A Person Who Fascinates You, and Why?

This is in interesting one. I find that I keep listing individuals as "heroes" when I'm diligently inquired about such things, but I realize, frequently, that perhaps there is an inherent disconnect between someone we admire for their pluck, and those we just find plain, damn interesting.

Take, for example, Walt Disney. I've listed him as a hero and I believe that to be mostly true. For those of you who seem to avoid adverbs on social media and can only think in absolutes (like so many who installed 45), 'mostly' means 'not entirely.'

Yes, another adverb. Learn to see them.

Ahem.

Walt did something I could smack the shit of him for. Literally. I could punch him in face, repeatedly. Strangely, not for his supposed anti-Semitism. That's too nebulous. Only one real book mentions it. No. What makes me irked?

He turned states' evidence during the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), making sure anyone who was trying to unionize would be blacklisted. He helped, basically, create the Hollywood Ten.

I do not approve.

But that tarnishes, but does not eliminate my fascination with the man. He has also brought great joy to the world. My world, specifically. I cannot deny that.

As we age, we learn that as our hair greys, as does the concept of morality. Surely the churches and the morality police see such things as immutable, black and white. Never is morality a spectrum, which, as for many of a certain age, we eventually realize.

Disney has, over the years, even as a corporation, has moved on this spectrum. They still fight against unions and living wages.

And, yes, it's fascinating.

Today, I'd like to give two responses. Right now, out in theaters, there's also The Greatest Showman, a musical that idealizes the famed P. T. Barnum.

He's the other one I'd like to submit for consideration-and in opposition to Mr. Disney. Unlike Disney, a man who created wonder, but made mistakes, I have tended to see Mr. Barnum in the opposite light. He was a charlatan, a grifter, who, in his own way, make good. Yes, he hired people of special and unique needs and talents and profited off of their (as the times were, as for now, they would be much more accepted, in my humble opinion) misfortunes.  Surely, the argument now is for the elephants he placed under his control, but I'm referring to the humans in his coterie. They were labelled freaks and put on display. But they had homes, lives, cash flow, when, before that time-they may not have had such luxuries. It was wrong, what he did.

But, as the tales would have it? He would truly consider the community home. He provided for them, gave them legal access...when it behooved him, of course. Trust me, what he did, he didn't realize. By marginalizing them to the sidelines in showmanship, he inadvertently created an unneeded phobia which would keep them fighting for their rights for years-but that was not a conscious choice at the last turn of the century.

The man, plain and simple, fascinates me. There is still some debate on if he said, "there's a sucker born every minute!" That means he sees us all as a mark. I'm okay with that, to some extent.

Cause, well, it tends to be true. Look at Washington, DC. Look at television commercials. There's even fake news. But, at the very least, I get the sense that Barnum is winking at us with elaborate showmanship. That old vaudevillian, "well, you asked to be entertained, didn't you?" way. I keep circling back to this man and what made him tick. He was, in the end, an entertainer-those tickets sold, even against our better judgement. That, to me, takes some talent-one that goes way beyond marketing.