There was a piece about Sal DiMasi in yesterday's Globe with the hilarious headline: "In North End, Shock and Disbelief".  For Friends of the Blog unfamiliar with Boston's social microecologies, the North End is our Little Italy.  Another headline, from BUR, screams: "DiMasi Indictment Rocks the State House." 

DiMasi's been busted for taking $57,000 in kickbacks (which makes him not just a whore, but a cheap whore, considering).  ANd this should surprise exactly no one.  In fact, I have trouble believing any shock and disbelief isn't feigned, or tongue-in-cheek.  But maybe I'm giving people too much credit.  To me, this is run-of-the-mill corruption from a run-of-the-mill petty criminal.

And what about Clark "Rockefeller"? I don't know anyone outside the media who gives a fat rat's ass about this cat.  And I'll tell you why.  Yesterday's headline:  delusions of grandeur and narcissism?  Is that news?  Our whole history and culture are founded on delusions of grandeur and narcissism.  What do you call Manifest Destiny? The American Dream?  Seriously, if "Rockefeller" is insane, they should throw Bush and Cheney in the loony bin, too. 

And what about the rest of us?  If narcissism and delusions of grandeur were news, we'd all be on the front page.  I mean, take this ridiculous quote from one of Rockefeller's lawyers: "It would be incredibly hard for someone with a narcissistic personality disorder to say no to someone who said you're so important that I need to talk to you on camera."  Then the whole world's got it.  

I've only been on the front page of a major paper twice, never above the fold, and once was the Metro section, which doesn't really count.  And I've been interviewed on TV once, but it was Spanish language TV.  So you have to do more than just be a deluded narcissist, obviously.  Maybe I should change my name to Astor, Carnegie or Vanderbilt.  Or Bush, or Cheney. 

It definitely helps to draw as many other people into your delusions of grandeur as possible, even if this does, mass delusions notwithstanding, take the delusional edge off of them.  Life is a kind of confidence game anyway, and the history books are chockfull of the confidence men who made it. 

At any rate, it seems like you've got to swindle people if you want to make the headlines.  But even as a swindler, "Rockefeller" chose easy prey: people whose social world is built entirely on name-dropping (including the aforementioned family names, but also street names like Sutton Place and school names like Yale).  Granted, we all rely on name-dropping to some extent, but those of us without names are forced to build social networks based on other things, like trustworthiness and talent.  Or, like DiMasi, on bullying and backroom deals, which still requires some understanding of social dynamics. 

But when your social sphere requires nothing but a name for membership and advancement, your ability to judge character may atrophy, or whither away completely.  And that seems to be what happened to the ex-Mrs. "Rockefeller".  She's the real reason this story's still making headlines.  I mean, this is sort of like Six Degrees of Separation with Woody Allen in the leading role instead of Will Smith. 

Speaking of Woody Allen.  You know another reason "Rockefeller" grabbed headlines was his eyewear.  Those chunky, outsized horn-rimmed glasses he favored at the time of the kidnapping were just making a comeback with hipsters and mods, and now everyone from Justin Timberlake to Scarlett Johansson's wearing them.  

You look at anybody wearing these retro styles nowadays and their face screams "SMART-ASS!  PHONY!"  I mean, that's the point, innit?  That's why they're such a hit with hipsters and mods.  And it worked with Rockefeller's coy, bait-and-switch "crazy-like-a-fox" act.  But now his lawyers have got him in something more sincere... 


Still, while neither case — DiMasi's or "Rockefeller"'s — surprises me, all the feigned surprise surrounding them sort of does.  Well, no, actually, I don't want to add to the chorus of feigned surprise.  I'm not going to feign surprise at others who feign surprise, when their surprise is no less surprising than what they're feigning surprise at. 

But you can't deny that the feigned surprise of denizens of Beacon Hill at DiMasi's downfall is a pretty good gauge of the depths of sleaze under that glittery dome.  I mean who are they trying to scam?  If there's any room for real surprise here, it's that we persist in labeling these age-old archetypes and their cautionary tales "news".