Chapter 36
Smoke's tendrils shifted.
"Was Bill Clinton another President?"
"Yep. Forty-second."
Several interfaces activated.
Auggie pointed immediately.
"Don't you dare."
They stopped.
"I am begging you people to let me explain one historical figure before you inhale the entire internet about him."
A pause.
One interface dimmed.
"Thank you."
Goose had fallen asleep across Smoke's shoulders at some point during the previous conversation.
Auggie wasn't entirely sure when.
Smoke had apparently accepted this as his life now.
That felt like progress.
"Okay. Bill Clinton. President from 1993 to 2001. Generally popular. Economy was doing pretty well. Country was functioning. And then he had a sexual relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky."
Silence.
Auggie waited.
Nothing.
"Yeah, that's about the reaction I expected from you."
Smoke's tendrils shifted.
"Why is the sexual relationship relevant to executive function?"
Auggie pointed at him.
"It wasn't."
The room went still.
"That's the point."
She sat forward.
"Clinton could still read briefings. He could still sign legislation. He could still command the military. He could still appoint officials. He could still perform every constitutional function of the Presidency."
"Then the relationship did not impair the designation."
"Operationally? No."
"Then why are we discussing it?"
Auggie smiled.
"Because humans don't experience the Presidency as merely operational."
Several Keshin shifted.
"There it is."
She gestured vaguely toward the display still carrying the line of American Presidents from the previous conversation.
"We spent all that time talking about how the office accumulated meaning, right?"
"Yes."
"Dignity. Leadership. Trust. Respectability. Morality. Authority. All this invisible shit humans kept attaching to it over two hundred years."
"Yes."
"None of that is required to physically execute the job."
Silence.
Auggie leaned back.
"But people expected it anyway."
Smoke's tendrils moved once.
"The individual violated expectations associated with the concept without impairing the operational function."
"Exactly."
The room became very quiet.
Auggie smiled.
"Welcome to the Clinton impeachment."
One of the Keshin spoke.
"Was sexual exclusivity an explicit presidential requirement?"
"Nope."
"Was the relationship prohibited by the constitutional framework?"
"Nope."
"Did it prevent execution of presidential authority?"
"Nope."
"Then the violation existed entirely within social interpretation."
Auggie tilted her hand.
"At first."
Smoke went still.
"At first."
"Yeah."
She sighed.
"Because then he lied about it."
Several Keshin moved simultaneously.
"Under a formal truth requirement?"
"Yes, under oath."
The room changed.
Auggie saw it immediately.
"Yep. There you go. Now we've crossed categories."
She stood.
"The affair violated people's expectations of the person inhabiting the concept. The lying created a legal problem for the person inhabiting the office."
Smoke's tendrils shifted.
"These became combined."
"Oh, catastrophically."
"Why?"
"Because humans had already made the first thing matter."
Silence.
Auggie began pacing.
"That's the part I need you to understand. If Bill Clinton had been some random asshole named Steve who cheated on his wife, there would've been consequences in his marriage. Maybe his friends would've judged him. Maybe his neighbors would've talked shit."
"Steve again."
"Bob has suffered enough."
A clicking pulse came from somewhere near the rear.
Auggie pointed without looking.
"Got you."
No one responded.
"But Clinton wasn't Steve. He was the President."
She pointed toward the display.
"So suddenly private behavior that had absolutely nothing to do with whether he could execute federal law became culturally relevant because millions of humans had expectations about the kind of person allowed to embody that office."
"The concept altered the significance of otherwise unrelated behavior."
Auggie stopped.
"Yes."
Smoke remained still.
"The behavior did not change."
"No."
"The individual performing it changed its perceived meaning."
"Not even the individual."
Auggie pointed toward the title beneath Clinton's portrait.
"The designation."
Silence.
"That's how powerful the concept had gotten."
She looked around the room.
"The exact same behavior performed by a random private citizen could be a shitty personal decision."
She tapped PRESIDENT.
"Put this on top of the human, and suddenly people start asking whether the behavior says something about the country."
The room went dead still.
Auggie nodded.
"Yeah."
Smoke's tendrils shifted slowly.
"The concept magnified the moral significance of the individual's behavior."
"Exactly."
"And then the individual violated a legal truth requirement while attempting to conceal behavior already perceived as inconsistent with the concept."
Auggie pointed at him.
"Now you've got the fucking problem."