I don't mind speaking ill of the dead. Hitler is dead and he was an evil man while he was alive. I don't suppose you can be evil when you're dead, but his evil lives on through the neo-Nazi movement.
There are a few people I would like to see dead, because I still think there is some sort of Divine Thingy, aka God, just because of the law of averages if nothing else. And there is clearly going to be no retribution for some people in this life, so I hope that the wailing and gnashing of teeth is there somewhere waiting for them. I suspect I need not give any more clues as to which three particular warmongering, countrywrecking, neo-communist hubristic, self-satisfied people I refer.
I don't mind speaking ill of the living either, if they deserve it. Makes no difference.
Michael Foot was a good man so far as I can see, and I remember him very well. The donkey jacket thing made me chuckle. Tommy, the eponymous soldier, would have liked it. I don't think Michael was disrespectful. And he was quite a funny guy. However, he was a communist. I'm glad he lost to Maggie. But Maggie respected him too, as an adversary. Not like Churchill with Hitler. Churchill thought, as did most people, that Hitler was a very naughty boy.
And it is nice to see some of his old colleagues being wheeled out. When I shuffle of the mortal coil and recycle my DNA, I hope people remember me. If someone says something like "well, at least I can write a blog without that idiot Marvo putting inane comments on it" then I'll be happy. Still dead though.
But, if someone says that I told them something, and then uses that to their own ends, I promise I will come back as the spirit of the nastiest, biggest, bastardest wasp and make their lives hell.
Speaking ill of the dead is no problem. Using them to further your own misguided cause, and especially to try to win points in a bloody election, is a problem. It really is. And I know that Michael would have agreed with this, 100%, because he was an honourable man.
R.I.P. Michael.
1 comment:
For most of us, when we die, our friends and families usually gloss over our failings and try to focus on the good things.
Not so with public figures. Often we form opinions that have no basis in fact, but we go on believing them while the person is alive and long after they are dead. Perception is everything.
I believe that most humans are good, but we fuck up from time to time. How we are remembered is dependent on how badly we fucked up.
I thought Foot was a good orator. He spoke shit, but he did it well.
CR.
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