We received a small donation at work this week, inside a card. On the front, it had the picture above and said:
The Fund was established to disburse a small sum of money left by the late Michael Young who died in August 2000 shortly after his 100th birthday.
He was not a good man – quite the opposite. He was strongly anti-Semitic, had a deep-rooted distaste for coloured people, who he feared would pollute the white races, propagated a mean-spirited and unforgiving interpretation of Christianity.
He paraded these beliefs under the banner of patriotism, was a founder member of the League of Empire Loyalists and claimed, with pride, that he tipped a bucket of offal over Jomo Kenyatta, at that time President of Kenya, a member of the Commonwealth.
He corresponded with, and supported financially, Lady Birdwood and John Tyndall of the British National Party as well as various fringe religious movements. He wrote a number of poisonous pamphlets.
He was wholly self-centred, had no interest in anything beyond his Bible studies and preparation of his meals, neither read a newspaper nor stirred out of his house for the last 10 years of his life. It is hard to find any redeeming feature in the man.
So, it seemed a nice idea to pass a little of the money he left to some of the individuals and small organisations who try to do some good in the world, and, where possible, to ones he would have disapproved of.
His 'mean-spirited and unforgiving interpretation of Christianity' as well as his political affiliations mean he would have been horrified that any of his money should go to the National Secular Society.
On the back, there is an explanation of how the Fund works:
If you like the idea of making small grants to decent people but don't want to set up your own fund, email a request for some of these cards to anthony@evelynwilliams.com. You can use them yourself or ask us to post on your 'grant' if you want to remain anonymous.
What an excellent and classy way to take revenge on a nasty old man. It's almost enough to make you wish there was an afterlife so his ghost could watch and be tormented by what is being done in his name. That would really be hell.
http://layscience.net/trackback/818
This is brilliant!
Revenge. Quoting Ingo Montoya in The Princess Bride, "I do not think it means what you think it means. "
Revenge is mean-spirited, even if it is against a mean-spirited person. Rather than being 'excellent and classy' this fund perpetuates the name of Michael Young and continues to spread his mean-spiritedness, even after his death. If there was an afterlife Michael Young would be chuckling in his grave, not rolling in it.
I presume you would not accept money from an 'Adolf Hitler Fund', even if it was set up to give money to things that Hitler deplored. This fund is different only in degree.
The right thing to do is to politely return the cheque explaining that you do not want to demean yourself by participating in this mean-spirited activity.
What does not having read a newspaper nor stirred out of his house have to do with him having redeeming qualities or not?
Does reading newspapers make someone a better person? Does getting out of the house make one a better person?
If one means he didn't take an interest in the outside world, maybe he was just sick of the outside world and the daily bad news from the newspaper.
Regarding his mean-spiritedness, you show considerable meaness of spirit yourself in spreading his name after his death with his faults.
As for his strong distaste for colored people, who cares? He's dead. You want to help stop bigotry, this isn't the way to do it.
Martin B - it's hardly the same as a Hitler fund as the name has no resonance in itself.
Tessera,
Exactly, until people decide to be all childish and then spread his name to the unknown in an attempt to show how mean he was thereby just making things worse. Pointless, childish and the princess bride quote summed it up all very, very nicely.
Or it could be a salutory warning to other old gits about what will happen after they die. Have you read A Christmas Carol?
Oh yes,
The classic, where scrooge doesn't change his ways, kicks tiny tim into the streets who goes on to die and with the money he saved then goes on to live a life shacked up with a 14 fillipino wives on an island just off the maldives, as he burns money just because he can...
Then he dies from an overdose of sex and drugs...coroner gives verdict of pleasure overdose and the smile on his face cannot be removed...and....then best bit...
some of his money is sent to the people who make crutches.... Yes that showed him!
WELL DONE! clap clap clap
Moral of the story, be a bastard and the stupid saps do sod all until it is FAR too late in some weird passive aggressive act like a 65 year old drunk being booted out of a club and 10 years later seeing it closes down after an amazingly successful and lucrative run, and thinks to him self..SEE, that showed them! As he pulls out a bottle of beer that he snuck out the day it all happened.
I maintain that acting in a mean spirited way, even against someone who you believe is mean, is wrong. I also maintain that this fund is backfiring. If Michael Young is indeed as bad as stated then he should be forgotten, instead this fund is perpetuating his name.
Yes, I have read "A Christmas Carol" - it's a story of redemption, of how a mean man, through acts of generosity, becomes a kind and compassionate man.
But the opposite can happen - a kind person, through acts of meanness and avarice can become mean - the young Scrooge was happy, if you remember. An act of petty revenge against Michael Young is a small step along the path of becoming like him.
Sweet revenge indeed.
I don't know who this "Michael Young" was, but to avoid traducing the reputation of an admirable man you should perhaps clarify that he *wasn't* the well-known Michael Young who founded the Open University and the National Consumer Council, wrote the Labour Party's 1945 manifesto, was latterly a labour peer, and in his late 70s promoted the idea of secular naming ceremonies in place of baptisms. Since he died at an advanced age (87) at around the same time (2002) as this other Michael Young, I wouldn't like to think of people getting the wrong impression ...