I actually agree that Norms and Traditions are important, but I don't think they have a functional link to the beliefs of historical figures. Norms are better u

I actually agree that Norms and Traditions are important, but I don't think they have a functional link to the beliefs of historical figures. Norms are better understood, I think, in the same vein as oral tradition; passed down directly from one generation to the next, slowly changing over time. On the other hand, I'm not particularly invested in the personal moral evil or good of people in the past. When I see similar opinions to mine expressed by Americans, they often give an argument of that ilk, but it seems to me to be rooted in the same belief that these long dead people should somehow have a say in the present. The fundamental reason their opinion is irrelevant isn't because they're evil (a subject which I haven't studied, and won't present an opinion on either way), but because they've been dead for a couple hundred years. I'm Australian, and while like all countries we have important historical figures, the culture surrounding them isn't at all like what I observe from the United States. While, for example, you'd be hard pressed to find someone arguing that Edmund Barton wasn't an important figure, I don't think anyone in the modern day really gives a shit what they thought. The most mythologized figures in Aussie history would probably be: Captain Cook, Curtin, and Whitlam; but I don't think anyone views them in a similar vein. I suspect the reason we don't have similar figures might come down to our lack of a civil war. We separated peacefully from the UK, and didn't really come out with any heroes to mythologize.