Oscar Wilde said a lot of things. Some were pretty outlandish, but one maxim has stuck with me all my adult life. It is: "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing."

On the surface, it would seem that Wilde was championing optimism and truth and decrying cynicism, encouraging his generation to 'follow the light' and not slip into the shadows of our human penchant for seeing only the trees before us and not the whole forest of the values our culture and society represent.

An accomplished and talented man, he was also a flawed man, but that does not nullify nor negate the value of his pitch to us that we can -- and must -- confront the demons of our own narrow-mindedness; that we must search for true meaning in everything we do, even when our pocketbook cries out for relief. If Wilde were living among us today, he would be shouting his maxim on every cable channel and peppering the newspapers with editorials about the value of being honest and doing our due diligence (especially when it comes to choosing our leaders and their politics) and on the true cost of our ideologies.

But, alas, he's not, so it's up to us to take up the challenge, especially now when we're at the threshold of yet another presidential election.

A few days ago, our president held his annual State of the Union address, something that the Constitution mandates in Article 2, Section 3, clause 1. "He  shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union…" 

Traditionally, presidents have used this opportunity to do a little politicking, and everybody who has watched, heard or read the transcripts of one knows that it is not limited to actual information dissemination about how our country is doing though nearly all presidents say somewhere in the speech that "the state of the union is strong" whether it is or not.

A few have said it right up front while others have buried it in their rhetoric.

On Thursday, Joe Biden made it his 25th point after talking about Vladimir Putin, Ukraine, the Israel/Hamas conflict, Roe v. Wade, his predecessor's many failures, infrastructure, and clean water.

In actuality, Joe Biden was observing tradition (at least Democrat party tradition) for delivering a giant opinion editorial, packaged in a campaign laundry list of goodies that he would deliver like Father Christmas, if only America would give him access to our chimneys and vote him in again for another four years. The concerned citizen in me wanted him to address the problems facing the country and tell us how he and his administration would -- specifically -- solve them.

Instead, he took the country on a buggy ride over some well-worn and predictably rocky paths, alluding to the dangers lurking right around the next bend.

It was clear that his repeated use of "my predecessor" to describe his nemesis, Donald Trump, was a calculated move to dehumanize and delegitimize his challenger. His demeanor, which was argumentative, aggressive and defiant reeked of screeding and was definitely not a Hallmark moment. His remarks were those of a shadow boxer who had constructed a strawman of make-believe dangers that only he could defeat. His SOTU was not hopeful nor inclusive nor even friendly like those delivered by two of his Democrat predecessors, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. His campaign strategists had other ideas.

Hope and change was out the window. That mantra's time had passed. It was now time to declare an all-out war on those who would destroy our democracy and was reflected in Biden's intro with a "worst of times" reference to FDR's wartime SOTU. While not outright comparing himself to Roosevelt, the implication was there, and so was the thesis that freedom and democracy are under attack. Having set his rhetorical table, he moved through his laundry list of issues, taking great care to touch all bases with all potential voting groups. He laid out a smorgasbord board of pandering to every American, encouraging all of us to take what we wanted because there was more in the kitchen if we would only not rehire the previous cook.

The speech was also a liberal's road map for government largesse that would require Americans to suit up and go to war with big corporations, big pharma, unscrupulous landlords and all those (read: Republican) insurrectionists who are intent on bringing down the world's greatest democracy. Some examples of Bidenspeak were: "You can't love your country only when you win," "Trump failed at COVID," "I will restore Roe v. Wade again," and my favorite, which sums up his administration's and his party's credo: "You can't lead America with ancient ideas." That one really hit home, and I suspect that like a boomerang, it will come back to hurt him when Americans have had some time to fully digest his speech.

Who would have thought that the very Constitution that gave this aging politician the podium to express his views would be criticized as an irrelevant document that can be spoken of as "ancient ideas." Not this writer, that's for sure. That particular remark by our president does remind us of one thing, however…

The actual cost of everything is not found solely in its price tag; its true value is always subject to its relevance and usefulness.

Thanks, Oscar Wilde; you are still among us.

Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, six of which are on American politics and has written over 1,300 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website: www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com

Image: Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Picryl // CC0 Public Domain Dedication