Conrad Black

Who cares about Conrad Black? Certainly an influential and powerful Canadian, at one time, his current woes and trials are none of my concern. Nor was his influence at the time he had it. Perhaps this is because I am an eastern Canadian and his influence, before the national Post, was mainly in the west.

That he rose and fell as do many persons who seek power is inconsequential. There is nothing to be learned here but that one should not get caught with one's hand in the cookie jar.

Lord Black, I experience no sorrow for your troubles, nor sympathy for your situation. Few, if any of us commoners will face our comeuppance in a similar fashion. You are but the latest in a search for spectacle, a story to tell. But, is it really that sensational a story?

A man builds an empire, renounces his nation for a title, is accused of white-collar crime -- in a time of widespread corporate corruption -- and will eventually be found either guilty or innocent. Regardless of the outcome he will be free to roam the world, his empire in tatters, his name, deeds and misdeeds the stuff of trivia.

Regardless of the outcome, this story has been told and retold. Enron, 9/12 airline stock shorts, Bre-X scandal. The emperor has no clothes, the people reject him and move on with their lives. Focusing on the people at the top makes them all the more infamous and makes the people who were cheated all the more victims. All that is certain is that another such ambitious person will repeat this history, building an empire only to see it fall or be torn down.