‽istis reclaims a distrust of ‘Great Men’ (weekending 23rd November 2019)
Hot from yoga and a TV streaming channel documentary; lukewarm from a political debate perhaps short of a full set of credible candidates; cold from a televised/possibly ill-advised interview, and neutral at the appointment of a ‘special one’, ‽istis pondered the lives of so-called ‘Great Men’.
‽ perhaps the
publication of the 12th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica did
not end the view (after Thomas Carlyle) that the history of the world is the
biography of great men[i];
‽ possibly Herbert
Spencer underestimated the way that power and patronage, self-publicity, money,
title, or tweetings could influence, persuade, coerce or control the narrative,
the news (fake or otherwise) and lives – when suggesting that attributing
historical events to the decisions of individuals was ‘a hopelessly primitive,
childish and unscientific position’[ii];
‽ what if Tolstoy’s football-punditry-style
comment maybe brings some balance: ‘All these great talents, the Goethes, the
Shakespeares, the Beethovens, the Michelangelos, created, side by side with
their masterpieces, works not merely mediocre, but quite simply frightful.’[iii]
And, bemused at an apparent lack of gender representation across a spectrum (of proponents and critics alike) and wishing desperately for the hushing of hubris and a drawing back of the curtains surrounding the self-proclaimed great and unmatched wisdom of ‘wizards’ (past, present or yet to come; in Oz, or in and amongst us)...
‽istis reclaimed Kierkegaard’s sentiment for great people everywhere who may consider themselves slaves of history and cannot imagine their greatness.
Those who, despite their circumstances (and perhaps, possibly, maybe despite the hegemonic dominance of so-called ‘Great Men’ and the consequences of their words and deeds) are: ‘able to fall down in such a way that the same second looks as if one were standing and walking’; who can ‘transform the leap of life into a walk’ and who just sometimes are able both ‘absolutely to express the sublime in the pedestrian.’[iv]
Great people of the world (though perhaps, sadly, you don’t know who you are), we salute you!
© Pistis
