Tiger Woods' mea culpa
While the ritual of public self-humiliation, penance, expiation and redemption is as old as man--and follows its own strict set of rules--one never tires of the modern American riff on an old classic.
The script for Tiger Woods' speech could have come from any of a number of recent televised shamefests, from Bill Clinton's to Eliot Spitzer's to Mark Sanford's. It is a liturgy that has been hammered out over time by a series of PR flacks and "reputation management specialists."
The televised appearance harks back to the rending of one's clothes and the self-flagellation with whip or chains of olden times. Next there is the period of penance and self-abnegation (In this case, Tiger shook up the sequence a little). In America, that means checking into an exclusive clinic for treatment of an addiction (fill in the blank here), which consists of rigidly doing without whatever it was you did too much of that got you into trouble in the first place.
Finally, there is redemption and rehabilitation. This last phase is, of course, the whole reason for the entire pageant. Back in the Middle Ages, the notion of product endorsement hadn't been conceived, unless you want to count divine apparitions. The big fear then was that if you didn't go through the whole song and dance, you might spend eternity in hell.
In the age of sponsors, the consequences of a celebrity's fall from grace are much more immediate--which is to say you can suffer a serious financial hit in this life, not to mention whatever might befall you in the next one.
So, to quote George Burns: "Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
CHAN LOWE has been the Sun Sentinel’s first and only editorial cartoonist for the past twenty-six years. Before that, he worked as cartoonist and writer for the Oklahoma City Times and the Shawnee (OK) News-Star.
Comments
> So, to quote George Burns: "Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
That is the line of the day.
He played his part spectacularly, even his voice inflections seemed practiced.
Way to go Tiger, should be back with some new sponsors within a year!
Posted by: Old Boca Man | February 19, 2010 2:16 PM
Once again Chan got it wrong. The shirt should read "SCHMUCK".
Posted by: Observer | February 19, 2010 3:00 PM
Tiger’s situation has really been blown out of proportion. Yes, his profession has put him in the spotlight that I will not argue. But with that being said he is a man, yea he will probably go down as the greatest golfer ever, but still only a man. Which means he is not infallible. Many men cheat on their wives daily, I think its wrong, and if your going to run around then don’t get married, but never the less it happens every day. After his episode thanksgiving night last year, the media went ape sh*t and demanded he make a statement. Yes it may have been better if he did but in all honesty he doesn’t have to tell anybody anything. But now that he has made a statement, the media wants to judge it and critique it. 75% percent of the media aren’t anything but hypocritical, two faced, ambulance chasing horror mongers who need to take a look into the mirror….. unless they are afraid of what they will see. Leave the guy alone and let him work on saving his marriage, or getting more tail or winning more tournaments or whatever the hell he wants to do.
Posted by: Guns, Golf and Gigabytes | February 23, 2010 5:15 PM
> Many men cheat on their wives daily, I think its wrong, and if your going to run around then don’t get married,
>> but never the less it happens every day
With one, maybe two women. But not like this. He made it a circus, so he has to lay in the bed he made.
Posted by: Old Boca Man | February 24, 2010 6:35 AM