PART ONE
WHAT WOULD OPRAH DO?: ETHICS AND THE GOOD LIFE AT 30 ROCK
ONE
BEING KENNETH: SOME MORAL LESSONS
P. Sue Dohnimm1
Kenneth makes my heart skip. It isnât his dashing good looks or his wonderful sense of style. It isnât just the endearing fact that his middle name is Ellen. Honestly, itâs the simplicity of his moral vision. He just sees the world in a way that I canât even imagine. Itâs an enchanted world, where right and wrong are as plain as the pee and laughter combination we call lizzing. I have the same question Jack Donaghy has.
Jack: Kenneth, I wonder what itâs like seeing the world through your eyes?
Kenneth: I donât know, Mr. Donaghy. Well, I think I see the world pretty much the same as everyone else.
Jack: Really? [music starts, Jack continues, singing] âCause I think youâre very special, Kenneth [ Jack is now seen through Kennethâs eyes, as a puppet.], to be able to get so much joy from simple things, simple things. . . .
Jack [talking again, and human]: But most of us grow up and lose our sense of wonder. [âApollo, Apolloâ]
Kenneth sees things uniquely. He is literal-minded. When Jack says, âNow look at me,â after talking about some of the things he went through as a child, Kenneth simply says, âI already didâ (âApollo, Apolloâ). Kenneth is thrilled with a key-chain he got on his last birthday, joyous because âevery time you move his head, his head moves! Look!â
The disenchanted world is complicated. The decisions we have to make can make us unsure of ourselves. We face challenges of all kinds. Weâre befuddled by moral dilemmas in which we have to make difficult choices. Do we let Jenna fall as she plays Peter Pan in order to get back at her for sleeping with Dennis? Do we let Frank go to law school given his family history? Do we call the ambulance right away when we hit Mom with the car? Kenneth doesnât seem to be bothered by such dilemmas. He sees the world with absolute clarity. Thereâs only right and wrong.
Kennethâs Moral Universe
Jack sees the world in terms of dollar signs. Tracy sees the world egocentricallyâeveryone is just another Tracy Jordan, having no interests other than Tracyâs.
Kenneth lives in a different world. His moral universe involves following a moral code no matter how difficult it is. Itâs a world where lying is wrong, where one must never steal, and where doing good for others is paramount. Kennethâs good deeds are all over 30 Rock. Whether heâs accompanying Liz Lemon to recover her phone from an unscrupulous cabby, or swearing his undying love for television, Kenneth seems to emit moral virtue like itâs going out of style (and maybe it is). When Tracy disappears to save himself from the wrath of the Black Crusaders, Kenneth knows his whereabouts, but refuses to break his vow to Tracy (âHiatusâ). Liz and Jack yell at him, threaten him, call him a âmouth-breathing Appalachian,â but itâs to no avail. His promise stands strong. When Tracy is running late to TGS, Kenneth sacrifices his body to get Tracy there on time. Kenneth voluntarily falls down some concrete stairs so that Tracy can use the ambulance to get him to the show on time (ambulances are only for real emergencies, after all) (âHiatusâ). When Kenneth wins Peteâs wedding ring in a game of poker, he simply gives it back. He canât see his way clear to keeping it (âBlind Dateâ).
These acts of kindness and principle seem to make Kenneth what we might call a ârule absolutist.â For the rule absolutist, the moral law dictates whatâs appropriate, and itâs appropriate everywhere and always. There are no exceptions to moral rules. Period. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is the philosopher usually associated with this view, though perhaps a little unfairly. For Kant, morality demands absolute consistency in action. It involves never making an exception of oneself, and always holding oneself to the highest moral standard. The rule is everything for the rule absolutist.
