The Glair - William Jefferson Clinton: The Catalystic Man *

The Glair - William Jefferson Clinton: The Catalystic Man *


In chemistry the term Catalyst is defined as: “a substance that initiates or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.”

In politics I offer the neologism Catalystic, defined as: “an agent or agency which initiates or accelerates reaction or change, often seemingly uncontrollable change, without itself seeming to be affected.”


I. A Man for All Reasons

Like many Americans I watched with interest the interview conducted by Chris Wallace with former President Clinton, ranging over several issues but centered primarily, by Clinton’s own self-interest and behavioral demands upon the Clinton administration’s conduct and execution of the War on Terrorism. Of course during that era there was no officially declared War on Terrorism, as is the case in our present age, however there was a sort of undeclared Warm War in which terror groups like Al Qaeda directly interfered in US and US Allied interests, conducted hit and run guerilla operations in various parts of the world, and in which the US conducted surgical counter-strikes. That era was not an era of openly declared war, but of covert and guerilla warfare in which a new, but rapidly organizing enemy was on the periphery of international perception and action.

There is no need for me to psychoanalyze the performance presented by Clinton during his interview for Fox News, I’m sure that has been done over and over again throughout the blogosphere, by pundits on television, and by various radio commentators. Despite my personal experience in the field of psychology I doubt very seriously if I could add anything to the cache of comments already generated, or do I suspect I would achieve any end at this point other than to reiterate the various conclusions already drawn by others. However in personally observing, and analyzing Clinton’s interview, something occurred to me by closely observing his conduct, responses, and mannerisms that had not really occurred to me before. A sort of living and animated summation of the entire Clinton era, a distillation if you will of what his period of time, his legacy, and the legacy of those associated with his administration will probably look like to historians in a future yet to be written.

Clinton was an animal of his age. Which was essentially an age of self-involvement and self-fascination. His reaction to attacks on America and American interests combined with this narcissistic Weltanschauung colored American reaction to terrorist and terrorist attacks by foreign enemies. Yet Clinton could have no more reacted differently than the way he did to escalating danger from Al Qaeda than a Zebra could have stood his ground against an onslaught by a pack of hungry lionesses. It was natural for Clinton to misapprehend the nature of the threat and to look at each escalating series of attacks as separate, isolated, and ultimately judicial events. Because Clinton was not, and never has been, a real agent of change. Rather Clinton, like his age, was merely a catalyst for future events. Clinton’s age was an age of maintenance, of transition from an Old World with old concerns, to a New World with wholly different, far more dramatic, and far more important concerns. Historically Clinton’s presidency will be seen as a minor and unimportant chapter in the gap between the End of the Cold War and the War on Terrorism. In that gap Clinton falls like a catalyst into a soon to boil chemical soup of competing political, military, natural, cultural, sociological, religious and psychological forces. Clinton will be viewed historically like a stagehand who sets the props on a play in which he was overlooked for a major role. But that is the role of the catalystic man, he does not strut in the Main Act of the play, he either sets the cauldron to boil, or in Clinton’s case he lets the pot boil until the cup runneth over and the broth bubbles over the capacity of any lid to withstand the force of heat generated within.

Clinton was, and remains to this day, as was evidenced by his reactions to the questioning by Wallace, a catalystic man. Catalystic men do not change the world; they create the conditions of change for others without themselves ever becoming truly affected. Or they may, as was the case with Clinton, fail to suppress, redirect, or transform change until it is too late for it to take any other course than to explode outwards in a dramatic conflagration. Clinton could not understand the nature of the threat of terrorism, and certainly could not react in order to pre-empt or anticipate it because Clinton’s nature is that of a catalyst. Clinton by his actions could spur on, even encourage change in others, but he could never really understand the nature of the change that was occurring around him because like any chemical catalyst he never really participated in that reaction. A catalyst spurs action in other substances, but it remains passive in regards to the very actions and reactions it has initiated or accelerated. A true political catalyst, like a true chemical catalyst will accelerate events to unfold, to transform, to react, without ever becoming directly involved, without taking effect itself, without becoming affected in its own nature. That is the way in which a chemical catalyst operates, the way in which a catalystic man operates, and the character of the political catalyst. Clinton was such a catalyst, even though he himself remained totally and blissfully unaware of it. That is the nature of the political catalyst, it causes or encourages others to act and react without it being aware of what forces it has helped put into motion, or how those forces will interact with one another. Because of this Clinton can, and does, within his own mind, find excellent reasons for why he is not at fault for the failures of his administration to have prevented the ever escalating terrorist attacks or the ever-growing threat, which culminated in the 9/11 attacks against the World Trade Towers. You see Clinton is unable to grasp the idea that he could possibly be at fault for the very same reason he could not realistically and fully comprehend the nature of the threat in the first place, Clinton is a catalyst in the world. He did not and does not change the world; he encouraged others to change the world, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill, as was the case with Al Qaeda. Clinton was a man for whom it only makes sense that his reasons for failing to respond to the threat are quite logical, both to himself, and to others. Clinton became angry not because he failed to stop the 9/11 attacks, but because he was angry that no one else could understand that he could not understand why he could not stop the attacks. The attacks had been in planning and preparation, obviously, years before the actual September 11th attack, and obviously the planning and preparations were long underway well into Clinton’s second administration, but Clinton was not prepared to understand or perceive this threat. Had Clinton been elected to a third term he would have still never perceived the actual threat facing the United States until the attacks had been executed, and even then he would have been psychologically unprepared to properly react. Not because he would have not wanted to react in a decisive and effective manner, but because he was and remains to this day simply psychologically and politically unable to grasp the full historical import of the 9/11 attacks and what they implied about the present and the future. It is simply not in him. Clinton remained throughout his presidency a catalyst for change in the world, an accelerator of events, an initiator of action in others both through his own actions and through his inactions, but he was not an actual agent of change himself. And he never would have been as a president and political figure. Clinton could and can theorize, he could and can intellectualize, he could and he can reason, but he could have never acted in an effective and anticipatory manner. Clinton remained, and to this day remains, a Catalystic Man - a Man for All Reasons, but not a man who ever had a real reason to Act. Or ever understood the need to do so.

