I am only saying that there is in Sarkozy a relationship to memory that troubles and worries me. Men usually have a memory. It can be complex, contradictory, paradoxical, confused. But it is their own. It has a great deal to do with the basis of who they are and the identities they choose for themselves. Sarkozy is an identity pirate, a mercenary of others' memories. He claims all memories, meaning that in the end he just might not have any. He is our first president without a memory. He is the first of our presidents willing to listen to all ideas, because for him they are literally indistinguishable. If there is a man in France today who embodies (or claims to embody) the famous end of all ideologies, which I cannot quite bring myself to believe in, it is indeed Mr. Sarkozy, the sixth president of the Fifth Republic.
Similarly it is an "Idea-less" personality: these people have never had an original Idea in their lives either.
This ability to clear and re-write their conceptual RAM (Random access memory) is also what makes them perfect liars.
They REALLY do believe the lies they tell, having lost, or never had, a critical component: "ethical" judgement or values.
Great advocates have the same ability: I have a few times worked closely with QC's, and their ability to absorb hugely complex facts, distil a case, and present it - all without making any moral judgment, and capable of being equally persuasive on either side of the argument - is quite staggering.
