Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  There has been a fair amount of chatter in recent days on social media to the effect that a former mayor of New York is about to be arrested for non-compliance with court orders regarding the payments he owes to his ex-wife.  The chatter generally comes unaccompanied by links to actual sources, so I just note it here as chatter.  I would find that amusing. I am not among the "tragedy" theorists of Giuliani's career. You know, the folks who say "he was once a great and important man, the sheriff of Wall Street in the '80s, when it so badly needed policing, and it is sad to see how far he has sunk."  None of that is right. He was never a great man and insofar as he was important in his pre-mayoral days his importance was always lamentable.  

  In the old days he built his reputation as a tough prosecutor on insider trading and other securities fraud cases.  Later he leveraged that reputation to become Mayor of New York. Through the luck of the draw, it was Giuliani who happened to be Mayor when airplanes flew into the twin towers, and he became "America's Mayor."  That is the history to which people allude when they ask "whatever happened to" the old Rudi witht he tough cop rep.  The reputation was never based on much, except for the fact that for an ambitious man, seeking higher office and finding himself in possession of prosecutorial discretion. That was enough: the idea of going after Wall Street tycoons made perfect sense.  Tom Wolfe coined the phrase years ago: "the great white defendant." THAT is what a prosecutor wants and what Giuliani triumphantly found is such as Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky.  I argued years ago, on general pro-capitalism grounds, and from the pages of The Pr...