I don't see what the big deal is ... everyone thinks stuff like this in their head, and it's a personal diary. Only recently do we live in a globalized & diverse economy which makes it less polite to say stuff like this. It is a big stretch to equate lack of politeness with racism.
Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
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Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is a way of looking at it. Another perspective is that any attempt to deify a real human being is bound to be nonsensical, and we should always be wary of the complex human nature behind a carefully constructed "public figure". At least hopefully nobody will somehow look at this as an excuse for their own racist agenda (i.e. look, such a greatly respected person has also been so racist, why can't I?). The simpli…
I am not sure why this has been downvoted. Will somebody care to explain?
It takes more than 17 minutes for the votes on a comment to reach a level worth mentioning.
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#13These comments, particularly those about toilet habits don't really look too different from the comments I was reading 5 years about about the behaviour of Chinese tourists, so I'm not sure what to think about this. If you took a contemporary Chinese sophisticate and transported him or her back to 1920s China, what would his or her comments be like?
Shock at different toilet habits is actually the least racist and more understandable reaction. But some of his assertions are indefensible:
> “I noticed how little difference there is between men and women; I don’t understand what kind of fatal attraction Chinese women possess which enthrals the corresponding men to such an extent that they are incapable of defending themselves against the formidable blessing of offspring”
and
> “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”
White supremacists could easily hold these views as well.
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also addressed in the original article: > Rosenkranz told the Guardian that although views like Einstein’s were prevalent at the time, they were not universal. “That’s usually the reaction I get – ‘we have to understand, he was of the zeitgeist, part of the time’ – but I think I tried here and there to give a broader context. There were other views out there, more tolerant views,” he said.
Einstein was a great physicist, but I’m not looking to him for moral guidance. If he was awful for his time that would be sad, but if he’s merely average, I don’t see why we’d care.
I think journalists may care because they come from universities which teach postmodernist 'deconstruction'. Basically, they are looking for a reason to dismiss everything that western culture has ever built.
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#15I think people in those days had a very exaggerated idea of the scale of genetic differences between people of different ethic groups. Nowadays we know such differences are a rounding error and that looking at differences in genomes between individuals, those attributable to ethnicity are generally a minority. Back then, this wasn't known.
EDIT - I had a bit of a laugh at the quote about the Chinese supplanting other races. I'm a WASP, but my wife is Chinese and our kids are pretty obviously half Chinese.
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#16I don't see what the big deal is ... everyone thinks stuff like this in their head, and it's a personal diary. Only recently do we live in a globalized & diverse economy which makes it less polite to say stuff like this. It is a big stretch to equate lack of politeness with racism .
not everyone
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#17I don't see what the big deal is ... everyone thinks stuff like this in their head, and it's a personal diary. Only recently do we live in a globalized & diverse economy which makes it less polite to say stuff like this. It is a big stretch to equate lack of politeness with racism .
Racism? I took for granted this was about aliens.
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#18These comments, particularly those about toilet habits don't really look too different from the comments I was reading 5 years about about the behaviour of Chinese tourists, so I'm not sure what to think about this. If you took a contemporary Chinese sophisticate and transported him or her back to 1920s China, what would his or her comments be like?
Shock at different toilet habits is actually the least racist and more understandable reaction. But some of his assertions are indefensible: > “I noticed how little difference there is between men and women; I don’t understand what kind of fatal attraction Chinese women possess which enthrals the corresponding men to such an extent that they are incapable of defending themselves against the formidable blessing of off…
Those statements boil down to "I think Chinese people are ugly". Do men have a moral obligation to find women of all races beautiful?
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also addressed in the original article: > Rosenkranz told the Guardian that although views like Einstein’s were prevalent at the time, they were not universal. “That’s usually the reaction I get – ‘we have to understand, he was of the zeitgeist, part of the time’ – but I think I tried here and there to give a broader context. There were other views out there, more tolerant views,” he said.
Einstein was a great physicist, but I’m not looking to him for moral guidance. If he was awful for his time that would be sad, but if he’s merely average, I don’t see why we’d care.
That's the right point of view, in my opinion. Unfortunately many people tend to take the word of intellectuals outside their realm of expertise. I'm sure you've heard arguments about religion which mentioned Einstein's remark that "God doesn't play with dice" (it doesn't help that people frequently misunderstand this quote, but even if they didn't: why would Einstein's religious beliefs -- or lack of them -- matter?).
Re: Einstein's travel diaries reveal attitudes towards people he met in Asia
#20After your death all of your life's browser history, every facebook/youtube/reddit/HN/myspace/etc comment and submission you ever wrote, every photo you ever took, every off-hand remark you ever made in the presence of a smartphone with facebook installed .. will be published for all of the world to read and judge. Better get that road rage under wraps!
Everyone has demons, different faces we show different people, and a face we show no one.
The problem is we haven’t come to terms with this. We could all stand to be less judgmental of others, while being mindful of our own beliefs.