By contrast, one might think of moral rules as useful guidelines for navigating the difficult waters of everyday life. These rules, however, need to occasionally be set aside when the circumstances demand it. Of course, itâs easy to be wrong about what the circumstances demand, so one shouldnât set aside rules lightly. All the same, there will be some cases where a rule like ânever lieâ will lead us astray. (When the Nazis ask if we âre hiding any Jews, saying âYes, they âre upstairsâ would arguably not be an example of moral action! And the same goes for telling the Black Crusaders where Tracy is.) With this view, morality is a context-specific affair. We can call this contextual absolutism. The most famous advocate of this kind of view is Aristotle (384-322 BCE).
As the name indicates, this conception of morality doesnât equate to any kind of moral antirealismâthe view that there are no moral truths. The idea, rather, is that there is always a right thing to do, itâs just that rules canât tell us in advance what that thing will be. We have to pay special attention to the circumstances of our action, and act accordingly. The moral sage is the person who always sees all of the relevant features of a given situation, and responds to them appropriately. In this respect, the moral sage has no need for rules. Rules might help us to reach a stage where we act morally most of the time, but theyâre only a ladder that we must climb up. Once weâve attained moral wisdom, the ladder itself can be discarded.2
Kenneth certainly believes that thereâs a singular right thing to do. But is he a rule absolutist? Does he take his moral rules so seriously that he simply canât set them aside? In a surprising number of cases, Kenneth does set specific rules asideâand he sometimes does so for all the wrong reasons. But in a complicated world like New York City, whatâs the son of a pig farmer from Stone Mountain to do?
Tested Virtue
Kenneth doesnât seem to fetishize rules. He doesnât seem to hold to them in all circumstances no matter what, valuing them in themselves. For example, when Tracy and his wife, Angie, are on the verge of breaking up for good, Kenneth sets aside his aversion to deception. He tries to intervene. By pretending to be interested in Angie as a sexual partner in an attempt to make Tracy jealous, Kenneth Ellen Parcell claims heâs real good at the sexy stuff, and that heâd like to visit Angie âat night.â We know he doesnât mean it, and we know why heâs doing it. He wants to trick Tracy, to deceive him.
Kenneth attempts the same kind of deception when Tracy doesnât take his risk of diabetes seriously. He constructs an elaborate ruse involving a story he first heard from his Mee-Maw: the Hill Witch torments those who donât eat their vegetables! In an effort to get Tracy to eat right, Kenneth pretends to be the Hill Witch, trying to scare Tracy into a healthy lifestyle (ultimately, itâs Jenna who manages to successfully impersonate the Hill Witch).
So maybe Kenneth isnât a rule absolutist: heâs willing to engage in deception for a greater good. But the strategy can backfire. Consider, for instance, when Tracy tells Kenneth to âpleasureâ his wife as a way of making up for Tracyâs (pretend) infidelities. When Tracy rushes to stop the consummation, he finds Kenneth looking pale, eating a sandwich, sitting next to Grizz.
Tracy [running into his house]: Iâm going to kill you, Kenneth the Page!
Kenneth: Iâm sorry, Mr. Jordan. I just couldnât do it.
Angie: This boy comes to the door, tries to kiss me, then he throws up, and starts crying.
Kenneth: My body wouldnât let me violate the sacred bonds of marriage, sir.
Kennethâs ability to bend the moral rules has its limits. While Kenneth might be able to be set aside some moral rules briefly (like not deceiving others), he canât set them aside easilyâand certainly not for long. When Kenneth tries to get Tracy to believe heâs hitting on Angie, for example, he stutters through his pickup lines, using every clichĂ© he can think of. When the ruse is complete, he has trouble taking a drink from his bottled water, shaken by his venture into rule-breaking.
Kennethâs willingness to set aside a moral rule may well indicate that heâs a contextual absolutistâthat is, he may think that morality sometimes requires setting aside our usual roles. But thereâs some evidence to the contrary here as well. While Liz is right to call Kenneth a âsweet kid,â he doesnât always seem so sweetâparticularly when heâs doing something for someone else (like Jack).
Jack: The only reason I sent you to Banks was to get information. Why were you telling him anything?
Kenneth: Iâm sorry, sir. I had to keep talking just to stop him from putting his fingers in my mouth.
Jack: Kenneth, you are the worst gay bait ever.
