French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy is friends with Dominique Strauss-Kahn. When Strauss-Kahn was arrested in May, Lévy complained about his treatment, "I resent the New York tabloid press, a disgrace to the profession, that, without the least precaution and before having effected the least verification, has depicted Dominique Strauss-Kahn as a sicko, a pervert, borderlining on serial killer, a psychiatrist’s dream" and also got the Daily Show treatment. And now, with Strauss-Kahn's release, Lévy has some thoughts about the latest turn of events.
On The Daily Beast, Lévy offers some lessons that can be drawn so far—here is the first:
1. The cannibalisation of Justice by the Sideshow.
This cannibalisation is not exclusively an American phenomenon, of course, and we have witnessed myriad examples of it in Europe and France. But it must be said that, with this affair, it has reached the heights of obscenity. The improvised press conference by the woman’s lawyer on the steps of a courthouse normally dedicated to the sober discernment of the truth was obscene. The “shame on you’s” that greeted Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he arrived for the hearing on June 6th, shouted by battalions of hotel chambermaids who knew nothing of the actual case and whose protest had been orchestrated and scripted, were obscene. And so, too, though in another manner, was the famous “perp walk” which, I’m aware, is the lot of all those charged with a crime, but which, given the identity of the accused in question, could only degenerate into globally observed torture—high punishment for a crime, which no one, at that point, knew whether or not he had committed.
This vision of Dominique Strauss-Kahn humiliated in chains, dragged lower than the gutter—this degradation of a man whose silent dignity couldn’t be touched, was not just cruel, it was pornographic. And it was at least as pornographic (because, I repeat, it’s the same thing) as attorney Kenneth Thompson’s visible glee in expounding on the state of his client’s “vagina” [sic] before the entire world.
Can't wait for Ben Stein's followup to The prosecutors say that Mr. Strauss-Kahn 'forced' the complainant to have oral and other sex with him. How? Did he have a gun? Did he have a knife? He's a short fat old man. ."
Today, Levy told Le Parisien that he spoke to Strauss-Kahn, who is "Happy, but cautious. When we went through what he went through, when one was taken away in such a spiral of hate and slander, we can not, I think, be extremely cautious. In general, I was struck, the few times I talked to him, the nobility of man. Nobility silent in front of cameras that tracked. Profound nobility of man who tried to break but never folded."
