People have to shut off their brains because because their brains are telling them absolutely and unconditionally to stop what they’re doing. I went to a school with a devout militarist; all his life plans involved rising through the ranks. He spoke about everything in army jargon, ranks and status and whatever else… all language designed to stop him seeing things as they actually are. It’s modernism, too, the imaging of the world as machines and machine parts, angles and surfaces, until that’s all we can see.

Although it’s ancient by now, I agree with your post about how history can be depressing, and how we’re rarely prepared to accept people as being genuinely ‘good’ - we get suspicious and start looking for their weak points. Anyone can be a misanthropist, but only very rich people can be philanthropists! From my own experience, at uni, whenever a text we study describes someone in particularly glowing terms, someone’s bound to accuse them of ‘romanticising’ - which also gets my goat for my love of the romantics, of course! Incidentally, I took a course on South Asian history & politics last year, and one topic the lecturer emphasised was the difference between the image of Jinnah portrayed in the Anglo world, like, say, in Ben Kingsley’s Ghandi - cold, aloof, shrewd - and the historical reading of him as a genuine, idealistic man. He had a fantastic wardrobe, too!

Anyhow, thank you for reading and feel free to comment anywhere, anytime!

Especially this: “It’s modernism, too, the imaging of the world as machines and machine parts, angles and surfaces, until that’s all we can see.” You’re right, & I never noticed that!

Jinnah’s my hero!! Movies like Ben Kingsley’s have their place in “experiencing history as it happened,” but yeah, bias & all that is inescapable in them.

xxo

Plus, Kingsley portrayed Ghandi with a small, demure, rather melodic voice - but he actually had a BIG, BOOOOOOMING, rumbly voice! Bit of a stereotype there, Ben, tut tut. I have big respect for the independence leaders, and quite a few South Asian activist post-independence too - I really think they’re setting a lesson for the whole world in a lot of ways. Social, spiritual, environmental, in terms of listening to history and adopting practices which are both universal and carefully shaped to be relevant to local needs…