Sir Francis Bacon ended his public life as a disgrace. In
the end he was pardoned by the king, but we don’t mention his criminal record
when we quote him or celebrate his achievements. I’ve gone 26 years hearing all
kinds of things about the man and how his work led to society as we know it,
and I’m just now learning that as one of the most powerful government officials
in England he was taking bribes. It wasn’t even just accusations fabricated for
some power grab; he admitted being guilty.
Reading about his thoughts and his life, I was tempted to
forget it. Many of his important ideas don’t at all seem new because they are
so woven into how we look at the world. But, if he’d been a politician today,
we’d have had the same reaction they did back then. The only difference being
that there would be no king’s pardon at the end of his punishments. Anything
important thing he would have said would have been tainted.
But, we don’t think that way about him because of everything
he did. The episode Up in Smoke from Aaron
Mahnke’s Cabinet of Curiosities tells
the story of how even at the end of his life he helped discover how the cold
can preserve meat (great story). The man even helped invent the reason why we
can have grocery store chains. Do we continue to hold him accountable as a
corrupt politician? Or do we let him off? And what does that answer say about
our modern political climate?
Image credit to wikimedia.org