End Part One


* Note: I employ the term catalystic as opposed to catalytic so that my term will not be confused with the term catalytic as applied in the field of medicine.

© JWG, Jr. 2006

Subject Explanations

Pesharim - Subject Explanations


I thought since I have undertaken a new publication schedule I might write a Subject Explanation to let my Readers (those who are not familiar with me, my old friends and my family know me well enough) understand a little bit about my background and the kinds of things they can expect to find and read about when they visit the Missal.

The Missal is my personal blog and therefore I cover subjects of interest to me, and to many of my readers. These subjects, when, and why they are included in this blog are as follows:

On Mondays I will write on Politics and Legislative Branch Matters. I have assisted on various campaigns and worked a couple. I’ve worked on quite a bit of legislation as a citizen working with my Representatives, and Senators, State and National to help write some legislation and assist with some popular movements and referenda, such as the effort to make the Amber Alert system national. I’ve also assisted with local initiatives and legislation on taxes, crime, etc. I’ve helped conservative campaigns for Presidents (such as Reagan and Bush) and helped on the campaign for Dole, which failed. I read in politics when I can and make extensive biographical studies of various candidates (both those I support and oppose) when a campaign interests me. I consider myself both politically Conservative and a Classical Liberal, but I have no interest at all, and little respect for, modern liberalism. I also consider myself politically active to a degree but unlike many modern men I don’t consider politics an obsession or religion. To me it is a tool for achieving a better society (when it works) or an obstruction to a better society when it fails, but not an end in itself. I have an interest in politics and public policies for that reason, and consider it important, but it doesn’t consume my every waking hour or thought. And I can’t imagine me wanting it to.

On Tuesdays I will write on Science and Judicial Branch Matters. I have a very old interest in Science going back to the time when I was in the second or third grade. As a kid I used to perform cryogenic freezing and resuscitation experiments on frogs and various other small creatures such as reptiles, amphibians, insects, and arachnids. I carried around a homemade Emergency Medics kit and would treat injured animals I found, attempting to save their lives. As I aged I became involved in several advanced science projects and experiments through special programs. I am an amateur astronomer, and I have built my own chemistry and biology lab. I have performed numerous forensic (a fascination for me) experiments and investigations, as well as physics, chemistry, bio-chemical, biological, engineering, psychological, medical, and surgical experiments. I enjoy reading in and experimenting in both hard sciences (physics) and soft sciences (psychology). I enjoy studying science, reading on current developments, and new technologies, studying the history of science and reading biographies on famous scientists. When at the various colleges I attended I read in and studied degrees for Psychology and Anthropology. I’ve been on a few archaeological expeditions and done internships in the field of psychology. I Vad and conduct my own Industrial Archaeological expeditions. I invent and have a great personal interest in Technology. I enjoy most every field of science but my favorite discipline is Physics, followed closely by Genetics and Psychology.

