Brilliant But Awful People

I was going to write about my experience shopping for clothes, but I realized that that pet peeve has already been chronicled. So, let me talk about something I was just reading: an article on the debates in University College London about whether scientists who held controversial political (read racist and sometimes misogynistic) views should be honored. Arguments in favour of honouring them are that they have made significant contributions to science and so, while their views should be acknowledged as controversial, they should be honoured. It is the height of presumption to assume that we have scaled the heights of progressivism and none of our views would be considered beyond the pale 50 years from now. It is one thing to honor philanthropists whose fortunes stemmed from the slave trade, but quite another to honor scientists whose views might not be known to most people. On the other hand, honoring such figures whitewashes the controversial bits. It feeds the idea that if you are brilliant you are allowed to be a horrible person, and the more brilliant you are the more horridness you can get away with. I don't know where I stand on this one. But, at least, tolerance for brilliant but awful people is receding. Maybe we are realizing that we wouldn't have so many catastrophic problems in our world today if the brilliant people that we lauded were indeed as brilliant as we thought. So if they haven't contributed to solving the world's problems the least they can do is behave decently. Maybe a day will come when rich and powerful people will also face a reckoning, like some brilliant people are.