When we were in
To some extent, I can understand what she meant;
In other weird Presidential news, Rachel hates Andrew Jackson.
Don’t ask.
Monday, January 12, 2009
And Ghandi? Huge Douchebag.
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When we were in
To some extent, I can understand what she meant;
In other weird Presidential news, Rachel hates Andrew Jackson.
Don’t ask.
7 comments:
I believe "slime" was the actual word I used.
I don't understand hating historical figures. I don't hate Hitler (don't love him either) because I did not live in his time period. If you get a chance to see the German film "Downfall", the little German girl he hired as a secretary though of him fondly because he was nice to her.
The point is "She" live in his time period as well as just the fact she knew him personally.
How do hate or love someone that lived and died long before you were
born?
Apply said thinking to Jesus and you can see what I mean.
Huh? You don't hate Hitler because you didn't live in his time? Are you serious? Nice to know you don't love him. So what you are saying is that you have no feelings one way or the other about historical figures, no matter what they may have done. Wow!
As for Jefferson, he was a very complex figure and his reputation has gone up and down over the years depending on which aspects people chose to focus on. I'm not sure that having slaves per se makes his evil because, obviously, it was very common at his place and time. On the other hand, it's hard to understand his obvious hypocrisy in writing about human freedom without seemingly noticing the contradiction. In fairness, at least earlier in his life, Jefferson did condemn slavery, worried about its effect on the country, and took some, albeit limited efforts to abolish it. But he was, in a lot of ways, a very odd figure.
I heart Taft.
@Marc
Putting words in my mouth.
Love and hate the polar opposites of an emotional scale. I love my wife yet hate the Bush administration. Both exist in my time period and have effected my existence in very real and personal ways.
Both my grandparents fled Europe before WW2 and they hated Hitler. They had their reasons, but they did not teach me to hate Hitler or any other historical villain.
What do you base your personal hatred of Hitler on, the murder 6 million people? Well then, you must really hate Stalin . He ordered 20 million of his own people put to death. I bet Chairman Mao just makes you seethe with rage because his death toll is over 60 million.
Hitler was a slacker compared these two.
As far as Jefferson being evil, how could you know? You give him a pass on slavery because he was a founding father? How can you know the true character of anyone, let alone someone you have never met and died almost two centuries?
I think you can like or dislike a person from history the same way you can like or dislike a character in a book or film, but to hate or love them sounds misplaced to me.
"I think you can like or dislike a person from history the same way you can like or dislike a character in a book or film, but to hate or love them sounds misplaced to me."
I agree with this part of your statement. Also, I never said I hated Thomas Jefferson. I guess you were referring to Rachel's comment about Andrew Jackson.
Paul,
I don't like Stalin either or Mao either. And, yes, it does make me angry when I read about their actions; perhaps not in the same sense as I would someone I know that does something despicable but still, I do have stong feelings. I'm going to call Hitler (and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot and others) evil bastards even if they aren't in my time period. I don't need to understand their character to judge them. I'm not giving Jefferson a "pass" on slavery, I'm just saying that, based on his actual life actions, he was a complex figure, not all good or bad. I certainly never said he was evil. The whole point seems to be that someone can do horrible things but still be a "nice" person to people that directly know him. Hitler was probably nice to this girl in Germany. He also was apparently nice to animals. But that doesn't make him not an evil bastard and I will judge him for that. IN that context, who cares what his "true character" is? Being responsible for the deaths of millions of people tells me enough about the person's "character." I agree with you to the extent that it is often unfair to judge historical figures by current standards; saying Lincoln was a racist, for example, because he wasn't a 21st century liberal is ridiculous. Jefferson is another example. I never gave him a "pass" on slavery but he had other qualities that redeem him to some extent. Nothing that I know of redeems Hitler. He is not a complex figure; in fact, he is a quite simple historical figure as I read him.
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