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Elementary, my dear Copperhead - but there are some cultural qualifications

Elementary, my dear Copperhead - but there are some cultural qualifications

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Posted by Derf on April 14, 1998 at 20:55:47:

In Reply to: Re: TIME leaders and revolutionaries posted by Copperhead on April 14, 1998 at 01:30:50:

You seem to believe in the ultimate immortality of human qualities, and so do I. So on that point, you're not going to find much opposition in me. As far as the human qualities that influence us as people and progress in general, an ancient Socrates will be a modern Socrates; an ancient Napoleon, a modern Napoleon (though, of course, the situation doesn't have to be war this time). However, I believe that with the advant of public media span, there are some complications in the making of our "heroes." It definitely takes more to make a legend these days. Before the seeming omnipotence and omnipresence of "the daily news" brought the personal (and often messy) lives of our leaders close to us, we had mythmaking and idealizing - our Napoleons and Roosevelts were closer to God than they were to us, in our eyes at least. Woodrow Wilson might have been a naughty Clinton-esque hustler, without anybody hearing much about it. George Bush might have secured a bit of heroic mythmaking if we hadn't seen the Gulf War on TV. Harry Truman ordered the dropping of a bomb that killed many civilians, and yet, he's held in higher regard than Mr. Bush. The Vietnam War was of as dubious purpose as World War II, but why do the public generally admire FDR more than they admire LBJ? Since are "heroes" are now being seen up close, maybe we'll remember Two-ish Princess Diana better than slightly sinister Nine-ish Bill Clinton, because she lent herself more adroitly to exposure.

My question of change is not about us, but about what we are able to perceive around us. Keep in mind that I'm restricting my point to "the making of heroes"; I don't pretend to extend my point to any other aspect of human relationship and inter-perception. Our human qualities may not change, but the way we see other humans (especially public figures) will probably continue to change, following its current trend.

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: You seem to believe in the ultimate immortality of human qualities, and so do I. So on that point, you're not going to find much opposition in me. As far as the human qualities that influence us as people and progress in general, an ancient Socrates will be a modern Socrates; an ancient Napoleon, a modern Napoleon (though, of course, the situation doesn't have to be war this time). However, I believe that with the advant of public media span, there are some complications in the making of our "heroes." It definitely takes more to make a legend these days. Before the seeming omnipotence and omnipresence of "the daily news" brought the personal (and often messy) lives of our leaders close to us, we had mythmaking and idealizing - our Napoleons and Roosevelts were closer to God than they were to us, in our eyes at least. Woodrow Wilson might have been a naughty Clinton-esque hustler, without anybody hearing much about it. George Bush might have secured a bit of heroic mythmaking if we hadn't seen the Gulf War on TV. Harry Truman ordered the dropping of a bomb that killed many civilians, and yet, he's held in higher regard than Mr. Bush. The Vietnam War was of as dubious purpose as World War II, but why do the public generally admire FDR more than they admire LBJ? Since are "heroes" are now being seen up close, maybe we'll remember Two-ish Princess Diana better than slightly sinister Nine-ish Bill Clinton, because she lent herself more adroitly to exposure. : My question of change is not about us, but about what we are able to perceive around us. Keep in mind that I'm restricting my point to "the making of heroes"; I don't pretend to extend my point to any other aspect of human relationship and inter-perception. Our human qualities may not change, but the way we see other humans (especially public figures) will probably continue to change, following its current trend.

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