Funerals and the way people are talked about immediately after their death have a huge influence on how they are remembered.
I think there are several people whose work has not recieved fair analysis because of the media nostalgia which surrounds their deaths. If we are to talk incessently about someone's life after they pass away, surely it can't all be beatification. A couple of examples spring to mind.
Ronald Reagan got a nice whitewash upon his death. Forget about Star Wars and anti-communist paranoia, he was 'the gipper', 'the great communicator' and there was a whole lot of talk about jellybeans.
No one could speak badly of John Paul II's policies, despite the fact that he back-tracked on many of the positive Vatican II reforms and alienated forward thinking theologians. There was little debate about what direction the church should take after his death. It was said to be out of respect, but it was quite useful for some of the interested parties (Ratzinger).
Tonight Margaret Thatcher is in hospital and Sky News are already cranking up the whole nostalgia machine again. Within the last half hour I have heard about her warm heart, that she was a feminist etc.
In the case of George Best, there was something of a media circus as well, but for every mention of his footballing, there was a collective sigh about his drinking. Everybody felt they had the right to pontificate.
Anyone who loves football knows Best was a great footballer. He was also a human being who was flawed just like the rest of us.
So what gives us the right to be so judgemental? The decisions he made about how he was going to live his life were personal ones, and unlike the decisions made by John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, they didn't affect the shape of the world. I couldn't care less about the personal lives of public figures.
Surely what counts is how they do their job.
And what Best did in public on the football field, he did brilliantly.
2 comments:
Good point, John. It reminded me of a friend of mine, a committed atheist who used to give out about the Pope every chance she got. "Stupid old git, what gives him the right to give out about abortions?"
Then when he died and all those biographies were on she turned over a new leaf and talked about what a vibrant man he was and how interesting his life had been and she really seemed to have found a new respect for his office.
Then Ratzinger was elected and it was back to "smelly old bastard, why should a nazi get to tell people how to live?"
Dying really does seem to dissolve most of our sins.
Mr. Sapphire, i've nothing to add beyond an expression of complete agreement with your post.
T.
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