Happy Birthday, Frederick

Hoyacon (View Post):

Any brief historical summary of his numerous accomplishments would inevitably do the man a disservice, so let’s begin by noting that Frederick characterized himself as an “enlightened absolutist.” Perhaps an indication that he is my kinda guy.

According to Wikipedia that's what Hitler admired about him, too. It perhaps explains a few things we've seen on Ricochet lately.

One of my grandfathers was named Frederick. He was known as Fred Jr. until his father died. His grandfather--the one who emigrated to the U.S. with his family--was also Frederick. This is the branch of my family that was most conscious of its German-ness.

When my mother asked him why so many Freds, he said they were named after Frederick the Great, who was a great humanitarian. "Humanitarian" wasn't a word my grandfather ordinarily used, but he did in the case of Fred the Great.

I guess that's what a lot of German historians used to say about him, too, until after WWII when the association with A. Hitler took the shine off of his reputation.

Myself, I still miss my grandfather every day, but am absolutely 100% opposed to enlightened absolutists and will do everything I can to protect my country from them. What Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great did to Poland is still getting people killed, and is part of the story of the current war in Ukraine.

Hoyacon (View Post):

Any brief historical summary of his numerous accomplishments would inevitably do the man a disservice, so let’s begin by noting that Frederick characterized himself as an “enlightened absolutist.” Perhaps an indication that he is my kinda guy.

Subcomandante America (View Comment):

According to Wikipedia that’s what Hitler admired about him, too. It perhaps explains a few things we’ve seen on Ricochet lately.

That view is unsurprising considering the tendency of tyrants to adopt their worthy predecessors through propaganda,, something Goebbels practiced. Stalin, if I’m not mistaken, invoked Peter the Great. While Frederick was certainly a ruler of his time, most of us are not sufficiently gullible to buy into Hitler’s use of his name.

Hoyacon (View Post):

Any brief historical summary of his numerous accomplishments would inevitably do the man a disservice, so let’s begin by noting that Frederick characterized himself as an “enlightened absolutist.” Perhaps an indication that he is my kinda guy.

Subcomandante America (View Comment):

According to Wikipedia that’s what Hitler admired about him, too. It perhaps explains a few things we’ve seen on Ricochet lately.

Hoyacon (View Comment):

That view is unsurprising considering the tendency of tyrants to adopt their worthy predecessors through propaganda,, something Goebbels practiced. Stalin, if I’m not mistaken, invoked Peter the Great. While Frederick was certainly a ruler of his time, most of us are not sufficiently gullible to buy into Hitler’s use of his name.

Yeah, but I still prefer being a populist to hitching up to an enlightened absolutist, despite the fact that populism sometimes leads to the latter. Being a populist is a burden these days, given that populism has lately taken just about every bad turn it is capable of. I'm still a populist, even though I'm opposed to most of what is associated with populism these days.

Here's a bit of music composed by the ol' man himself, a shrewd find for the Barry Lyndon soundtrack (1975).

It wasn't until late in life that I understood Frederick the Great was not Frederick the Wise of Saxony. By the time the Great came along, Martin Luther didn't need protection. (I had even read Roland Bainton's biography of Martin Luther twice and never caught it.)

Funny how the name threw me off and I didn't bother with the actual history. Thanks to Wikipedia for straightening me out one day.

Sometimes I wonder if I should blame my high school Penn Yan Academy or just laziness on my part. Probably the latter. I had a superb 10th grade World History teacher, but there was a lot to cover in the world's past.