Where do these Lee detractors get off judging a 19th century man by 21st century standards? It’s as bad as the “living constitution” arguments. They both need to be judged in their contemporary contexts.
I have a bad habit of asking those who condemn slavery if they believe in a “woman’s right to choose.” Don’t get me wrong, I think they are both forms of evil. Depriving people of freedom and murdering babies are both forms of evil. In an attempt to try to make people understand how 19th Century Americans could rationalize slavery, I try to frame it in modern terms how modern Americans can rationalize abortion. Of course, in every case, they say “but that’s different”.
Yet my point still stands. Modern Americans can see so clearly that slavery was evil and condemn the entire generations that slavery was practiced, as evil people — slave-owner and non-slave owner alike. Yet they can’t for the life of them see that murdering babies in the womb is evil.
To date I have not changed one mind with this tactic. The only people who can see it are those who are already against abortion, and they see both my points very clearly — that both slavery and abortion are evil, and that intelligent people in both eras are capable of blind, ignorant support of that evil, even as they rationalize and justify it at every turn.
I try to make people understand that there was a serious train of thought in the days of slavery that slaves were like children or pets and NEEDED guidance and couldn’t be left alone idle or they would harm themselves and others. Even this train of thought was easily seen as false, as t here were plenty of successful black men in the early days of this nation, who by their very success proved that black skin alone did not determine intelligence. But again, the people then let themselves believe that blacks were inferior and were better off as slaves because they needed direction, discipline, a watchful eye and a full day of hard work to keep them out of trouble.
But indeed your point is factual. Modern Americans act as if they know what was going through the minds of men in the early 1800s, when most are regurgitating their school brainwashing or divulging their knee-jerk attitudes based on minimal knowledge and study.
That's right, and it tends to take the focus off ones character, i.e. how one acted on his convictions, and the sacrifices he makes in spite of inner struggle.