Prison Wars: An Inside Account of How the Apocalypse Happened By Martin Sanger. Martin Sänger

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СКАЧАТЬ engulfs us will be cognizant of the importance of distinguishing between a healthy culture and a pathological one. I hope they tell their children about what happened to us.

      CHAPTER THREE – HOME LIFE

      I pretty much stayed up all night watching television. Prison Wars was the top story on every network within an hour. All night long, it dominated the news channel talk shows.

      Callers asked all the questions you’d expect. Less than half of those who called in considered it a good idea. Of the supporters, about ninety-nine percent were male. More than half of the anchors editorialized their disapproval and said we ought to do what we could to stop it. A significant number of people, I’m glad to report, expressed alarm.

      It was predictable that everyone would want to know more about the man behind the program. Some networks had slapped together bios of Quentin. Many, I’m proud to say, quoted my original profile of Quentin in Fortune magazine. As will happen, his old associates and supposed lovers showed up to spill dirt.

      It was now apparent why he was cultivating me as a publicist. Speculation was rampant for the next few days. Who could believe that someone could pull off such a seemingly impossible arrangement? Surely this person was perverse. But just as certainly he must have been both rich and a genius (a combination that provides fascination for both men and women).

      In fact, Quentin’s life had been rather unremarkable. He went to the same local high school, Palisades High, that his children were slated to go to. His picture in his senior year yearbook wasn’t distinguishable from all the other blonde, shoulder length, stringy haired boys of his generation and neighborhood.

      At UCLA he majored in business and finance and graduated in the middle of his class. He did, he claimed, “Enough to not get kicked out.”

      Following Quentin’s undistinguished graduation, he started his own venture capital company. His company did have the strange distinction of mostly funding the development of products for the toy market. His company, ‘Play On,’ developed the “Radio Doll” and the “Kiddie Credit Cards Buying Clubs.” Other than that, his career had been entirely pedestrian.

      In response to all of the vitriolic condemnation of him as the incarnation of evil, I had to produce sympathetic humanized depictions of him. This homespun-style spin about him was primarily intended to protect his family from attack. He really did worry about them being vilified.

      But more practically, he saw his wholesome image as the best defense he had against his critics. I don’t think he anticipated the strength of the opposition to Prison Wars. He was visibly shaken by the hostile responses at the press conference.

      His remarks about the inheritability of evil didn’t play well in the media. His flip remarks about the fate of the prisoners didn’t convince people that he cared much for individual lives. Prison Wars incensed all the human rights groups at once. His rich children not going to jail put the spotlight on the fact that the prisons are mostly filled with people that come from poverty.

      The only shining light in his series of responses at the first press conference were those about his family and taking personal responsibility for them. While denouncing the plan, due to the sanctity of life, a few right-leaning commentators agreed that family cohesion should be the basis of our morals. And, even Prison Wars’ critics could see that his love for his family was real.

      Creating positive spin about his having a warm and tight knit family wasn’t too hard to do. He had as normal and happy a family life as I had ever witnessed. His wife, Melissa, and he had been married 13 years when I met him. Their older son, Justin was a sixth grade soccer player and Samantha was a normal third grader with a passion for ballet lessons. They were very close to the ideal American family.

      Life had always been easy for Quentin. No major setbacks had marred his life. Well fed and cared for his entire life, he never had occasion to even develop a mean streak or an instinct for protection. His was a stress-free existence. And this ease and uncomplicated sense of well-being pervaded the feeling of his family.

      Quentin’s laugh lines weren’t there due to smugness and they weren’t fake. People picked up on that. Early on I figured out that one source of his happiness was the extreme joy he took in small things. Quentin was truly happy. I miss and am still uplifted by thinking of how much pleasure he would derive from his habit of picking up little items and looking at them.

      But I correct myself – they weren’t little things to him. Quentin liked to breathe, to hear people’s voices, having eyes to see snippets of life. During every conversation his demeanor silently said, “Isn’t it fantastic to be alive.” His presence made you aware of how little you appreciated your own existence. I planted this personal magnetism angle into nearly all articles, press releases, and inquiry responses I wrote on his behalf.

      My spin job was also intended to protect Quentin’s mental sanity. As I had already mentioned, his charm came from his relaxed low-key demeanor. Outside of the moments of discomfort he experienced at the press conference, I never saw him worried about anything in the early days. The crevices of his laugh lines were never covered over. He had a permanent smile.

      He prized his smile even more that his projects. Quentin wanted both and expected he could have both. Unfortunately, my spin couldn’t keep him from his public image. Herein, lies an interesting dynamic and lesson; don’t believe the hype. It will distort you until you are completely lost. But I am getting ahead of myself.

      The morning after the press conference, when I arrived at Quentin’s Malibu home, we all went on a beach excursion. It was a family only, no business allowed, beach trip. But he did have a personal goal that he snuck into the day. As his main publicity agent Quentin felt I had to know him and his family well. This was essential to my being able to paint a picture of him as a family man.

      But, Quentin wasn’t simply being scheming or manipulative. He was, as I have indicated, one of the kindest and most spiritually generous people I ever met. I think he could tell that I was lonely. My family had never been tight. I think that he knew that I needed a family and he wanted to help me be happy; to have a sense of belonging in the universe.

      It wasn’t just me. Wherever he went he seemed to key into people’s deep need for love and recognition. Knowing him made one realize how lonely Americans are. Our professionalism hid a lot of pain. A large part of his charisma and power over people came from his extraordinary warmth to perfect strangers. A surprising amount of folks are easily manipulated because they are starved for common friendship.

      Beyond it just being Quentin’s nature to be loving, he hoped that by making me a part of the family, he would be able to conduct business without having strangers on his property. I was to be that fine line between his personal and professional life. Having no children or close family of my own, I was really happy about this part of my assignment. I felt like an adopted puppy.

      The day after the press conference, a limo came to my hotel and dropped me off at Quentin and Melissa’s place. It was fun and unnerving to be in a limousine. I was really conscious that people must be looking at my vehicle and wondering who rode inside. My first inclination was to roll down the window, lean out and proclaim, “It’s me, it’s me! I get to be in a limousine!” But that would be silly. So I kept the windows rolled up and sealed myself off from view.

      Being resolved just to take my seat in the limo and quietly reflect on the night before morphed into self-scrutiny. I started asking myself, ‘Why am I in a limousine?’ ‘Am I special?’ ‘Different?’ ‘Aren’t I just that little guy from Nebraska?’

      Since СКАЧАТЬ