138

Why do we glorify horrible people from the distant past? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 months ago by Konis@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

122 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Julius Ceasar, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and many more...

These people had beliefs and worldviews that were so horribly, by today's standards, that calling them fascist would be huge understatement. And they followed through by committing a lot of evil.

Aren't we basically glorifying the Hitlers of centuries past?

I know, historians always say that one should not judge historical figures by contemporary moral standards. But there's a difference between objectively studying history and actually glorifying these figures.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

No leader in that period is a good example of the ends justifying the means, all being self-serving feudal lords, but if that's the lesson you draw, I actually do agree with the concept. That's how every military action is justified, unless you're a pacifist.

I chimed in because OP was replying to support what I said, so I figured it was all the same discussion. I suppose I wouldn't go as far as saying you can't judge Genghis Khan, but I would say it's not very useful to use modern standards when that basically makes any historical figure dead by 1950 a bastard one way or the other.

this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024

138 points (87.1% liked)

Asklemmy

43835 readers

757 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS