Res Ipsa Loquitur

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June 07, 2004

Passing of Heroes

It has become the fashion amongst a certain set, when a great figure has died, to take it upon themselves to show us yet again how our gods have feet of clay. So they stir round in the muck until they find evidence of transgressions to sling at the deceased.....an easy target that, the dead who are unable to defend themselves. And find such evidence they will, for there is good and bad in us all. The measure of a man is found in his relative proportions of each.

What motivates these societal nihilists? Are they compelled by their Nietzschean lives devoid of hope and joy to destroy those qualities in the lives of others? Or are they driven to construct a world in which good and bad are relative and 'who's to say what is right and wrong' in order to justify and normalize their own peccadillos and perversions?

I say it is the latter. And that in order to construct this world, heroes must be destroyed.

Heroes play an important role in every society. They give us hope that we too may someday do great things; that we too can overcome our baser instincts and do good in the world. In a heroless world, there is no such motivation. There is only the raspy voice whispering in your ear, "Why not do it if it feels good? Everyone else does, even your so-called heroes."

But they miss, in their nay-saying, two important lessons from the death of a hero. First, that such heroes accomplished great good in spite of, not in addition to, their failings. That in and of itself fuels our desire to do better than we are.

Second, that speaking ill of the dead reveals much more about the speaker than it ever could about the deceased. For it is by their words that their real motives are discovered. The normalization of evil.

I refuse to accede to their attempts to draw me down into the cesspit in which they live. Good men sometimes do bad things. But the latter does not detract from the former.

So when their evitable muckraking begins, as it has now with the passing of President Reagan, I am reminded of these words:

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

So should we all mourn the passing of heroes.

Posted by Rita at June 7, 2004 12:00 PM

Comments

Posted by: Dr. Weevil at June 7, 2004 05:00 PM

Posted by: Norman at June 7, 2004 06:14 PM

Posted by: rita at June 7, 2004 09:15 PM