If the 20th century was the century of man's inhumanity to man
Y'know, the 20th century faces awfully stiff competition from, well, every other century. 20th century humans just had far better technology at their disposal with which to enact said inhumanity. I expect when we look back in 2105, the 21st century will make the 20th century look like amateur hour.
Not to belittle Mandela's courage in acknowledging his son's AIDS (especially in light of his successor's squirreliness over the issue), but isn't this a half step? Why didn't they announce his son's disease earlier, and give Africa a role model of living with the disease (like Magic Johnson in the US)?
Praise Nelson Mandela and the first three comments are dissents...
Ok, seriously:
Yeah, over Ghandi, just because I'm not sold on non-violent resistance; I suspect it's effective, but at a high price to its practitioners, who have to become supplicants...one of the things I like about Mandela is that he was willing to blow shit up, but wasn't pathologically attached to it. Rare trait.
I just hope you're wrong, apostropher. Even so, 2105 doesn't let the 20th century off the hook just yet.
Mike, that would be up to the son, no?
well, if we all just said "me, too" that would be kinda dull, wouldn't it?
but you're right that it was up to the son, and I realized that after I'd posted. However, I still think it was a missed opportunity, and it wasn't like his family's life wasn't fairly public already.
I also don't really know enough about it to really be commenting at all, but isn't that what the internet is all about?
People only think Mandela is good because he had a good running game and ran the West Coast offense. The real man on the century is Tom Brady.
You've heard that thing about how in psychoanalytic circles, there's no such person as "Freud," there's only "Freud himself"; can anyone in football refer to Bill Walsh without also calling him a "genius?"
I didn't see the article but was curious as to what their top 5 list was.
Here's the article, including runners-up (FDR, Ghandi, for starters).
"Freud himself" -- that's very good!
As for Walshdolatry. Better him than Montana, I'd say. [or, heaven help us, Parcells]
I bet Mandela would Gonzales-blog.
I'm sad to see that one of Mandela's chief virtues is omitted from this discussion, namely, the fact that his name rhymes with "cell dwella," e.g., here.