What Sin Have We Committed, Only to be Revealed in Death?

For John, BLUF:  Actually, they may be hidden at death, only to be exposed after the dirt covers our coffin.  If we so denigrate the dead, who will we model ourselves after?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Corpses to the people said, “You’ll be racists when you’re dead.”

Here is the sub-headline:

Death in America is acquiring new terrors.

From Samizdata, by Blogger Niall Kilmartin (Stirling), 7 March 2021.

Here is the lede plus four:

It was already understandable if a dying Republican feared rising from their grave to vote Democrat, like a vampire harming what their life valued.  (A democrat who voted “early and often” could anticipate this too, of course, but without dreading it – their undeath would echo their life.)

But now, even the politically correct must wonder what very different character they will acquire after death.

– In the 1940s, Dr Seuss author Theodor Geisel urged writers to avoid racist stereotypes, but the dead Geisel has been resurrected onto the public stage in the 2020s as a racist.  His book ‘If I Ran the Zoo’ shows two visiting Africans in native African garb!  What racism!!!  (?) Everyone knows it is terribly racist not to portray Africans in culturally-appropriated western garb because African dress is so inferior to western, er, um, what I mean is because it’s so hurtful to remind Africans of their pre-colonial, er, well, er, that is, um, maybe I should avoid trying to explain the subtle critical race theory involved lest I travesty it – or, worse offense still, summarise it more clearly than the original.

– Sidney Poitier spent many of his 94 years defending his race – and had better cling to life because he is scheduled for resurrection as (too) white.  He looked pretty black to me in ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ but Critical Race Theory makes it hard to be black enough.

– Adam Smith wrote that slavery was ‘cruel’, slaveowners ‘contemptible’ and blacks in the Americas not innately inferior to their white owners – and taught the economic superiority of free enterprise over slavery.  But his grave is the resting place of an appalling racist who despicably recorded that slavery in his day was almost universal, being absent only in the British Isles and parts of western and central Europe.

If you think this is ridiculus, remember that the new Government, of King Charles II, had the deceased Lord High Protector, Oliver Cromwell (died 1658) dug up from his grave in 1661, and the dead body drawn and quartered.  That was the year Tyngsborough was founded and King Charles II explicitly forbade Massachussets from executing Quakers (eg, the Boston Martyrs) and curtailed the independence of the Massachusetts Bay Coloney.  Compared to China, relatively recent history.

I oppose naming buildings after the living, because time has not tested them and allowed their secrets to be revealed.

However, the recent effort to excoriate the dead is applying today's sensitivities to yesterday's problems and understandings.  It is also failing to give credit to those who went before us, who did their best.  We should honor them, while learning from their mistakes.

What is it we don't know, which might lead to our own future condemnation?

Regards  —  Cliff