• communism [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      This is a great point, it makes me think that perhaps in the past it was a lot easier to mythologise someone still living but when it's so easy to look into someone's life now you can quickly remove the facade of greatness from someone.

        • communism [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Oh yeah it doesn't stop great man theory from existing as a dominating thought but it definitely stops it from being valid.

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Americans love the great man theory. They see the American Revolution and foundation of our government purely through the lens of the actions of "great men" instead of a part of broader forces i.e. rich bourgeois landowners/slavers wanting to create a system that increased their wealth and power and would enshrine their class at the pinnancle of power. It's why a lot of Americans react so negatively to something like People's History of the United States. In their minds our country was founded by great men and that's what makes our country great. Nevermind that those same great men literally owned people as slaves. Apparently they were incredibly wise and had tremendous foresight to build a system of government we should definitely keep in perpetuity, but not enough foresight and wisdom to know that chattel slavery is wrong.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      It's funny because there are contemporaries of Thomas Jefferson who looked at the Declaration of Independence and were all "You've got some fucking nerve vomiting about freedom when you own people".

      • Orannis62 [ze/hir]
        ·
        4 years ago

        How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of slaves?

        -Samuel Johnson

  • Civility [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Fucking thankyou!

    Marx was AN excellent historian but there has been a lot of excellent Historiography done in the 150 years since Marx a whole lot of which isn't based on Marx.

    • p_sharikov [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I'll make an exception for Marx. Not because I think he's a Great Man, but because I'm sick of hyphenating tendencies.

  • MiraculousMM [he/him, any]M
    ·
    4 years ago

    Ever since I realized the prevalence of the great man theory and how bullshit it is, I can't stop seeing it everywhere, particularly in media. Why do so many protagonists have to be "the chosen one" that single-handedly saves the world/universe/whatever? The insane prevalence of that trope just irritates the hell out of me now.