How Will Their Great-Grandchildren Look at Today’s Woke Leaders?

One of the favorite activities of the woke seems to be looking back in history and re-judging our leaders of the past based on the standards today.  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves; their statues have to come down.  Abraham Lincoln didn’t treat Native Americans right, not to mention all of the racist things he said; schools need to be renamed.  Ulysses S. Grant owned a slave¹; his statue must come down.  And so on.  It is never a matter of looking at the total of what these people did or looking at what they did in light of the times in which they lived.  Or even looking to see if they helped push the direction of history a little bit in the right direction.  If they didn’t fully live up to our standards today, their statue comes down; the school is renamed. 

Which makes me wonder.  Given how the woke judge their (and our) ancestors by today’s standards, one wonders what the grandchildren and great-grand children of today’s woke will think of them, when those great-grandchildren judge their woke great-grandparents by the standards of a hundred years from now.  What principle will they say that today’s woke violated?  What right that is obvious in 2120 did our woke leaders of today not live up to? What statues that today’s woke leaders are putting up will be torn down 100 years from now? 

Judging those of yesterday by the standards of today may be a dangerous precedent for those of today when they are judged by the standards of tomorrow.
-------
¹ Grant's father-in-law gave him a slave; Grant freed him a year later.