Lately it’s become fashionable to tear down statues of colonial-era oppressors who, just a few years back, were still celebrated as heroes.
It’s interesting how current perspectives always reshape history, and how it seems to be an affliction of the present era that we find it necessary to paint historical figures as either villains or heroes, with no middle ground and no real thought about the times they lived in, and how the cultural mores of the time might have dictated their views of the world.
In reality, human beings are all flawed, and most of us are rather too influenced by each other and the zeitgeist of the era in which we live. It’s only natural.
It’s only really since the advent of the internet and social media that the general public has been able to readily access the detailed scholarly research that has revealed the flaws in just about every previously untouchable major figure from the past. Look at the way the saintly Mother Theresa has been demonized, and the long list of important religious figures and gurus that have been exposed as frauds or predators.
For many years Gandhi was a personal hero, both for his extraordinary peaceful activism and his advocacy of vegetarianism. But a closer inspection reveals a man whose beliefs and actions – by 21st century standards – would be considered sexist if not outright misogynist. But then, despite his courageous actions, he still existed within a belief system that placed men above women. And while he fought for the rights of those on the margins, he also believed that this biological existence was simply a penance to be paid in preparation for what came after. Like so many religious believers, his ideas were anti-nature. He was a man of his time, but also, a man out of time.
If we were able to travel back in time, 100 or 200 years, we’d see just how out of step and freakishly marginal vegetarians were. In most societies, equal rights for women and non-discrimination on account of sexual orientation, were ideas whose time had not yet infused through society. The same would have been true of racism. Through the history of humankind, discrimination - whether against the tribe across the river, or those people with different coloured skin - has been a handy excuse for exploitation and power plays. In fact, we can effectively travel back in time today by looking at fundamentalist societies where women are still stoned to death, or even more sophisticated societies with governments that limit the information available to their people, thereby keeping them ignorant and fuelling them with the idea that they are the chosen ones.
In 2020, it feels like there’s a kind of revolution in the air. It’s a “woke” revolution, with a new generation determined to make a better world. As an “okay boomer” (ha) I love that there’s an idealism that hasn’t been as widespread since the campus activism of the early 1970s. It feels like a real movement and compassion for animals and care for the environment are all part of that big picture.
It’s important to remember, however, that no one now, or in the future, will be perfect; that heroes will almost always let you down if you stoop to pick through their dirty linen. People are seldom all good or all bad. It’s time to focus on the issues, not the individuals. (GARY STEEL)
Gary Steel is an Auckland-based journalist who runs entertainment site for grownups, www.witchdoctor.co.nz.
He can be contacted via beautmusic@gmail.com
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