The Great Man Theory - Is George Bush one of the Great Men of History?

[bridgit]

'Sorry about all those capital letters. I’ve been reading Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who has quite a thing for them. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Hegel’s grand and profoundly confusing book The Phenomenology of Spirit — an event that’s led, however indirectly, to wondering just what GWFH would make of GWB.

We know that the president is reported to have spent part of a vacation last year reading a novel by Albert Camus. Perhaps he has also been sneaking a peek at Hegel during the duller Cabinet meetings? OK, probably not. But he did say, not long ago, that the bloodshed in Iraq will eventually amount to a comma in whatever sentence finally sums up this epoch. That sentiment is at least vaguely Hegelian in its insistence on taking the extremely long view of things.

And so, as we await the unveiling of the Great Way Forward — or whatever the “surge” plan ends up being called — it might be worth considering whether the president is actually a World-Historical figure.

Not that such figures never benefit from the input of others. But Hegel thinks the effect of that advice tends to be small. “Whatever prudent designs and counsels they might have learned from others,” as he puts it, “would be the more limited and inconsistent features in their career; for it was they who best understood affairs; from whom others learned, and approved, or at least acquiesced in their policy.”

(I am throwing that one out into the arena on the odd chance that Tony Snow, the president’s press secretary, wants a novel explanation for why the White House has been ignoring the Joint Chiefs of Staff.)'

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/01/10/mclemee

[rug]

1. Only if Mrs. O'Leary had one of the great Cows of History.

[jgraz]

2. Post of the Week

:rofl:

[bridgit]

4. pft, if memory serves she did...

http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/oleary

[dad]

13. +1 rug

[babylonsister]

3. Not even if he should ever want to go to a play, which I doubt. nt

[mdmc]

5. like Hitler

:kick:

[Irreverend IX]

16. No way.

Hitler is an OK example of the great man theory, because his individual drive played a huge role in shaping the Nazi movement and goverment. If not for Hitler, even if fascists had taken over Germany the new state would have looked a lot different than the Third Reich. Bush, on the other hand, is nothing but a sock puppet for the neocon movement; if he didn't exist they would have picked some other empty suit in 1999 and the results would have been similar to those of the Bush presidency.

[gordianot]

6. Bush is unique in American Criminal History.

Mental Illness sets him apart. In 2 years he should be a bad memory.

[bridgit]

15. yep...

http://www.awakeninthedream.com/html

[sam sarrha]

7. greatest baby killer since Gangus Khan.. only he burns em up in the womb with depleted uranium

[damntexdem]

8. No, what we need is a small man theory.

It can explain how inept puppets can be put into critical positions and screw up the world for everyone. Dubya is a one-man refutation of any 'great man' theory.

[bridgit]

10. that sounds right to me, in the absence of a 'great man'...

they such as g.w. bush are installed = 'square peg in round hole just hit it with a big fucking hammer small man'

[zonmoy]

9. he is right up there with hitler and stalin.

[Telly Savalas]

11. Phooey on the Great Man Theory of History

In my amateur opinion history is a chaotic system like the weather or a differential equation, where a tiny change in the initial conditions can lead to radical differences in the resulting conditions. Although people filling certain roles, like that of head of a sovereign state, can obviously play a greater influence on the course of things than those in other roles, it would seem that the role itself is more critical than the person filling it. If the White House had been occupied for the last six years by somebody who wasn't a total fucking idiot, then history would obviously be playing out quite a bit differently than it is now. That doesn't mean that Bush is a Great Man in the Hegelian sense, it just means that the POTUS has responsibilities which immediately touch a lot more people than those of the clerk at the video store or whoever.

[XemaSab]

12. The "comma" was apparently a fundie shoutout

I think the full quote is something along the lines of:

"Don't put a period where God has put a comma."

[bridgit]

14. heh, good one...

:headbang:

[SoCalDemGrrl]

17. This is a joke thread, right?

[bridgit]

18. the things some people think about, eh...