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What historical figures do you consider your role model?

I might have missed it, but did someone mention Benjamin Franklin, for example?

One would have thought American Founders and Revolutionaries would have made the list for creating a country that has grown to be such a symbol of liberty protestors in Hong Kong waved the American flag and sang its Anthem. Of course, some of them had slaves, but most were strongly opposed to the institution and those who could overwhelmingly cast votes to restrict or ban the institution later.

Churchill would also come to mind. He made some racist comments and hold some racist views, but he did partake of the defeat of Nazi Germany. To be fair, he wasn't pushing for white supremacy and racist policies in the same way Democrats did in the United States. Aristotle certainly also deserves some credit for his work on logic, for example, even though he held rather contemptible views on women and slavery.


If someone wanted to pressure me into some nuanced, they could point out that most great people were great in their times, even if they morally fail in some respects by contemporary lights. As the Bible put it, Noah was a good man in his time. Or as Ben Shapiro put it, it might be the case that you stand eleven feet tall, but it's because you stand on the shoulders of people seven feet tall and you're just four feet tall yourself so you have no business scolding them.
 
SDET said:
For me the first that comes to mind is:

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli - Wikipedia
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For me it’s William the Conqueror. He was a bastard, and when father died crusading, his people, knowing how dangerous the Dukedom was, picked this obscure 12 year old bastard boy, and made a target out of him. He survived, and the rest is history.
 
jet57 said:
For me it’s William the Conqueror. He was a bastard, and when father died crusading, his people, knowing how dangerous the Dukedom was, picked this obscure 12 year old bastard boy, and made a target out of him. He survived, and the rest is history.
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Jet57:

Robert Duke of Normandy died of disease in Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1035 IIRC. That was sixty years before the First Crusade was called by Pope Urban II. William had conquered and consolidated the Anglo-Saxon part of his realm long before the First Crusade too.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.
 
Evilroddy said:
Jet57:

Robert Duke of Normandy died of disease in Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1035 IIRC. That was sixty years before the First Crusade was called by Pope Urban II. William had conquered and consolidated the Anglo-Saxon part of his realm long before the First Crusade too.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.
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You are correct. I should have said "died on a pilgrimage". I've got four books on William, you'd think I would have gotten his dad right :3oops:
 
jet57 said:
You are correct. I should have said "died on a pilgrimage". I've got four books on William, you'd think I would have gotten his dad right :3oops:
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jet57:

With all that history floating about in one's brain, it is easy to make such a mistake. I do it all the time. Because we're taking about Robert and not William, it's not a doomsday error!;)

Cheers and enjoy your Conqueror.
Evilroddy.
 
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