Kenneth [upset]: You used me?
Jack: For television. Kenneth, I humiliated you for television.
Kenneth [excited]: Like on Whatâs Happening?, when that man used Re-run to bootleg that Doobie Brothers concert!
Jack: Exactly. And I need to humiliate you again. Iâve got a very important meeting coming up and Banks cannot be there.
Kenneth: And you want me to kill him . . .
Jack: No. I want you to distract him. Youâve got to make sure he doesnât leave that hotel room tomorrow morning.
Kenneth: Iâll do it. Just like Sydney Bristow on Alias, Iâll use my sexuality as a weapon. To the wig shop! [runs away, smiling]. [âFireworksâ]
And this is certainly not the only time Kenneth is asked to use his sexual energy as a trap for Devon Banks. Itâs also not the only time he decides to actively deceive others. Television is hardly the greater good, even though Kenneth most certainly thinks it is. Do these examples show that Kenneth isnât the moral beacon we thought he was? Perhaps. Or perhaps not.
Thereâs another way of understanding Kennethâs moral lapsesâand one that fits perfectly with Kennethâs personality. Kennethâs immoral actions all stem from the same unholy trinity: gullibility, trust, and unflappable loyalty. He sets aside rules for the greater good, but he also sets aside rules when he thinks heâs serving a higher cause (like television, or his friendship with Liz). Heâs no moral sage, to be sure. He lacks the wisdom for that. As Frank puts it in describing why Kennethâs so good at poker, âHeâs awesome. You canât read his thoughts because he doesnât have anyâ (âBlind Dateâ).
The simplicity of Kennethâs moral vision is thus also Kennethâs downfall. Heâs too easily duped into giving up parts of his moral vision by his trust in and loyalty to others. This is a central danger of seeing the world through Kennethâs eyes: it is a beautiful world full of happiness and song, but also a world where we can be led to act against our own principles.
Olympic Tetherball: A Final Lesson on Moral Frailty
After learning that many of his most beloved Olympic events were faked to improve ratings, Kenneth has a sit-down with Jack.
Kenneth: âBelieve in the starsâ. . . itâs like that doesnât even mean anything anymore.
Jack: Kenneth, Iâm sure I can trust your discretion about what happened in my office today. What you overheard was some rather grown-up talk.
Kenneth: Was any of it real, Mr. Donaghy? Beer pong? Jazzercise? Womenâs soccer?
Jack: You âre not in Stone Mountain anymore, Kenneth. This is the real world, and not everything is in black and white.
Kenneth: Thereâs always a right thing to do, Mr. Donaghy. Just sometimes, itâs not the easy thing to do. [gets up] Tyler Brody was not the only hero I lost today. [Kenneth begins to walk away, but stops and turns back.] The other hero was you, in case thatâ
Jack [interrupts]: I got it, Kenneth. [âBelieve in the Starsâ]
Kennethâs reaction to Jack promotes a pang of conscience in Jack. For all of Kennethâs hillbilly moral sentimentâfor all that he fails to see in the worldâhis vision of the good acts as a reminder of how the world could be. Jack later worries that somebody âwould have to be a complete monster to lose his respect.â This leads him to try to convince Kenneth that a person can be good even when that person chooses to violate some moral rules without appealing to any greater good.
Jack: Kenneth, Iâm a good person.
Kenneth: If you say so, sir.
Jack: But sometimes life is complicated. There isnât always a right answer. Say youâre on a lifeboat.
Kenneth: Youâre on a lifeboat.
Jack: The boat holds eight people, but you have nine on board. Either you will capsize, and everyone will drown, or one person can be sacrificed to save the others. Now, how do you decide who should die?
Kenneth: Oh, I donât believe in hypothetical situations, Mr. Donaghy. Thatâs like lying to your brain.
Jack: Kenneth, youâve lived a sheltered life. Virtue never tested is no virtue at all.
Kenneth: Oh, I have been tested, sir. There are only two things I love in this world: everybody, and television. But up in my neighborhood we canât even afford cable. S...