bi-partisan skill, applied to matters large and small, and not restricted to one party or another. Or to politics.
In a book about successful, stable, upper-middle-class men, Robert Weiss has this to say: "All the men report stress and irritability, and half have trouble sleeping . . . . To cope with daily tension, they engage in ‘compartmentalization,’ a process by which problems, anxiety and pain are tucked away in the further recesses of the psyche, to be retrieved when necessary, without cluttering up everyday life. They have few close friends, since emotional closeness threatens compartmentalization (several rarely confide in their wives), and over half of the men have had an affair." It appears that there is a price to be paid for being so "well-adjusted."
[...]
Most of the new jobs being created today are service, jobs where people are paid to cater to the customer, jobs like customer service rep or airline attendant. These folks are called upon to do emotional labor, says sociologist Arlie Hochschild. She observes that an increasing number of jobs require a set of rules for feelings, and these jobs make authenticity hard to come by. This is the "social production of alienation," she says, and when people go numb, there’s a whole industry to de-alienate us. "Don’t misunderstand me," she says, "I’m all for therapy. I just want to live in a society that doesn’t take my feelings away from me and doesn’t require a whole industry to help me get them back."
– Unitarian minister, Dr. Marilyn Sewell, "The Conspiracy Against Feeling"
Trying to analyze what I thought was compartmentalization by the mono-talented but multi-employed Michael Brodkorb, I recently skimmed several months of his posts. (This is akin to self-waterboarding, and I do not recommend the practice to anyone who himself is not able to compartmentalize.)
I now believe my first impression — that his claims of blogger independence were evidence of Clintonian dissociation — was mistaken. Yes, he fiercely defends his ethics, but that is more a bully's bluster than a sign of true compartmentalizing. He is profoundly consistent in quite unappealing way. How his partisan makeup colors his life is transparent to everyone — fans and critics alike — except those who depend on the mainstream media for their views of his handiwork.
But the issue is not whether Brodkorb blogs for Mark Kennedy in his spare time or on Kennedy's dime.
It's not whether Kennedy's campaign director Pat Shortridge, who once staffed for Dick Armey and lobbied for Enron, is willing to call a press conference to say preposterous things about Amy Klobuchar.
It's not whether Scott "Hack-a-Max" Howell makes a living knee-capping Democrats.
Nor that this whole crew sings harmony with hyperbolic party chair Ron "Viewing the fruits" Carey.
Of all people, the "money is free speech" Republicans should understand who we're really hearing on all channels.
His name is Mark Kennedy, and he approved these messengers.
