A popular saying, ‘every person is a world’, clearly expresses the complexity of the human being. No one is perfect, none are absolutely wicked. It is not surprising that everyone attracts supporters and detractors, and those who stand out generate phobias and affinities. Certain images humanise the monstrous figure of Adolf Hitler: stroking a girl, playing with a dog in his bucolic alpine retreat. Should the collective judgement prioritise the facts regardless of their protagonist? Given how fickle ethical and moral principles are, is it valid to apply current values to ancestral behaviours?
With some more than with others, History tends to be benevolent towards geniuses: it highlights their achievements, little of the ‘locus’, a subjective perception of the possibilities of controlling one’s own life and influencing daily events. Without such data, it is impossible to understand personality: motivations for behaviour, actions, decisions. This information is very useful for having a proper idea about the aspiring ruler, and for this reason they take care to conceal potentially unfavourable traits and sanctify privacy.
In the face of such opacity, it is worth investigating ‘a posteriori’ the life and miracles of the deceased hero. Surprising imperfections then appear that disillusion. Should we abolish the Law of Gravity upon discovering that Isaac Newton was a plagiarist, as he stole the idea from Robert Hooke, slandering him until he embittered his existence? Would they have celebrated ‘Madame Bovary’ had they known that Gustave Flaubert was a paedophile, as he paid children for sex? Should we forget Nikola Tesla for his Luciferian pride and his advocacy of eugenics, the exclusive reproduction of the most excellent humans? Would the pacifist halo of John Lennon remain unscathed, would his figure as a musician be iconic despite his abusive nature and insensitive fatherhood, as his first wife Cynthia recounts? Should we ignore the significant contribution of Louis Althusser to contemporary thought because he strangled his wife during a nervous breakdown? Does Bobby Fischer’s chess mastery diminish because of his furious antisemitism, rejoicing after the terrorist attacks against the Twin Towers? Do the inveterate misogyny of Plato and Picasso invalidate the originality of their innovations in philosophy and aesthetics? In these and similar cases, perhaps the sensible thing is to remember their human condition. Because talent is not synonymous with virtue.♦
