I think I might have a brain tumor. For the past week, I have been thinking non-stop about King John. Normal people don't do things like that. I've been thinking and thinking about why people always talk about how badly he screwed up English history by signing the Magna Carta. Isn't that the first document to guarantee people things like, um... liberty? How is that a screw-up? Finally I came to the realization that he did sort of muddle up the place of the monarchy within the political system of the nation. So if it was the king or someone royal that was the first to place blame on King John, that makes some sense.
But that question has, once again, planted a broader question inside of my brain. How much would it suck to be someone remembered for doing something dumb? So, here are four people (of many) throughout history who just, plain messed up...
1. King John: Although I don't completely understand the modern day criticism of his actions, he, nonetheless must make the list because, at the time, it was by no means a good idea to sign the Magna Carta (ignoring, of course, the fact that he was somewhat forced).
2. Jacob Malik: on January 13, 1950, the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations (Malik) stormed out of a meeting of the Security Council and never returned. He was angry about the United States blocking the expulsion of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from the Security Council. In June of that same year, the United Nations voted to intervene on the Korean Peninsula. There was no Soviet delegate (one that would have blocked this resolution) present. Three years of war followed --three years of war that the USSR opposed vehemently. Funny thing is that they could have stopped much of it.
3. Herbert Hoover: Three years into the Great Depression, President Hoover vetoed a bill that would have given World War I veterans their federal bonuses early. If that wasn't bad enough to wreck his public opinion ratings, when the veterans decided to organize a makeshift tent village in protest of the veto (and dubbed themselves the "Bonus Army"), Hoover sent in General MacArthur to clear out the poor, unemployed, homeless veterans of the Great War (and their families). Let's just just say it didn't end well for him...
4. Hongle, Ming Emperor of China: In the early 1400s, Emperor Yongle commissioned a series of maritime expeditions, led by General Zheng He, to explore the unknown. For less than twenty years, Zheng He and his crew discovered the previously undiscovered and reaped the benefits of acquiring exotic treasure from far off lands. Years later, the Europeans made exploration and colonization fashionable, but the Chinese did it first. They didn't create colonies, but, in the span of a decade, they literally became the most affluent and powerful nation in the world. The trade routes were theirs, the commodities were theirs, and all the wealth they could dream of was at their finger tips. Then, it all ended. Emperor Yongle died, and Hongle took over. He immediately halted all of the expeditions and imposed a policy of isolation, thrusting China into 500 years that involved little to no contact with the outside world. By the 19th century, they were fresh meat for the new, powerful cannon of European and Western powers.
Something that is hard to process when pondering the actions of people like Hongle and Jacob Malik, is that at the time it might not have seemed like such a bad idea. I've done many things in my eighteen years that seemed like a good idea at first, but, in retrospect, we're just dumb. All four of these historical characters did what they thought was right. Not one of them was malicious or self-sabotaging in their actions. But the way the story played out just didn't go their way.
How would you feel if the only thing people ever remember about you is the worst decision you ever made?
< Histrophile >
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