Yesterday I was walking past some people eating at an outdoor restaurant, and as I walked by, I overheard a woman say, "I think if he becomes president he will be assassinated. I have no idea which candidate she meant. For all I know, she could have been talking about Raul Castro. But it got me thinking about hatred for political figures.
It has always made me uncomfortable when other people express strong hatred for politicians. I always feel as if I have to defend whoever is being attacked, which makes me rather unpopular at parties. At first I thought that this characteristic was my need to champion the underdog, and to restore balance (if you say it's black, I need to point out that it could be white from a different perspective). But it makes me so uncomfortable that there must be something else going on.
They say that when you start taking someone else's inventory, it's time to turn the searchlight on yourself. I realized that my discomfort over political hatred is perilously near to my own contempt and resentment for men whom I never met and who are, additionally, dead. Three come to mind immediately, the trio whom I have always called the most overrated men of the nineteenth century: Darwin, Marx, and Freud. I've been holding a grudge against these guys for years, and, while I don't think it has hurt them, it's probably not necessary for me to carry it around any longer. I need to work on developing compassion for the overrated.
Although I'll wait until I'm stronger to start working on my feelings about Reagan.
Just for today, I will learn to have compassion for dead men I never met.
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3 comments:
Hey Kelli! Glad you're blogging. And you are the first person I've met trying to muster sympathy for dead white men. I think Nietzsche makes my list for annoyingly overrated writer of the 19th century. Wonder what that says about me?
I'm not to keen on those guys either, but the value that other people place in their ideas does not make their ideas valuable to me, so I've never really cared.
Does that make me inconsiderate or ignorant?
Don't forget John Calvin, John Knox, Augustine of Hippo, Paul of Tarsus and Jesus! Although the last three weren't white, so maybe they don't count ... (-;
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