The Gores
June 2, 2010
IS THE ANNOUNCED separation of Al and Tipper Gore simply a case of a husband and wife who have drifted apart and have decided mutually and amicably to go their separate ways? This is very unlikely.
At their advanced ages and after forty years of marriage, this picture of a mild and mutual parting does not make sense. More likely, this is a case of deep-seated anger or disappointment. Dissolving a longstanding marriage requires will and determination. The very essence of divorce, its romantic appeal to a generation of radical individualists, is in the will. A whole way of living and network of connections must be reordered. The life story is redefined, which may be especially thrilling on the brink of old age. It requires intense anger, bitter disillusionment, acute meaninglessness or some inner revolt against nature itself to motivate an individual to pursue this course when there is so little to gain and they face the latter stage of life without a spouse.
Mark Leibovich of the New York Times interviewed friends of the family. He writes,
This decision, they said, was simply about a couple that had grown apart after four decades.
“I know people are feeling surprised, but there’s just not a lot of drama behind this,” said a close friend and adviser to the family who declined to be identified in deference to the Gores’ wish for privacy. “They remain very close friends.”
Don’t believe it. There is indeed a lot of drama behind this. If this appraisal of the marriage were true, if they were still very close friends, then they would continue to remain married while living essentially separate lives that get around their differences. Friends don’t mind being together. The Gores are wealthy enough to live full and active parallel lives. Instead, they have chosen a public act of destruction, a very un-friendly course. They have decided to say to their children, their grandchildren and the whole world that, despite all their statements to the contrary and all they have lived through together, “We can’t stand each other.”
But let’s say for the sake of argument that this is indeed an act of friendliness. Then it strangely proves that the Gores are narcissisticly absorbed in their marital friendship, to the exclusion of others. Their separation is unfriendly toward others, toward their children, relatives and friends, even to the nation at large, which sees them as a symbol of marital harmony and relies on their stability (yes, even liberals like marital stability in their celebrities.) Any way you cut it, their break up is an act of aggression. It is in their interest to sugarcoat it, to present it as something that just, well, happened rather than as a triumph of will over circumstance, community and vows.
— Comments –
Lisa writes:
“It requires intense anger, bitter disillusionment, acute meaninglessness or some inner revolt against nature itself to motivate an individual to pursue this course when there is so little to gain and when life is almost over.”
Don’t forget extreme and sheer exhaustion….
Laura writes:
Lawrence Auster speculates that Al Gore’s increasing megalomania pushed Tipper over the edge. Gore must be unbearable to live with. The hyper-adulation of him, which is out of all proportion to his real worth, may have caused inflation of his ego to the point of insanity. Imagine watching as the ego of your husband balloons with the whole world pumping more and more hot air into it.
Randy B. writes:
Love Story takes a setback. The reason liberals (in this case) are not able to stay married is due to the universal constant: Yin and Yang. Where you have ultimate evil you have to have ultimate good. Since Al Gore continues to embody the most pure form of ultimate evil, something had to give. I figure their house must be built on the ruins of a late 1700’s nunnery, or a saint’s graveyard, or a portal to heaven, and those good graces have been able to fend off the combination of evil that is the Gore marriage. To me the frightening thing is how much time they are getting in the press, and how they are being allowed to excuse this away as mutual and an event that has run its course. If either of them had a soul I would ask for shame to be upon them, but I know they are way too moral to be bothered by conscience.
Randy adds:
If the gas bag that is Gore continues to expand at his current rate, he will eventually heat up and go supernova. Hopefully it will not create a singularity that envelopes the Earth, but who could argue that we did not have it coming. With any luck it will be a localized event and he will be at the UN when it happens.
