I like stories of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi and all those amazing legendary stories. I mostly love how against all the odds they found a means to be beacons of light. So in school we are quizzed, drilled and reminded to get our facts straight. Facts of legendary deeds they deserve to be in the fiction category.
I don’t know, it’s always unsettling to think of how little credit some heroes get. Let’s take Winnie Mandela for instance, a strong pillar for Nelson while he was in prison. It was Winnie and co who caused riots and unrest until after 27 years Nelson was freed. How many tell her story? Living with uncertainty for the same amount of years as I currently am. I’ll be 27 come November 27. My entire life the films, the shows everyone is seen as a back drop to the brilliance of Nelson and yet it was all group effort. The group project where the speaker gets all the recognition.
I don’t know, honestly I don’t it just feels like we are purposely fed stories to fit into a certain narrative. The narrative that gets remembered the most for Mama Winnie is that a few months after Nelson was released, they got divorced. Considered just an extra next to the larger than life Nelson Mandela. I don’t know it’s always just fishy when only one story is magnified, when only one truth is reinforced. It’s easy to pick on Nelson but equally just as easy to talk about Gandhi. Protests usually happen in India as some people are uncomfortable with Gandhi being considered a hero because he wasn’t very heroic with his wife.
The opposite actually, turns out he might have been fighting oppression whilst being the oppressor. Naturally there is no substantial evidence towards these claims and so it’s not discussed as openly. But if it were true why can’t we use him as an example in heroics and an example of some of the dangers of power. No one is an accomplice, he chose his own path but protecting a false memory only dishonors what good he did and magnifies his dirty laundry.
I don’t know, cause if its honestly true it goes to show that humans are capable of good and evil. That good and bad are choices that we all have to make. That no one is perfect and yet those options balance perfectly waiting to be selected. Good or Bad? I don’t know what it is, but it’s sometimes like there are children’s clovers used to direct and move me. To mould my thoughts, and condition my responses. I don’t know but if Gandhi was alive he would need to face some punishment, otherwise there is no justice.
I don’t know why we create a double standard for life, then get so upset when the double standard is pointed out. There is this fantasy that for our heroes to remain super they must also have the highest levels of integrity. They must be infallible, no wonder we idolise them. They seem perfect, dang I’d like to be like that too. But the truth is no one is perfect and hiding the flaws of our heroes only serves to muddy the waters.
I don’t know, honestly why do we even have people we place on unrealistic pedestals? Why do we bother holding people to a standard of perfection? It’s funny especially when we think of leaders we expect that there are just certain things a leader shouldn’t have done or shouldn’t be capable of doing. I get it, the truth muddies this amazing story of triumph but it’s the silence that turns them into monsters.
How can you acknowledge this bigger than life person but fail to see how they are not bigger than life. They are equally trying to figure their lives out. Is any one person only good or bad? Are we so extreme as people that we only have one angle to us and we can’t have so many different sides? I once saw a video on Facebook and in the video they showed Hitler cracking a joke. It wasn’t an evil joke, the jokes with a guy stroking a cat and laughing way harder than necessary. He genuinely said something to make young kids laugh. He had a soft side, yeah hate him all you want but we shouldn’t have to tell only half a story.
The stories we are fed are like the movies we used to get fed so often, good or evil. Pick a side and even when you pick a side it’s not like every facet of ones life is stuck to that one side. But we create a standard, a double standard that can be used to shift things around and paint an ideal picture. A picture that will represent larger than life followings and amass a following. I can’t blame anyone though, we really are excited by the saviour story. So instead of us and paying attention to ourselves we tend to expect a saviour in everything.
If you’re the saviour, I can possibly overlook the wrongs you’re doing because in the “areas” that matter you’re amazing. But if I hold you accountable, what is the worst that could happen. Besides people losing belief of course.
I honestly don’t know let me not lie to you, when balanced on all sides, I can understand why history is skewed. Why if people knew the true facts it would cause panic and chaos. I get why they could have decided to hide details its understandable. But it’s so messed up and that’s why a lot of things are so messed up. Everyone is so busy hiding something, trying to uphold a certain image that they have settled in their mind. A certain image which has false truths to uphold a generally good or bad story.
I honestly don’t know, but I hope that tragedy stops with us, we either tell the true story or become accomplices to lies, murders, injustice. Injustice is generally where my head goes immediately, cause no matter what the story is, we need to acknowledge injustice and find justice for it. No matter the place or situation injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
I don’t know, but we really need to chat and figure somethings out.
A thought provoking post, I too have been thinking about this because I see that many who history glorify although inspiring, do have their share of dirty laundry too and that can’t be ignored! As an Indian I have been reading about Gandhi’s oppressive past where he spoke up against the British’s oppression but himself obliged and to the caste system in India. But people tell me that that doesn’t matter because of his sacrifices. Don’t they see the double standard?
That double standard makes the ones struggling with injustice feel like they are ignored. We are all imperfect and maybe we need to stop glorifying each other and just take us as we are.