Listening to the Slate Political Podcast this morning, I was bailed up by a line of John Dickerson's in reference to a serious mistake made by the subject of discussion. He said that it was his belief that "The worst thing about you becomes the most true thing about you." It got me to thinking about and mulling over (redundancy!-ed.) the veracity, or otherwise of Dickerson's assertion.

With public figures, this is almost always the case these days. Celebrities who have offended against children are often as not defined by that fact, no matter what changes they make to their lives or how much time passes. The Gillard Prime Ministership seemingly lost legitimacy as a result of the " no carbon pricing" backflip, which Gillard wore herself as a badge of dishonour in the eyes of many electors. In our own lives, people who commit serious breaches of trust in one way or another do tend to get stigmatized and thus redefined by the nature of their offences. But is this "most true thing about them?"

The 24/7 hyper-environnment makes matters worse, for reasons that are obvious. No-body can be let alone or allowed to atone for whatever misdeed or misjudgment occurred in their past. Even when the offence is false or unproven, the mud sticks and the truism may still apply. No-body ever said life was fair, nor should they.