Tuesday, December 07, 2021

How Our View of People Changes

 Over my lifetime many things have changed:

  • Eisenhower changed from a middling president to something more, worthy of a monument on the Mall.
  • Grant changed from a president presiding over corruption to a protector of black civil rights.
  • Sadat changed from a tinpot dictator and Nazi lover to someone who risked and lost his life for peace.
  • Bob Dole changed from a partisan hatchet man in the 70s to a well regarded last remnant of the Greatest Generation and a very funny man.
  • Ian Paisley went from pope hater to almost a statesman working with the IRA.
I could go on but I think examples show two things: 
  1. some people change over their lifetime, both as they change and their environment changes
  2. how people are evaluated depends very much on who the evaluators are and what their environment is.

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