We could complain about all of the press coverage and resources devoted to the creep, but we won’t. Many, many others have done that.
Instead, we’ll ask a simple question. What is creepier: the late creep or the over-the-top adulation of, and fascination with, the him? (We have neither and have delayed writing about him; we did not want to appear hypocritical or inconsistent.)
Despite his macabre and twisted existence over a period lasting twenty years or so, it is a very, very close call, and we’re not sure of the answer. Know this, though, this was no modern-day Dorian Gray. As we see it, the outside became deformed and degraded as the inside rotted. So, what does that say about a society that revels in his creepiness and does not have the maturity to shun and disdain him?
We don’t think it is contradictory to say, “God rest his soul,” and “good riddance,” and we don’t think that we are alone in expressing those sentiments.
Lastly, like our difficult titular question, we’re not sure whose behavior is more shameful: his or his enablers and handlers and apologists?
What we do know is what Jesus said in Matthew, 18:6: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
We don’t think that it matters whether the causation is direct or indirect, and that makes it a lot like joint-and-several liability. Unlike the courts, those judgments can last an eternity.
