n apotheosized citizens who were deemed worthy of adulation. They have commemorated the "greatness" of the anointed through literature, songs, statues, monument, and even deification.All this signifies greatness as something doing positive for society,but our world has been shaped as much by the wicked as the virtuous.
Attila the Hun gave the Roman Empire the coup de grace, William The Conquerer destroyed a culture as did Hernan Cortez, Adolf Hitler introduced the world to industrialized mass murder, and Josef Stalin murdered millions of his own people out of fear and paranoia. Many more could be added to this list of the Devil's Acolytes.
If you look up the word "Great" on Dictionary.com, you'll find 23 different uses of the word. One of them is applicable here:important;highly significant or consequential.
By that definition the actions of people like Adolf Hitler or Osama Bin Laden enable one to list them as being "great".Yet, very few today would grant them that title. The reason why are obvious:their acts are so awful, so heinous, and so offensive to our moral standards that we condemn to everlasting ignominy.
But the moral turpitude of the individual factors very little in the evaluation of whether a person's impact upon history is significant enough for them to be labeled great. The fact that Osama Bin Laden is responsible for the deaths of thousands does not matter when judging his impact upon history. In historical terms he has to be seen as being "great" because he has caused the launching of a world wide war that has consumed tens of thousands of lives and counting.
We have become used to using the word "great" to define those people whose impact has been beneficial for mankind. But as noted before the actions of men like Stalin, have also left an enduring imprint. It may come in the form of a scar, but it nonetheless has shaped the world we live in today.That in my estimation means according to these people the appellation of great.
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