A name forever tainted.

I've often wondered how it'd feel to be one of those people who has had such a detrimental effect on mankind that their very name is tainted with irreparable disgrace. I don't imagine it'd feel all too excellent. And I'm talking real, obscene, heinous disgrace here, the sort that would make most people very reluctant to bestow a similar name on their child. I mean, I don't imagine there are too many little Adolfs or Saddams or Osamas running around the schoolyard these days.

Then there are guys like Charles Ponzi, a guy who swindled and cheated and scammed people with gusto so steadfast that his surname has since become synonymous with dishonesty.

But what of the guys living just slightly in the shadows of guys like Ponzi? Men, who, despite being total scum on all accounts, manage to slip under the public radar on account of another guy being just that little bit worse than they are.

Such is the case of Marc Dreier, the subject of a recent Vanity Fair piece. In an age where money is often perceived as the one true God, you kind of get the feeling that the white collar criminals of Dreier's ilk have become our latter-day Antichrists.

But while so many news outlets are preoccupied with crucifying the likes of Marc Dreier and, the man who stole (among other things) his spot in the limelight, Bernie Maddoff, this article's author takes a somewhat more tasteful approach. Rather than portraying Dreier as some sort of inhuman greed incarnate, we're instead presented with a portrait of a man who had an absolutely unwavering determination to succeed. Burroughs specifically mentions Dreier's 50th birthday, a time that is a critical moment of reflection and assessment in the lives of many men. For Dreier, this day was a landmark in his meteoric rise to success and its ensuing collapse.

A desire to succeed is something that almost every man and woman in the world can relate to, but for Dreier it evolved from ambition to hubris. Of all the flaws in his character, this one was the most significant, being almost Shakespearean in magnitude. Still, the fact remains that in this detailed, thoroughly researched and well-written piece of literary journalism, Burrough has presented Dreier as a very human character and as a man that many of us can relate to on some level, whether we like it or not.

Perhaps most importantly, Burrough did not neglect to mention that with his residences around the world and hundreds of millions of dollars at his disposal, he could have run at any time. Instead, he stuck around to face what was coming to him. I'm quite sure how I'd describe that choice. I'm very hesitant to say that sticking around to face his punishment was admirable or honourable, because a man like Marc Dreier has forfeited any right he ever had to have those words associated with his name. 

Instead, I'm just going to say that it was the right thing to do, and leave it at that.