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Originally Posted by Zee
What do you mean it's not strictly true? History is written by the winners. The perception of politics and how people, incidents, wars and policies are remembered depends on whether or not they were successful in their aims. Would Hitler be reviled and internationally condemned as evil if he'd won the war? No, the history books would have been written by Nazis who would have hailed him as a great leader who rightfully claimed Lebensraum for the Aryan race to prosper. Or to put it the other way round, why is Winston Churchill considered a hero for his war time leadership of Britain when he was also a renowned sexist with controversial politics of his own? Because he successfully defended Britain's integrity in World War II. Do not for a second think I'm comparing Nelson Mandela's fight against apartheid to either of those things; I am not, I'm simply stating that the perception of a politician and his politics completely depend on whether or not they were successful in achieving those aims and whether or not the majority of people agreed with them or not. What one person might call a hero, another might call a villain. A great deal of violence ensued in the struggle against apartheid on both sides - just because the end goal was achieved, doesn't excuse everything that happened in between. We don't forget the atrocities committed in World War II, the lives lost or the brutality of it, we shouldn't gloss over the fact that the same happened (on both sides) in South Africa too.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kizzy
Woah... It's not ancient history and it's not just been written by the winners, let's just keep a little perspective stick to discussing apartheid don't fly off on a tangent there is no comparison to WW2 due to the fact hitler was a fascist dictator, Mandela was not.
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I didn't equate them, I merely brought it up as an example of how people are viewed because of how the international community perceives an individual's political achievements. I am still discussing apartheid - I believe Nelson Mandela was a great man, I'm just pointing out that there are people who will consider him a terrorist because violence was experienced on both sides; two wrongs don't make a right.