"Greatness is, to be fair, the rarest of human conditions," Stephen Pizzo says in an article at smirkingchimp.com, and proceeds to list some of his American greats. He names America's founding fathers, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, et al, while conceding they had their flaws. Fair enough.
Then he lists Abe Lincoln and FDR. More troublesome. Lincoln is in large part responsible for the civil war which killed hundreds of thousands. His motives were honorable, assuming that you believe a huge central government is the way to run things. I'm not sure.
Similarly, FDR did some good things for the country, Social Security comes to mind. He also maneuvered us into World War II, 'the good war', which killed somewhere around 100 million people. A great man? Not by my measure.
Then he lists Jack Kennedy, who he says "was shaping up nicely ," and says "we can all thank him for the fact that Florida and Cuba don't glow in the dark today." He's got that exactly backwards. Kennedy nearly got us into a nuclear World War III and the end of civilization. A great man? Nonsense.
He does say that Martin Luther King "shared the kind of greatness our founders had; courage, wisdom and vision." I'll give him that one.
All that to preface his view that none of the people running for president show any signs of greatness. Perhaps not, although Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul would have a shot at it if they could be elected.
Though there I'm playing his game. Is the only way you can be great if you assume great power? The exact opposite is more often true. Great power corrupts... etc.
Who would make your list of great men and women?
Posted by Deck at August 25, 2007 11:20 AM