If you have any exiguous knowledge of history you will have noticed that what Emerson said is absolutely true. Any person who has outlived his usefulness is discarded as soon as it is convenient. Past deeds are almost never taken into account. For example, Winston Churchill, a political genius , was discarded as soon as the war ended. At times of peace they never elected him. Mind you , this man was one of the most adroit politician that ever was. Discarded like trash. Never to be appreciated in his country, at least not as much as Gandhi in India, even though Churchill's contributions to the British Empire were quite equal to those of Gandhi. He was certainly just as jingoistic. Take the example of Machiavelli, in his heyday he was the sharpest political mind the world had ever seen since Sun Tzu and I doubt it shall see another one of his calibre. His subject , Cesare Borgia too, a brilliant ruler and conqueror using the armies of his father , Pope Alexander the IV th , managed to unify the powerful Italian kingdoms using political subterfuge that had never been done before. Everyone gave extreme importance to Cesare when he was in his prime. As soon as his father died and he was terminally ill at the same time, everyone revolted and tried to kill him including the pope elected. Such complete iniquity, such accismus can only be seen in human history. I know i am digressing from the topic but it irks me so, to see human apathy in its full bloom. As a kid, I had read a book by a notorious genius, Wilhelm Friedrich Nietzsche, and he declared very bombastically that God is DEAD. The funny thing is, most people didn't have the mental faculty to understand this man's genius. In the end, even he succumbed to the Human law, which Emerson has so finely enunciated. They declared him clinically insane. This man, a “mad man” as per the infernal bourgeois sensibilities, who was such a brilliant philosopher that he made a dull subject incredibly funny and amusing. He was a brilliant man in a stupid time. He was discarded as soon as possible and his views were twisted and contorted by others so as to make them extremely radical. He was a pacifist, an actual believer in intellectual superiority rather than a physical superiority. He believed in the elitist movement but only because he couldn’t find intellectual equals very easily.
Alan Turing, the guy who broke the German enigma code, the one single-handedly responsible for the allied victory over Hitler was reviled and forced to commit suicide. Imagine this, a man responsible for cracking the German Enigma code, therefore the only reason the allies won the war was forced to commit suicide after it, when he wasn’t needed. This is simply appalling. This man should have had a city named after him, but he was nonetheless reviled and not even acknowledged till very recently.
Sorry for using examples which are relatively obscure for some of you, let me ease it up a bit. Check out Oscar Wilde, John Maynard Keynes, E.M Forster etc, luminaries in their field, legends even, faced the same problem. Pleiades meant to be respected not made fun of.
Sorry about the length of this note. I have just recently been introduced to a blog by a friend, a brilliant writer in her own stead and a very effective blogger – if there is such a term. So thank you, mon ami , philosophe...... ;).
Please feel free to comment. Sorry for the language used pro tem, as I have often been the cynosure of jokes for my language. I have made it as simple, as puerile! as possible.
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