Judge Not Ancestors or Descendants

 In sports, we like to talk about the greatest of all time (GOAT).  We do it for basketball, and I am convinced that Michael Jordan is the GOAT.  Newer people would say that LeBron James is the GOAT.  Older people might say Kareem and even older ones might say Wilt Chamberlain.  It’s simply unfair to compare the players who played in different eras because the evolution of the game.  The rules, the physicality of game in the 80’s, etc.  can you imagine these players today playing against the Detroit Pistons of 88 and 89?

You name a sport, and most of them have changed and it’s again unfair to compare players of different errors.

Similarly, you cannot slap the social standards of 2022 on people from 1978, 1945, 1910, 1861 or 1791.

In 1945, it would been a thing not noticed for Americans (and folks from other countries) to call Japanese “Japs” or Germans “Krauts”.  These people that did this fought and many died in the defense of freedom and the destruction of totalitarian or otherwise evil regimes that existed among these derisively nicknamed people.  We may not even exist or be free to argue such trivial things without these American heroes.

Fast forward to 2022 and based on the standards today people would lose their mind if you were to call the same groups of people these things and I agree that in 2022 that this would be unacceptable.  It would be inappropriate to say such things now. But it’s completely unfair to rewrite history and slap today’s standard on people in 1945. They were in line with society at that time, and cannot be condemned by today’s standard.  

Fast forward again to 2075.  Imagine the modern people of that time, looking back at our time and condemning us for something that we totally find acceptable today.  Maybe at that time they would say that it was inappropriate to call people black, white or other color.  Maybe by then we go a different direction and we come back to the understanding that people have either have an XY or XX chromosome and the mental gymnastics to figure this out today (2022) would seem silly…..as it certainly would to people in 1781 (if they could be here to experience 2022).

So the GOAT for me in basketball is Michael Jordan.  But for you it is someone else. Your life is appropriate to you today…..but may be judged harshly by somebody in the future. It would be unfair…..as unfair as it for you to judge somebody in the past.

Of course, there are some wrongs that are wrong and for any era.


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