On Wednesdays I will write on Religion, Religious Matters, and on National and International Affairs. My interest in religion goes back nearly as far as I can remember. My interest in God goes even farther back than that, as I can’t ever remember a time not having an interest in nor not talking with God. I am pretty much a lifelong Christian, was raised a Baptist Protestant, and an adherent and disciple, if a very imperfect one, of Christ. As a teenager I became very experimental in religion, a trend that has pretty much continued throughout my life, and I became heavily involved in Raja Yoga. I meditated constantly and for a while mediation was the only spiritual practice I conducted. During that time period I was extremely happy and blissful, but then one day I felt as if I were spending all of my time absorbed in God and avoiding life rather than living it. That God wanted me to go out into the world and stop retreating from it. So I gave up the habit of daily meditation and became far more heavily involved in the world. My religious experimentation continued however and I began the practice of different forms of mediation (far less often though), contemplation, and prayer, began attending Mass, had several different personal religious experiences including dreams, trances, and visions, began hanging around Priests (especially Jesuits) and Monks (Franciscans and Benedictines), and studied Sufism and Judaism. My studies of and experimentation with Sufism and Judaism led me to the Philokalia, which led me to the Greek Orthodox and the Coptic churches. On High Holy Days I attend Mass at Greek or Coptic churches. At college my first set of degree studies was in Religion and Philosophy and I studied Latin and Greek intensely, finding both languages fascinating. In college I developed a Religious Order of Monkhood including the Rule Set because I was seriously thinking about becoming either a Secular Priest or a Monk. Instead I ended up dating several different women from various parts of the world and eventually married when I turned 30, and then had children. Recently I have become very interested in Missions Work, have developed good friendships with several missionaries, and my church has made me leader of some Mission Projects. However the desire to become a Priest ad Monk has never left me and once I retire I intend to become a Greek Orthodox Priest and right before I die, a Monk. I would like to end my life by taking my wife and going to a Monastery on some little Greek island or in the desert and dieing there, in the company of monks and priests. I am extremely interested in the idea of Reconciliation between the Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic, and Protestant churches, of erasing the various historical schisms in the Church and of developing a new sort of Modern Universal Christendom, in which all Christians and others who wished to do so (Jews, Sufis, etc.) could participate.

On Thursdays I will write on Military and Intelligence Matters, Law Enforcement and Criminal Affairs, the War on Terrorism, and Executive Branch Matters. I have a very long interest in Criminal Matters, dating back to my teenage years. In addition I have worked numerous cases and investigations. Originally my interests were more in criminology, then later in forensics and criminalistics. Now my interests are in International Criminal Cartels, Smuggling Operations, Terrorist Cell Structure and Financing Operations, and in anticipating and thwarting crime before it can occur. Though I still take a keen interest in local crime and local cases as well. My interest in the military goes back to a time when I was a teenager and I spent numerous hours studying World War II , Korean War and world military history generally. I also joined the Civil Air Patrol as a teen and thought briefly about a career as either a Fighter Pilot (I loved flying the training Wing Aircraft), or a Submarine Commander (as I’ve always been equally fascinated by submarine warfare). But I later pursued neither course, other interests taking a priority. Eventually however because of personal contacts and old friends I became deeply interested in the military again and began to extensively study intelligence matters and psychological operations. The War on Terror has only served to accelerate my interest in and studies of the current military situation, and I found a natural overlap between my previous experience with criminal investigations and undercover operations and the way terror cells, rogue regimes, and International Criminal Cartels operate. I began to try to develop new approaches to assist military thinkers, analysts, and planners with penetration of and infiltration of terror cells and ICCs. When asked I try to provide outside, unorthodox, and hopefully creative ideas for various branches of the service, and amateur or non-military analysis on various intelligence matters, usually related to crimino and narco terrorism, and operations. Because of this I also developed a strong interest in Non Lethal and Less Than Lethal Weapons and Weapon’s system developments. I closely follow new developments in NL and LTL technologies and because I invent I also closely follow many military Research and Development Projects.

On Fridays I will write on Culture and Popular Culture, and my Personal Hobbies. My personal hobbies include digital photography, film, Vadding - Urban, and Rural Infiltration and Exploration, investigating Cold Cases, video gaming (though I have almost no time to ever play anymore), art (I still do most all of my art by hand, though I use software to manipulate my photographs), architecture and design, composing music, inventing, writing poetry, hiking, working out, throwing the discus, and reading. I also conduct my own scientific experiments, assist with disaster relief and rescue operations (I spent many of my summers as a kid at a Rescue Squad), monitoring radio and world band radio communications, work on mission and ministry projects and occasionally help fight local fires. So those are the kinds of things I will write about on Fridays. I also enjoy watching and commenting upon Popular Culture. Popular Culture entertains me to no end and I often find pop culture extremely bizarre, funny, hilarious, absurd, and ridiculous. So I enjoy writing satirical pieces and parodies of popular culture and the Internet. I also enjoy reading about and following the modern Culture Wars in American and foreign societies between liberals, conservatives, traditionalists, secularists, and moderates. Finally I will also comment on games, music, film, art, and other elements of standard culture.

On Saturdays I will write on Art, Science, Religion, and Medical Matters. Since I have already explained my interests in these fields in the above sections I won’t reiterate.

On Sundays, my Sabbath, if I publish, it will be on Religious and Artistic Matters.



Previously I have owned my own business, which was a Consulting and Brokerage business. Eventually I grew very tired of Brokerage and Start Up Financing and IPOs, and it cost me a lot in time and money. Now I earn my bread as a Freelance Writer and Journalist. I also do investigations for various businesses, corporate, and other clients, and occasionally I still do consulting work. At the suggestion and encouragement of friends I am now also moving into the arena of writing fiction.