Worse than Gandhi vs. better than Hitler
I notice that some
people compare Edward Snowden unfavorably to Thoreau, Rosa Parks and Martin
Luther King; and that the same people tend to compare the USA favorably to
China, Russia and Venezuela. Technically these comparisons are correct, but
still that’s holding Snowden to a much higher standard than the USA. If anyone
ever compared me to, say, Gandhi,
even unfavorably, then I’d be pleased; but if anyone ever compared me to, say,
Hitler, even favorably, then I’d be furious.
The latter is called ‘damning by faint praise’; so maybe we can call the former
praising by faint damns. I’d say, in both cases, ‘so I remind you of him?’
I have heard my
country called better than Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Taliban Afghanistan;
and this from people who thought they were saying something nice! (Assuming
that they thought about it at all.) Am I the only one to see the grievous
insult in this? The soft bigotry of abysmal expectations?
No comments:
Post a Comment