[OPINION] Mondli Makhanya: From Mugabe to Buthelezi, why do we tell glowing lies about brutal legacies?

[ForceFate]

Mondli Makhanya: From Mugabe to Buthelezi, why do we tell glowing lies about brutal legacies? | City Press

What exactly is it about us humans that makes us feel compelled to tell glowing lies about dead people?

city-press.news24.com

What exactly is it about us humans that makes us feel compelled to tell glowing lies about dead people?
What is this bizarre medical condition that pushes us to turn the cruelest and vilest among us into saints as soon as their hearts stop beating?
Listening to some of the tributes to the belatedly dead former president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, over the past fortnight, one could have sworn that Pope Francis’ recent visit to southern Africa was organised to check on the man’s credentials for beatification.

 

[Budza]

To excuse their own inaction while the pricks were alive.

 

[Gordon_R]

It was used of Julius Caesar, at least in Shakespeare's version. "De mortuis nil nisi bonum, Speak no ill of the dead." See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_mortuis_nil_nisi_bonum

Fortunately there are plenty of people who know the truth, and weren't listening to the funeral orations.

 

[Mila]

Because ancestors

 

[Flanders]

Good flippin' question, Mondli.

 

[TheChamp]

I don't know about Mugabe but Buthelezi is the Prince of Phindangene.

 

[ForceFate]

Because ancestors

"speak no ill of the dead", though politicians often take it to another level.

 

[BBSA]

The same happened then Winnie Mandela passed.

 

[ponder]

Lol people love their fsckups, just remember the praise for old winnie here not so long ago.

 

[ForceFate]

The same happened then Winnie Mandela passed.

Or every other politician really.