This post already has incredible thread drift, but that Draymond Green quote (which I highly recommend watching and remember watching the night it was given) has inspired me to participate…
On the one hand, I envy and truly admire people who have the capacity for self-belief and hard work to push their achievement in ways rare and magnificent. We see this in sports, especially, with so many athletes around the globe growing up in poverty before making it as a World Class Professional. And as a human being who every so often tries to write and finish a creative project or two (and is nagged by self-doubt) I envy those people on a personal level even more.
On the other, in every single field in which I have been around (Private Equity, Law, politics, wine, et al.) the amount of people willing to break/ignore rule upon rule because they have “self-belief” or are convinced of their own righteous competitive instinct is just breathtaking… I live in a state (North Carolina) where there literally are no rules, sometimes. We just became (as of last week) the very last state to finally, legally allow a person to revoke consent during a sexual encounter. The very last. And there is no act, frankly in all human capacity, like sexual activity with another where we witness, as a species, the sheer terror of how “self-belief” or self-competitive instinct can often manifest itself.
Woody Allen is the all-time work-a-holic creative person who made art with a real determination… and ultimately also groomed an adopted teenager for a sexual relationship. And is alleged to have done other specific assaults, too. Who knows whatever else he did in his sexual life as a adult.
Jean-Jacque Rousseau was a prolific writer of the moral principles of human philosophy (and currently frequent high school yearbook quote) who literally abandoned his own children in orphanages over and over again. He kept having sex, kept having children, and put child after child in a foundling home rather than deal with societal or financial pressures of children… 5 children in 8 years. And this a-hole spent YEARS of his life writing books about how to raise children!
(exhales)…
These stories make me sad. It has always been hard to be a young person and avoid being preyed upon by the powerful. I wish each generation truly got better at such protection. In theory we’re getting better, but it’s hard to get worse than the 20th century.
Purchasing agents have always exerted inappropriate power. A relative of my wife’s was a chicken and egg man in New Jersey. Nothing helped sales like a c note in somebody’s pocket.
There was a store owner here who chased a salesman out the door, shoved him against a wall and sucker punched him. The poor guy’s boss said, don’t do anything…he buys a lot of wine and liquor. I’ve heard lots of stories of women reps asked for quid pro quos.
In Las Vegas stories like this abound…mostly involving higher denominations than one hundred dollar bills.
I don’t know what to say about this sommelier except that he seems like a pathetic loser who needs help. Maybe this moment will force him into turning his life around. I’m happy for women who have exposed him.
Honestly I saw this guy at domaine LA a couple years ago and he was talking to some west side basic about rose in a can, I had no idea he was even a somm.
This is not an anomaly. It exists across the entire spectrum of professions where men and women interact in a work environment. Position or perceived importance is a tool for sexual relations in the eyes of many. I’ve seen it in my profession, the professions I worked with both closely and casually. If you haven’t seen it, you are blind or in solitary confinement. He just got bad press for being so obnoxious about it or got too big for his britches. If you want to discuss WHY then you have consider all the factors. Was there a prosecutable criminal offense? Why didn’t the victim file a complaint? Did the victims come out because he got media attention? How far will men take advantage by position? I personally think the article is enlightening, appropriate and hopefully reaching those who could find themselves in similar situations and take the appropriate actions immediately.
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