Wit & Attitude Quote by Barry Goldwater

Goldwater’s joke lands with the blunt-force swagger of midcentury American masculinity: the punchline isn’t infidelity, it’s risk management. He frames adultery not as a moral failure but as a business error, turning sex into a question of liability and workplace logistics. That’s the intent: to get a laugh by posing as the hardheaded pragmatist who sees “fooling around” like an executive sees a bad investment.

The subtext is colder. “Any man in business” assumes the workplace is male by default and the secretary is an available accessory, not a colleague with agency. The secretary’s proximity is treated as the problem - not exploitation, not power, not consent - just the potential mess when the affair is too close to home. “If it’s somebody else’s secretary, fine” adds a second, sharper barb: it’s acceptable as long as the consequences fall on another man. The humor relies on a fraternity of men trading risk onto each other, like passing a hot potato across boardroom boundaries.

Context matters. Goldwater’s public persona mixed moral traditionalism with libertarian toughness; he was celebrated for candor and a certain arid, unbothered bluntness. This line plays into that brand, using comedy to signal he’s no pearl-clutcher while quietly reinforcing the era’s casual sexism. The joke works because it’s a window into how power talked to itself then: ethics optional, discretion mandatory, and women rendered as workplace scenery that can also be trouble.