Letters to the Editor
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unified traits
Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" contains a discuss of a study done on honesty in children. Essentially, the children were tempted to cheat on tests, then observed. What the researchers found is that there were no honest children, and no dishonest children. There were children who cheated by using the dictionary by not by using crib notes. Children who cheated on time but never by looking up answers. Each child followed a consistent code, but none were truly honest all the time, and none were truly dishonest all the time. Honesty, the researchers concluded, is not a unified trait.
We like unified traits. It's easier to say, "If Clinton would lie about having sex with an intern, he'd lie about things critical to the welfare of the country," than to admit we know nothing, nothing at all, about anyone, until we see that person in a specific set of circumstances.
This article was about Tony, but my favorite morally ambiguous character was Vito. I have a dear friend whose quest to wed his boyfriend was playing out at the same time these episodes aired, which made me that much more sympathetic to Vito. (They are married now, having flown to another country for the ceremony.) Vito was a dear, sweet man, a brave man, a loving father and a guy with a good eye for antiques; and also a lazy fucker who couldn't survive if he had to hold a regular job, someone who would murder a man over a traffic accident. The show refused to take sides, to say that he was one thing or the other. He was all these things, which made him real.