Popular Culture Review Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2000 | Page 66

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Popular Culture Review

the ethical decision-making that led to their downfall. Calling upon Janet Varner
Gunn’s (1982) theory o f autobiography, these particular autobiographers of
expiation represent an aspect of the sense-making process of human beings. Gunn
observes that people tell stories, participate in rituals, and write history in an effort
to personally comprehend their experience in the world, discover the significance
of the experience, and then share the findings with the world in textual form (3233). Gunn further brings clarity to what is transpiring in these memoirs of expiation
by noting that autobiography represents an act of both discovery and creation,
consisting o f the movement of the self in the world and the movement of the self
into the world. Metaphorically speaking, the former recognizes that “the land makes
man,” while the latter realizes it can also be said that “man elects his land” (59).
Applying Sissela Bok’s theory of ethical justification to the acts of discovery
and creation occurring in these memoirs of expiation, most of the authors rely
heavily on conscience-based decision-making—the least effective method cited
by Bok. For Linda Lovelace, her participation in prostitution and pornography is
justified by her claimed belief that she was protecting herself and her parents from
being brutally murdered by her “crazy” husband. Pete Rose felt justified in gambling
on sports as long as it didn’t include betting on baseball. John Dean and Charles
Colson justified their decision-making by stressing their patriotic loyalty to President
Nixon. Susan Atkins’justification depended on the semantic distinction between
being an accomplice to murder and her “first hand” involvement in the killings.
The ethical justification described in Clifford Irving’s memoir did not involve an
appeal to the conscience, but instead was predicated upon Bok’s notion of peer
consultation. In fact, while each of the writers engaged in some form of peer
consultation, it is evident in the narratives that Bok’s highest measure of ethical
justification — the test of publicity — was not used on any level. The implication
here is that by calling upon the divergent ideas and opinions of representative,
reasonable individuals, the flaws in ethical decision-making can be exposed, perhaps
altering a course of action that would have led to negative consequences.
From Bok’s perspective, the self-deception and self-imposed ignorance at times
exhibited in these autobiographies of expiation could be alleviated through the test
o f publicity.