So a former Olympian, a man who once stood atop the podium of human physical achievement, now stands accused of defiling the Reflecting Pool in Washington. He denies it, of course. The British diplomats are ‘on alert,’ as if they expect the splash to reach Whitehall.
This is not a crime. This is a metaphor. The Reflecting Pool, that stagnant mirror to America’s imperial vanity, has been sullied by a man who once symbolised the very best of the West.
Now he represents its decay. We live in an age where athletes become vandals, where glory gives way to graffiti. The Victorians would have called it a ‘loss of moral fibre.
’ I call it the final chapter of a civilisation that has lost its nerve. The Olympian denies it, naturally. But who among us would admit to defacing our own reflection?
