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guest_
· 4 years ago
· FIRST
We have to judge history by the standard of its time. We contextualize history by the standard of our time. It’s complicated- but Mein Kampf was a socially acceptable book espousing common viewpoints of the Second World War Culture of Nazi Germany. So... it’s cool then right? I mean... some guy 80 years ago in Germany didn’t like Jewish people- that was pretty common in Germany and actually Europe back then. So it’s cool? Of course not. But that also doesn’t mean it didn’t happen or that we should pretend it didn’t. We have to ask certain questions such as wether an author was trying to spread beliefs or merely guided by their beliefs. We have to ask about their social relationships, we have to be honest. Abraham Lincoln is generally not considered a piece of shit- but by 2020 standards were he a living person today he’d probably be a celebratory embattled in law suits and controversy because by our standards- he probably behaved and held many beliefs that we’d call problematic.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Imagine Joe Biden or Donald Trump calling black people “negros” and saying people of color are better than animals but not quite equal to white men, or that women shouldn’t vote or have power. Not widely acceptable ideas in 2020. But in Abe’s time- he was a very progressive guy. By the standard of his time, he couldn’t have been expected to do much more than he did- he could have, and people might have started a second civil war over it. By the standards of our time we could judge him as far from perfect on issues like race or gender. Let’s simplify- if you kill 20 guys in a war you often get called a hero. Kill 20 guys at the supermarket and suddenly it might not be as accepted. Obvious, but that’s the point. The time and context something occurs in is important. Elliot Ness committed criminal acts to bring down organized crime. He’s a hero today. If an officer did what he did in 2020 in the name of protecting the public, we’d throw them in jail most likely.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Complicated. But the principal is simple. How many confederate generals made brilliant strategic decisions that saved the lives of their troops? How many Confederate generals helped communities suffering the ravages of war? How many went on after the war to create jobs or advocate for their people in government etc etc? A good number. But these men were also the same men responsible for the deaths of Americans and the suffering of civilians in an open treason against their government. So then- are they good or bad? Well- if you were alive during the civil war and in the south, probably heroes. But... how many of us were alive then? So.... that sorta sums that one up. It’s 2020 though and most of us never met these guys. To us they are history. Relics of things that happened before we were born.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
So maybe that’s a takeaway for people on the issue. Maybe heroes belong in their own time. Maybe we don’t need and really shouldn’t elevate people to a pedestal. Maybe we need to look at these things objectively. Maybe we can accept that people now and never before have been perfect- but that we can take them for who they were, human, and what they did- and remember them in context. Did histories go to villain- Adolph Hitler, never do anything good? Was he completely rotten? He (for a time) improved the conditions for many German people. He brought social security and national roads and industry and jobs and science. He created infrastructure and institutions and ideas that still endure to this day, and brought Germany on a road from debt laden poverty to a modern super country. He liked dogs, he was a powerful public speaker. He banned drugs and made all sorts of social reforms. And... he was a genocidal monster and a level of evil that defies description.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Hitler was a bad man. He did bad things. No one should celebrate him. No one should admire him. No one should call him a hero. BUT- all his evil doesn’t erase the good about him no more than someone like Gandhi- where all his good doesn’t erase his evil. If we never celebrate anyone who isn’t perfect- we never celebrate anyone. If we never rebuke anyone with some good, we never rebuke anyone. Perhaps someday that’s the way it should be. Maybe we shouldn’t have heroes or villains. As a society we aren’t ready for that yet. We still have the need for figure heads and sentimentality that inevitably requires we classify everyone and everything as “good” or “bad.” We can’t erase history though. As the saying goes, then we are doomed to repeat it.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
The fact that we manage to repeat history as is even with all the history we have to guide us shows we need all the help we can get. If your favorite author made an insensitive joke about the potato famine over a century ago- that doesn’t invalidate their work or mean it should be erased. But you should acknowledge and accept who they are by the standards of today and what that means- not be gone deaf; and one should remember when enjoying fiction of another time that they are viewing it through a modern lens.
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