On Tue, 3 Apr 2007 21:57:51 -0700 (PDT) andie nachgeborenen
<andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> writes:
>
>
> The fact fact is that genius can be far less genial
> than Marx (who wasn't genial) -- Newton, for example,
> was a total arrogant bastard, a megalomaniac, a
> religious loon, and a torturer (as Master of the Mint)
> who enjoyed his work. Marx's personality failings are
> trivial in comparison.
Even some of the geniuses who were noted for being genial had their defects. Albert Einstein was a womanizer who cheated on both his wifes, treating his first wife in particular pretty shabbily. He also seems to have not been a particularly good father to his children. Bertrand Russell was an even bigger womanizer, who was infamous for the ways that he treated his former wives. He also apparently was not a very good father to his children either, and he could be quite cold to those people who were close to him.
Marx was hardly a plaster saint. On the other hand if you compare his personality and moral character with other great people, he doesn't come off that badly. Engels, I get the impression was, overall, a pretty nice guy. And he must have had the patience of a saint to put up with some of the demands that Marx made on him. He also, by most accounts, seems to have very genial host. Marx too, when he wasn't engaged in political work could be fun to be around with according to many accounts.