Taki Theodoracopulos: Difference between revisions

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Taki Theodoracopulos (Greek: Τάκης Θεοδωρακόπουλος; born August 11 1937), originally named Petros (Peter) Theodoracopulos but better known as Taki, is a Greek-born journalist and writer living in New York City, London and Switzerland. His column "High Life" has appeared in The Spectator for the past twenty-five years, and he has also written for National Review, the London Sunday Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, the New York Press, and Quest Magazine, among others. In 2002 Taki founded The American Conservative magazine with Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell. He was also publisher of the British magazine Right Now!. He currently edits and writes for Taki's Top Drawer, an online magazine of "politics and culture", which features contributions from such paleoconservatives and libertarians as Justin Raimondo, Paul Gottfried and Paul Weyrich.

Background

Taki's family originally came from the Ionian island of Zakynthos (Zante.) His father was a shipper who served in both the Greek Army during World War II's Balkan campaign and the anti-German Greek Resistance. He made a substantial fortune after the war in shipping, and later in his life was the owner of Karavel, one of Athens' biggest hotels at the time. Taki, who was supposed to take over the family business, was educated at Blair Academy and the University of Virginia, but chose first the life of the international playboy, and then the war correspondent's and the gossip columnist's. Taki was married on 5 March 1981^[1] to Princess Alexandra von Schönburg, whom he constantly refers to in his articles as "the mother of my children" [2] .

Politics

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Although most of Taki's writings concern his life among the rich and famous, his political views always find their way into the text. His politics may be safely placed on the Right. In his Spectator pieces, Taki comes across as a staunch defender of family values, yet he admits to actively pursuing wives he found attractive^{[citation needed]}; he values friendship and comradeship, but some of the men he "cuckolded" (his expression) were close friends^{[citation needed]}; he professes Christianity, but supports abortion rights and admits to violating most of the Church's commandments; he is strongly pro-American, but usually writes dismissively of American foreign policy; he is a fierce anti-communist, but has "no time" for the new Russian rich, whom he collectively labels "kleptocrats" and "nouveau-Russes"; he is a confirmed elitist and opponent of mass vulgarity, but reserves his harshest invective for the spoiled rich—among whom he admits he belongs. Consistently, nonetheless, Taki takes traditionalist, royalist and paleoconservative positions.

Taki is an outspoken critic of the current Iraq War and lays the blame for the "fiasco", as he calls it, on American neoconservatives, who have "destroyed the legacy of Ronald Reagan", levying harsh criticism on people like David Frum, William Kristol, and John Podhoretz. He considers war supporter Christopher Hitchens to be among "the former Trotskyites now masquerading as patriotic Americans". (Hitchens, originally British, is now a naturalised American.)

Taki is vocal in his criticism of vulgarity in both the media and in professional sports, but occasionally uses profanity himself in interviews, and says this is because he went "through hell" in the Navy.^[2] Some of his more controversial statements are to be found in his articles on contemporary immigration policy (see below).

He was prominent in the campaign to free the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose arrest he considered inconsistent with international law. [3]

Lifestyle

Taki is a former captain of the national Greek karate team (at one time he was a six-dan black belt), has represented Greek tennis in the Davis Cup, and is a keen skier. As an avid sailor, he has owned a series of sailboats and has expressed contempt for modern "gin palace" cruisers - although he has chartered the superyacht M.Y. Leander,^[3] which at the rate of US$ 490,000 per week hired plus expenses (registered in the Bahamas, no VAT is payable),^[4] is one of the most expensive British-owned yachts on the charter market.^[5]

Taki is also known for a lifestyle that reportedly revolves mainly around dinners, parties, alcohol, gambling, and the pursuit of women. In this, he reflects his open admiration for Ernest Hemingway and Hemingway’s traditional view of masculinity.

In 1984, Taki was arrested at Heathrow Airport for cocaine possession, for which he served a three-month jail term in England's Pentonville Prison. His memoir Nothing to Declare came out of this experience, and was described by Kirkus reviews as a "sometimes whiny, sometimes charming, always opinionated running commentary on his life, his friends, and his time behind bars." Taki, in his personal website, lists Pentonville Prison as a place of education, alongside the schools he attended.

Taki's behavior has led to a number of fights and altercations over the years. This includes brawls on the streets of Manhattan, karate matches in the Pentonville Prison recreation room and confrontations over women in the ski resort town of Gstaad, Switzerland.

Controversies

Taki has been criticised for using ethnic slurs by the newspaper The Guardian,^[6] and he has been investigated by Scotland Yard for some of his racial comments.^[7] Due to Taki's characterization of himself as a "soi-disant antisemite",^[8] coupled with strong criticism of the Israeli government and its supporters in the United States, The Spectator no longer permits him to write about Israel or Jewish affairs. In a follow-up Spectator column,^[9] Taki stated that he does not consider himself an anti-Semite and that the term "soi-disant antisemite" was intended to mean "so-called" rather than "self-styled". Taki claims some of his comments are intended "to piss off politically correct journalists" and not to be taken at face value, and that he wasn't bothered himself by ethnic slurs in his youth. "The Italians were called wops, the Jews were called hymies, I was of course a greaseball, and every Hispanic was a spic. Well, we all got along famously! It was rough, but it was fine. Obviously, one doesn't like to be called a greaseball, but you know — Greek, greaseball . . . Now, of course, all that is very, very unacceptable."^[10]

Books

• Taki, High Life, selected by Andrew Cameron, illustrated by Michael Heath. London: Viking, 1989. ISBN 0-670-82956-0
• Taki and Jeffrey Bernard, High Life, Low Life, introduction by Richard West, edited by Cosmo Landesman. London: Jay Landseman, 1981. ISBN 0-905150-27-9
• Taki, Nothing to Declare: Prison Memoirs, London: Penguin, 1992. ISBN 0-14-013256-2
• Taki, Princes, Playboys & High-Class Tarts, foreword by Tom Wolfe, illustrations by Blair Drawson. Princeton: Karz-Cohl Publishers, 1984. ISBN 0-943828-61-9

Notes

External links

• Personal website : Taki's Top Drawer