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Re: Re: cs lewis
it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...
ysoi passionately expounds that:
> As for revisionist histories, pardon my language,
> but if I have kids in
> school, they'd fucking well better be taught as
> secular a history as
> possible. I feel absolutely passionate about this:
> while all history is
> almost unavoidably biased, it should be taught with
> that bias
> acknowledged and, as much as possible, mitigated.
> I'm sure the
> Conquistadors and missionaries thought they were
> doing glorious work, but
> they slaughtered millions of Native Americans just
> the same. Spain
> thought they were doing G-d's work in the 15th
> century, but as the jews
> and you'll get a very different idea.
and you know, that was just the dumbest thing spain
ever did (among many dumb things). i say "spain" with
the understanding that it was at about this time it
saw itself as a nation (under the catholics). oh
yeah, in addition to our violent cruelty, let's make
sure we rid the country of all our financial minds
(the jewish community). they rid their precious land
of all the math and science people too (the moors).
real smart as they were on the verge of possessing
more and not knowing what to do with it (a. winning
the war against the moors who had been in spain about
800 years and then b. shackin' up in the americas).
i do agree with kelvin and peter though. it was
bartolome de las casas among others who defended the
humanity and rights of the indigenous people. in 1550
they had a right nice conference in spain to decide
whether or not the amerindians had souls. right nice.
thank god for those priests and missionaries in that
instance. as ridiculous as the quandry may seem, we
can blame the chilvary novels of the era and the work
of john mandeville (i think more than even religious
orders).
> A history class is not a place to embrace bias. It's
> somewhere to put
> things in context and try to understand the whole
> picture.
for the love of all that's holy :P i couldn't agree
more. more intellectual humility will have us
learning a _whole_ lot more.
good morning :),
j. marie
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