Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World
Andrew Carnegie: villain or hero? In order to aptly answer that question one must first clarify what definition of hero and villain are to be used. Webster defines hero as: and person, especially a man admired for courage, nobility, or exploits, especially in war, also as, the central figure in any important event or period, honored for outstanding qualities. Note that the only slight reference to morals is in the word exploits, inferring that conventionally bad morals may still be included in a hero. Webster defines villain as: someone or something regarded as the cause of a problem, difficulty, injustice, etc. These two definitions are not necessarily how these words are widely thought of. More often than not a hero is though to be someone to does many goods for a cause and who is also a role model and therefore has conventionally good morals, and a villain is thought of a thoroughly bad individual considering only themselves in every situation. How each person defines hero and villain is different as well depending on personal views such as feminism, racism or personal existence such as the poor, or the elderly. So, when asked to declare Carnegie as a hero or a villain it is indeed a daunting task because in order to find the truth I must put aside my personal views and existence and stay strictly to the impartial dictionary definitions.
As any person has good qualities as well as bad qualities Carnegie has hero attributes as well as those of a villain. Considering Carnegie as a villain, there is much cause and reason to consider him as such. First was his desire to reach the top no matter what the costs, a frame of mind he developed from his mother as we learned in the video. This mindset developed more so when Carnegie met Spencer who installed in him the ideas that nature meant to cast them [the poor] aside, as well as all is well since all goes better. These two mottos led Carnegie on a path not only to avenge his father s fate, but also to do so in a way that would announce his power and wealth to the world. After he made his way to the steel business his temperament grew seemingly worse. And his long ago life of poverty was forgotten as he began to demand unattainable goals from his employees, requiring 12 hrs/day, 7 days/wk, and if any man fell behind he was immediately fired. Thus he was dehumanizing all people whom he employed, and he was operating on a purely money driven premise. Because of his harshness toward his employees he caused, either directly or because of his incredible impact on the economy as a whole across the nation, immeasurable suffering among the lower class, not allowing a middle class to exist. He became so driven for his money that he actually sent out notes to his competitors warning them not to use certain iron or technologies because of lack of homogeneity. A note which sent many more employers out of business and even more employees out of employment, increasing further the poverty of America and the distance between the rich and poor classes.
The Essay on Hero Villain In The Iliad
Hero / Villain in The Iliad The concepts of villain and hero clearly originate in Judeo-Christian tradition, in contemporary sense of these terms. According to this tradition, evildoers are thought to have a certain abnormal psychological traits that enable them to defy morals, in order to reach their objectives. Those who perpetrate crimes are considered as having their evilness attributed to ...
At the same time Carnegie was keeping the lower class down, the industry of America was booming. Andrew Carnegie personal triumph of his family s own poverty is indeed a story of a hero. Carnegie had a childhood filled of hardship, and grief which is why he worked so hard to rise above it, and why it makes me much more of a hero. I think that he lived in a sort of moral oblivion where he conveniently did not notice how his workers and workers across the country were suffering in the very same, if not worse conditions that he had worked so hard to escape. Regardless of this apparent lack, Carnegie was dedicated to helping the population in general (as long as it did not interfere with his mills).
The Essay on Was Andrew Carnegie a Hero?
... man. Even from a young age, he worked as hard as he could to support his family. Pictures from the Carnegie ... how everyone in the world is. Carnegie was a hero of his day because he showed ... other damages or effects the strikers might have had on Carnegie’s business. Carnegie knew what ... mill workers in Hamlin Garland’s article “Homestead and Its Perilous Trades”. But in Andrew Carnegie ...
He donated millions to many cities in support of education, the arts, and peace. He wanted to be remembered as a man who loved his fellow men. He reached for the industrial utopia with each of his mills, and doing so he eventually created the largest steel industry in the U.S. and was out producing Britain in his mills. Such a significant contribution is heroism. He also gave support to the very beginning of the union organizations in mills with his essays supporting their rights. He was the author of the Gospel of Wealth , which was a manifestation of his belief that a man who dies rich dies ashamed. All these characteristics lend themselves easily to Carnegie as a hero.
In the end, he was a man, carrying traits of both a villain and a hero. What are important are the long-term effects (what has stood the test of time), and it is in this way that I have come to my conclusion about Carnegie. When looking at the long-term effects we see that largely because of his work, the United States rose to it s current super power status as an effect of becoming the leading industrialist country, and the lower class that he had held down eventually rose. What remains of his legacy today is the high power of the US, which leaves Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world, a hero.
