In his novel, The Human Stain, Philip Roth notes that one of America's
oldest communal passions is to indulge in the "ecstasy of sanctimony." We feel
good and morally superior by condemning the moral failings of others, past
and present. I think it is particularly important for those of us
dedicated to a study of the past to guard against falling into the dangerous
condition of the "ecstasy of sanctimony." It affects those on both the right and
left wings of the political spectrum.
Peter Henriques
In a message dated 12/11/2012 9:42:10 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Thank you! Very few extraordinary men have totally clean slates of
behavior. It seems a bit juvenile to condemn the man and everything he
accomplished instead of condemning the (disappointing and unexpected by "fans") bad
behavior as a part of that human being. The emotion about this subject never
ceases to amaze me. Expecting our heroes to be saints is very concrete
thinking.
Sent from Melinda's
iPad
On Dec 11, 2012, at 9:18 AM, Steve Corneliussen <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Mr. Barger complained that Monticello's "emphasis...on slavery issues"
comes "at the expense of Mr. Jefferson." To me that seems upside down. The
emphasis in fact honors Mr. Jefferson.
>
> Mr. Jefferson matters because self-evident but challenging truths
matter. It's too bad that Monticello, like the rest of us, failed for many
decades to begin elucidating and respecting the lives, dignity and contributions
of individual Americans obscenely oppressed by fellow Americans --
including by Mr. Jefferson, the paradoxically slaveholding human-rights idealist.
>
> If Monticello had continued its former Gone-with-the-Windism on slavery
late into the last century, if the curators had persisted in obscuring
Americans' lives on that mountain, it would have been the foundation's civic,
historical and moral negligence that would have come at the expense of Mr.
Jefferson.
>
> But they got it right. Good for them. Good for self-evident truths.
>
> Good for Mr. Jefferson.
>
> Steven T. Corneliussen
> http://www.fortmonroenationalpark.org/
> http://tjscience.org/
> http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/science_and_the_media
>
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