Book on Kerry's prep school - reviewed by Evan Thomas

[karynnj]

Success was an expectation for graduates of St. Paul's School when 14-year-old John Kerry entered the school in September 1958. WASPs still controlled the Wall Street banks and law firms, owned the best summer houses and set a certain tone. The New England church schools taught a duty to serve, by which they really meant rule. Graduates of schools like St. Paul's could be smug and complacent, or at least they seemed that way to the outside world.

In fact, these schools were possessed by an almost obsessive fear of showing weakness. Borrowing the customs (and snobbery) of English public schools like Eton and Rugby, St. Paul's meted out cold showers and required stiff upper lips. The idea was to instill manliness and Christianity—the school liked to quote Teddy Roosevelt about hitting the line hard but playing fair—but forgiveness and mercy were often missing. The ruling clique, called "the Regs" (for Regular Guys), were a kind of vicious moral and social police. They dominated by sarcasm. Boys who seemed sad or vulnerable, or who wore the wrong kind of tweed jacket, were dismissed as "spazzes" and "homos." "Only once in four years did I see a boy cry publicly," writes Geoffrey Douglas, author of "The Classmates," a memoir of the class of '62. "It happened on the soccer field. The coach ignored it; every boy nearby, including me, moved away." In "Lord of the Flies" fashion, the boys channeled their fear into bullying. The Piggy of the class of '62 was "Arthur" (not his real name), a luggish scholarship boy who was made to crawl in the mud or sit on a toilet in an open field while boys threw quarters at him.

After weakness, the second worst sin for a "Paulie" was trying too hard. That's what made Kerry unpopular; his ambition showed. When he was nominated for president in 2004, his classmates began e-mailing each other, at first about Kerry, but then about their shame over the way they had treated Arthur. Freed, at last, of their fear of the Regs, classmates began pouring out their own life stories, often anguished tales of disappointment. After the claustrophobic order of St. Paul's, the chaos of the 1960s was overwhelming to more than a few.

One who barely survived was Douglas, who became a writer after drinking and gambling away his inheritance. Douglas interviewed many of his classmates about their lives during and after St. Paul's, and the stories are often wrenching. Douglas writes in a spare, elegiac style that makes one feel he is sitting at vespers, quietly murmuring the evensong prayer while dreading the approach of a sneering, Brooks Brothers-clad Reg. Oddly, the most lifeless character in the book is Kerry, whom Douglas interviewed in his Senate office while a press secretary took notes. At school and for years after, Kerry's answer to the snobs who cut him out was to out-achieve them. He succeeded, making Skull and Bones at Yale and emerging from Vietnam as a war hero with a conscience. He was, in a way, the future: the meritocratic striver. But at his interview with Douglas, Kerry was guarded and subdued, as if he was still wary of the scorn of his classmates. Kerry wanted to be liked at St. Paul's and was not; years later, as he courted voters, they, too, sensed and rejected his stiff pride. High school has a way of haunting, especially if the school was as coldly creepy as the school portrayed in "The Classmates."http://www.newsweek.com/id/138380?from=rss

This marks at least the third time that Thomas has written of Kerry's unpopularity - once in the articles prior to the convention and then after the election. His comment that Kerry was "lifeless" may be that Kerry was simply cautious (thus having his PR person take notes) because he has a public position. Also the stories of the various screw-ups may be more dramatic than the well known life of purpose of someone good enough to have been the nominee for the Presidency. Could it be the author related better both in the 1960s and now with them rather than Kerry? - to Kerry's credit.

Here he can't see beyond his own biases. An alternative way of looking at those years is that even at 14 Kerry had enough sense of the type of person he wanted to be and the deep morality that led him to be the "war hero with a conscience". What is clear is that he did not sacrifice who he was to fit in. Isn't that what we want from our kids? That they follow their values even if the easier course to popularity is fitting in with the ruling clique. Not to mention, how "unpopular" can you be and still be asked to join a non-school band? How do you start two clubs without people wanting to be in them? Not to mention, he was able to get Jackie Kennedy's step-sister to date him. Given that he was poorer than most; a Democrat amidst Republicans; and a Catholic amidst WASPs, achieving this would seem to suggest that over time he succeeded on his own terms.

Two interesting points -
1) Thomas ignores that (from Tour of Duty) every crew Kerry had in his years in the military was described as being unusually loyal to him and in some cases it was clear that in addition to respect there was obvious love. Maybe Thomas should consider how incredibly well Kerry connected to "real" people vs the prep school phonies. This defeats Thomas' theory that high school haunts you.

2) Were Kerry's accomplishments just getting into S&B, being a war hero and speaking out in 1971. Wasn't he a successful prosecutor, DA and 4 term Senator.

As to the election, Kerry did not lose because he was unlikable - he won the nomination over the media favorites; Edwards, Dean and Clark. (Not to mention, didn't he beat Thomas' friend Weld pretty handily.) He also nearly won against a sitting President at a time of war with a 50% approval rating, a reasonable economy, and the ability to raise terror levels at will. Throw in a media that was willing to abet the Republicans in character assassination and which was completely biased. Even then had there been enough voting machines in Ohio, he would have won - mostly based on his own efforts, ideas and eloquence. Maybe because his personality includes what St Paul's purportedly lacked - forgiveness and mercy.

What is Thomas' obsession with "unpopularity" and why does he keep projecting it onto Kerry.