I’ll get this out of the way right now, I’m a progressive socialist and Kissinger’s legacy in the world is one of reactionary repression and suffering. I find pretty much everything he stood for to be wrongheaded and harmful to society.
That said, celebrating someone dying in the way that’s happening now shows disrespect to human life and an utter lack of humanity. I understand the motivation, but it should be fought against by remembering that no one is ever just one thing, everyone is a mix of good and bad, and we certainly shouldn’t give in to the desire to rejoice at another’s death, no matter what we think of them.
Alfred Nobel’s death was celebrated prematurely. He held several very lucrative patents all related to explosive munitions. A newspaper accidentally ran his obituary which described him as the “merchant of death” and equated his life’s work to creating new ways to “mutilate and kill”. He was so distraught by what society thought of him that he used his massive fortune to create the Nobel Prize. He had hoped that this would change how people would remember him.
I also think people who lead terrible lives should be remembered as such. Hopefully it causes other politicians to wonder what their own obituary will look like.
I’ll bet Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize wasn’t on his radar, though.