Jerry Brown takes charge again
ON JANUARY 3rd a new governor was sworn in as the leader of a state, California, which in recent years has been described as everything from dysfunctional to ungovernable. He seemed to trip over his oath: “without…any…mental…reservation.” There was laughter in the hall. Keeping his hand on his wife’s Bible, and smirking, he turned to the audience: “Really, no mental reservation.” It brought the house down.
It was vintage Jerry Brown. At the age of 72 he was following, as he did not need to remind anybody, in the footsteps not only of his father (Pat Brown, first sworn in 52 years ago) but also of himself, 36 years ago. In place of the famous shock of jet-black hair there are now tufts of silver. But Mr Brown is still known for the two strands in his intellectual persona.
He trained as a Jesuit, and retains cerebral proclivities. He also studied Zen Buddhism, and has never lost his penchant for the spontaneous and offbeat “accident” that makes his desired point all the more effectively. Hence the humorous kernel inside that little irregularity during the oath. California is in awful economic straits. One might well wonder why anybody would want the job.
Mr Brown obliquely answered that in Jesuitical style. He expounded on the “philosophy of loyalty” by a 19th-century thinker, Josiah Royce. And he read from the diary of his own German great-grandfather, who came to California by wagon trek across the desert in 1852, as a way of putting the current challenges facing Californians into perspective.
But Mr Brown was most eloquent whenever he allowed his inner Zen to emerge On the matter of his age, for instance: he is too old for “delay or denial” in dealing with daunting problems, he said. But the young guns hankering after his job shouldn’t get any ideas. “Aunt Connie, would you stand up?”, he asked, to renewed laughter. Aunt Connie is turning 99 and in fighting form. “It may be a while, so relax,” Mr Brown said. “God willing, the genes are good.”
His predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, typically retired after such occasions to a purpose-built tent in the courtyard of the state capitol to smoke cigars. Mr Brown instead joined the crowds outside for a hot dog. Then he departed to prepare a budget, to be delivered on January 10th. By all indications, it will cause shock and awe.
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