Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[samaelrocks]

Admiral Stockdale said that phrase in a philosophical sense.

Admiral Stockdale seemed out of his league in the debate with the major party vice presidential candidates, Dan Quayle and Al Gore. He startled the audience and those watching on television with his opening remarks: "Who am I? Why am I here?"

While the statement transformed him into the butt of jokes from late-night comedians, he later wrote in The World & I magazine that he had chosen his words deliberately to showcase his basic view of himself that "I am a philosopher."

In the article, Admiral Stockdale said he drew his inspiration from the writings of Epictetus, a former Roman slave who was an adherent to the teachings of the Stoics. "Stoics belittle physical harm, but this is not braggadocio," Admiral Stockdale wrote. "They are speaking of it in comparison to the devastating agony of shame they fancied good men generating when they knew in their hearts that they had failed to do their duty vis-à-vis their fellow men or God."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/politics/06stockdale.html?ex=1278302400&en=b4e623b4d2f9c48c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I would conceed that his point did not come across though. The man had some age on him at that point and was not able to use expression as well as other speakers.