By Jim Downard
New York Magazine’s cover article with its compelling photo of 35 of Bill Cosby’s “date rate” victims and a 36th empty chair for all those who have not been identified (or brave enough to speak out about it openly) puts into grim visual focus the magnitude of the moral crash that has permanently eclipsed the Cos’s career and accomplishment.
And it was quite a career and accomplishment, from innovative stand-up routines that influenced many comedians since, to being the lead in a major television series (“I Spy” with Robert Culp in the 1960s, playing someone other than the idiot flunky or obsequious servant African-Americans had been regularly limited to) to the immensely popular and important “The Cosby Show” in the 1980s where being another Dr. Huxtable seemed a most laudable ambition, independent of race.
All that has been shredded in a litany of sordid sociopathic manipulation and rationalizing evasion evidenced by Cosby’s 2006 court settlement deposition leaked by the New York Times, in which Cosby was revealed to be a serial offender, carefully targeting and ensnaring his victims with often brilliant tactical precision that could be grudgingly “admired” in a James Bond villain but not in anyone wrapped in so tight a garment of public academic probity that Cosby had crafted for himself over the years.
Never again can anyone knowing all this ever listen to a Cosby comedy album without recollecting the routine he did on date rape at a party.
Never again can anyone watch an episode of the sharp & clever “I Spy” without the cringe of disquiet one gets spotting O. J. Simpson playing a virtuous security guard in “The Towering Inferno,” disaster stories all now.
Never again can anyone endure even a moment of “The Cosby Show,” without getting a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach thinking of Dr. Huxtable joking how he’d laced his barbecue sauce with a secret ingredient that rendered the ladies apparently more pliable to foreplay.
Was Cosby so arrogant and self-confident that he couldn’t resist slipping allusions to his secret life out there for everyone to see, a brazenness outdoing any obsessions on film that Alfred Hitchcock so often indulged in?
It would appear the psychologists have a lot on their plate now to examine, from albums to videos and written testimony. They’ll have the field more to themselves, at least, since few will be likely to dive into anything Cosby created just for the entertainment of it.
No popcorn required.
This paragraph sums it up nicely, “All that has been shredded in a litany of sordid sociopathic manipulation and rationalizing evasion evidenced by Cosby’s 2006 court settlement deposition leaked by the New York Times, in which Cosby was revealed to be a serial offender, carefully targeting and ensnaring his victims with often brilliant tactical precision that could be grudgingly “admired” in a James Bond villain but not in anyone wrapped in so tight a garment of public academic probity that Cosby had crafted for himself over the years.” What we all need to ask ourselves is how many people are so great at crafting the perfect nice guy cover to where their victims will never reveal themselves? What kind of hints do we look for? How do we stop this?
I wish there were some systemic reform that could guarantee such tragedies never happen again, but we are dealing with the inevitable rush of uncertainty reguarding accusations that are always heightened based on the notoriety & reputation of those being accused. The Fatty Arbuckle case in the 1920s where his silent film career was ended unjustly following a sordid rape trial (on which he was aqcuitted) represents one side of the polarity, with the hurdles facing accusers (especially if relating to events years gone by) to confirm their stories at the other. Recall also how readily Cosby’s wife and colleagues rallied around him initially, which they could honestly do in their frame where there was no seeming support for the accusations. The problem of course was that Cosby had apparently been very meticuloous in compartmentalizing his activities, doing so on the road and in ways that made it difficult to corroborate. Or at least, until the bomb blew up regarding that court deposition, whose release pushed all the issues onto more solid turf.
I think noticing “compartmentalizing” is probably a good thing to watch for.
Compartmentalization is a common malady of Tortucans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOuCmIDKEkg Cosby would be a sordid example of a sociopathic (and cotherwise bright & accomplished) Tortucan
Jim you nailed it! What was that you used to say about Tortucans and their ability to was it filter or not experience cognitive dissonance like the rest of us do? I’m trying to remember. I will check out this clip.
The web addresses at end of the video are defunct, but all the pieces are up at #TIP http://www.tortucan.wordpress.com, including “An Ill Wind in Tortuca” that goes into the concept at a bit more length.
The question to which I keep returning in these cases is “(Why) do we need clelbrities at all?” The culture of celebrity guarantees that there will be a fundamental remove between the persona presented for public spectacle and adoration and the person who bears it. The closest I can come to a justification for their existence is that they serve a dual purpose both as quasiuniversal symbol (for good or ill, most people know who Bill Cosby is) and as a role model (they are, almost by definition, successful *at* something, else they’d not have come to our attention in the first place, and it is human nature to want to identify with and imitate success). The problem lies in the fact that, unlike parents and teachers and mentors and all the others we’ve evolved to regard as role models, our access to them is severely limited; we “know” the persona, but we know next to nothing about the person. The long and short of it is, so long as people achieve celebrity status, they will continue to find it much easier to get away with crimes like rape and they will continue to have armies of ardent defenders regardless of whatever facts come to light.