Smashy Smash your idols

by phil on Wednesday Oct 22, 2003 4:47 PM
Learning

Slate tackles the beatification of Mother Teresa by describing her as a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.

Referenced within that article is Orwell's essay on Ghandi which is attempting to add some dirt to the ultra-rosy picture the public carries about him.

but at any rate the gentleness with which he was nearly always handled was due partly to the feeling that he was useful.

As a teacher your goal may be to inspire humility and wisdom, so it's nice to invoke readily accessible characters like Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

...

Both articles draw their criticism along the lines of how these people's dogma (Teresa's anti-feminism, Ghandi's ascetism) and possible narcissism should make imperfect the perfect sketch drawn up by history.