#george wallace
I finally found out what rubs me the wrong way about so many takes that claim that Azula would not or could not change for the better: they lack moral imagination.
This whole thing is worth listening to, but I’m particularly interested in the story of Shirley Chisholm and George Wallace. In Chisholm’s own words:
“We’re all human beings. You always have to be optimistic that people can change, and that you can change, and that one act of kindness may make all the difference in the world.”
Rabbi Telushkin follows up:
“People are different when they are vulnerable. She [Chisholm] understood that.”
This sounds familiar. Where have we heard it before?
“When we reach our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.” —Avatar Aang, Avatar: Legend of Korra
And yet, fandom often has such a paucity of moral imagination that they can’t even entertain the idea that Azula, a fourteen-year-old child, can change for the better without someone coercing her into it. They can’t imagine that kindness and empathy could transform Azula in ways that fear and manipulation cannot.
Link to the Shirley Chisholm and George Wallace thing.
A collage of iconic photographs featuring people who assumed future generations would always remember their actions and ended up being totally right, but not for the reasons they thought.
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