06-25-2019, 09:29 PM
(06-25-2019, 02:09 PM)David Horn Wrote:(06-19-2019, 08:26 AM)Skabungus Wrote: The Gray Champion... From the very first time I read S&H I made the assumption that the Gray Champion did not refer to a certain individual, but rather intended a broad reference to many persons of a certain age that possessed the knowledge, foresight and fortitude to serve in the role. I still believe that is how S&H intended the term "Gray Champion" to be interpreted and applied. I find the idea of a singular GC to be awfully simplistic. In the 21st century shouldn't we be beyond seeking "the anointed one"?
Exactly! Expecting to find a single human to fill that role is expecting a miracle. Of course, citing examples of GC behavior is something we should be doing. Just keep it at that level.
Some that I propose as Grey Champions for their countries:
Otto von Bismarck, Germany
Meiji, Japan
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy
Abraham Lincoln, USA
Benito Juarez, Mexico
Winston Churchill, UK
Franklin Roosevelt, USA
Karl Mannerheim, Finland
Karl Renner, Austria
Mohandas Gandhi, India
Konrad Adenauer, German Federal Republic
These men (what is to say that a woman could not do this?) are all Idealists who got their countries through or out of Crises, reshaping their countries in lasting ways. They are all Idealists, and they utterly dominated the political process without being discredited.
Serving as foci of resistance to occupiers? There are Haakon VII of Norway, Christian X of Denmark, and Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. All three of these were royals as heads of democratic orders.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.