09-14-2017, 05:50 AM
The worst Idealists of which I have ever heard (unless you are talking of extremists like Nazi war criminal Wilhelm Frick or an Old Bolshevik like Vladimir Lenin or Lev Trotsky, a terrorist, or an outright criminal who could be in any generation like Ted Bundy) were the loud-mouth defenders of the slave system in the old South -- the exploiters and abusers of slaves who insisted that they be seen as benefactors to 'their' )in a strictly-possessive sense) people. An exploiter and abuser who sees himself as a benefactor? That's someone who thinks his evil is a great and needful boon to Humanity as a whole.
OK, I will give you the name of a criminal -- Phillip Gallardo, kidnapper and sexual predator, who kidnapped an 11-year-old girl whom he eventually raped and impregnated, and economically exploited. He now has a 431-to-life term to serve in the California penal system. He can roast in Hell, so far as I am concerned. In the now-defunct generational Forum I called attention to his arrest, conviction, and sentencing.
Aside from great creative people (Whitman, Schubert, Matisse, T. Mann, Sibelius, Spielberg) and philosophers who can redefine or enrich a culture the greatest Idealists are those who can give purpose and meaning to a national struggle -- Samuel Adams, d'Israeli, Lincoln, Juarez, Herzl, Sun Yat-Sen, Churchill, Gandhi, Mannerheim, FDR, and Adenauer, the latter doing much to restore the credibility of a nation that had gone extremely bad.
Donald Trump has nothing relevant in common with any prior figure of Idealist greatness.
OK, I will give you the name of a criminal -- Phillip Gallardo, kidnapper and sexual predator, who kidnapped an 11-year-old girl whom he eventually raped and impregnated, and economically exploited. He now has a 431-to-life term to serve in the California penal system. He can roast in Hell, so far as I am concerned. In the now-defunct generational Forum I called attention to his arrest, conviction, and sentencing.
Aside from great creative people (Whitman, Schubert, Matisse, T. Mann, Sibelius, Spielberg) and philosophers who can redefine or enrich a culture the greatest Idealists are those who can give purpose and meaning to a national struggle -- Samuel Adams, d'Israeli, Lincoln, Juarez, Herzl, Sun Yat-Sen, Churchill, Gandhi, Mannerheim, FDR, and Adenauer, the latter doing much to restore the credibility of a nation that had gone extremely bad.
Donald Trump has nothing relevant in common with any prior figure of Idealist greatness.
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.