Today, October 12, 2020, we acknowledge the annual celebration of Columbus day.
In this day and politically correct age, Christopher Columbus has been morphed by the left from the brave and intrepid explorer who was the very catalyst that ushered in Western Civilization to the New World into a genocidal villain that ruined an unspoiled paradise and destroyed the native peoples there. The truth tends to support the former rather than the latter in most respects. Prager University has done a great job, as usual, in summarizing Columbus in one of its five minute videos. Columbus was an invaluable man in the formation of the Western hemisphere and the very societies we have here today. I encourage you, dear reader, to watch this brief video accordingly.
"There’s a reason why Columbus has so long been celebrated—why so many statues, schools, towns, cities, a national holiday, an Ivy League university, and even a country bear his name.
It’s this simple fact:
When we celebrate Columbus, we celebrate the arrival of Western Civilization to the Western Hemisphere. And if you can’t celebrate that, it says much more about your moral compass than about history’s greatest explorer."
Indeed!
15 comments:
"And if you can’t celebrate that, it says much more about your moral compass than about history’s greatest explorer"
What exactly does it say about one's moral compassion?
It says that the person in question probably isn't taking into account their declination and therefore do not know where true north really is. :)
You present what strikes me as a defensible point of view, one which was certainly taught in our schools when I was a student.
There are better sources you could have used besides Prager University, which is not a University as the term is commonly used. It offers no diplomas. It offers no certifications. It is not an accredited academic institution.
It is primarily a media company founded by a radio host which produces brief videos which are allowed, but frequently tagged as misleading, on YouTube and Facebook.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me better defenders of Columbus must be available somewhere.
So someone that chooses not to celebrate Columbus Day due not seeking to perpetuate myths and legends, they do not know where moral true north is?
That doesn't make sense.
I want to watch those videos, but I have moral reasons that I don't want to provide Dennis Prager an additional click on his website. Do you know of any similar videos from a different source?
Honestly, I long for the days when Columbus Day came and went without any notice. I'm not really sure how this became a "conservative" wedge issue.
My good friend Burr, I think you are listening to the rhetoric from the left on this one.
First, I am aware that Prager University is not a "real" university in the traditional sense whatsoever. That said, the presenters for the 5 minute videos in Prager U are a literal who's who of experts from academia, business, politics, law, philosophy, religion and so forth. Further I would contend that the information they provide is often more useful than much of the nonsense taught at traditional universities.
The ridiculousness of Facebook and Youtube's edicts and banning of certain videos says far more about their political philosophy than it does about Prager U. Zuckerberg donates tens of millions to left wing causes and candidates and yet has no idea before congress why right-of-center posts and entities are often censored by Facebook algorithims. The same holds true with YouTube's subjective standards. If it is right wing and especially if it is right wing and effective, it must be limited to the audiences.
TB3, I am curious as to your distaste for Prager U. May I inquire what it is that bothers you about it? It cannot simply be because it comes from a conservative world view. If that were the case, you wouldn't frequent my site either. Experts in their fields are the presenters of the information disseminated, so aside from leftist rhetoric, I don't see a problem with the veracity of the information shared. Just curious.
As a member of the Catholic fraternal organization, the Knights of Columbus, I was provided this video on Columbus that you may find interesting... or not.
https://www.kofc.org/en/news-room/columbus/index.html
I find your last statement to be interesting, my friend. I don't know that many conservatives are all that invested in making Columbus Day a wedge issue. It seems to me that demonizing Columbus is just one more step in the left's on-going culture war against anything and everything having to do with western civilization. Our history often comes and goes without anyone taking notice... until it is too late and we end up repeating history for failing to learn the lessons that it had already taught us. Columbus Day is just one more coming casualty in this nonsensical war.
Knights of Columbus! Oddly enough? I would never have thought to look up what they had on Columbus. Wow. Thank you.
I studied history during my formal schooling and I continue to independently read and study history in my free time. I admit it's been sometime since I've dived into the European "Age of Exploration". I do take issue with the opening quote at the beginning of that KoC Video, though. It's fine to accentuate positive aspects of historical figure, but we don't do ourselves (society) any favors by ignoring the negative aspects, or as Phil Foglia put it- nitpicking over wrongs. We don't "stop hate and division" by ignoring the negative aspects just as we don't 'foster animosity and disharmony' by knowing the negative aspects of history. Christopher Columbus is a great historical figure and very important to history. Unfortunately, there is a lot of negative about Columbus that shouldn't be ignored.
I'm not going to run down a litany of negatives or anything, I just take issue with it being couched as some sort of moral failing that some folks choose not to celebrate the man. That's frustratingly dismissive. I understand the desire to look at the past with rose-tinted lenses, but there's nothing wrong with re-evaluating history without that filter and coming to different conclusions or opinions.
Now to address what 'bothers' me about Prager U, only because you asked: It's not that it comes from a "conservative" world view. I seek other opinions and other viewpoints, that's why I was so happy to see you come back and give this whole blogging thing another shot. :)
No, Dennis Prager is someone that has some hateful and hurtful ideas about certain people and certain beliefs. He comes across as one of those "conservative" thought warriors who uses the shield of Christ and His Word to justify or rationalize his un-Christ-like beliefs. I also feel like he's one of those propagandists who just so happens to be capitalizing and profiting off gullible people. So, I try my best to consume alternatives.
"It seems to me that demonizing Columbus is just one more step in the left's on-going culture war against anything and everything having to do with western civilization."
It seems? What do you mean it seems? History is History. People choosing to put a spotlight on things about the man other than a cute little song about sailing the ocean blue and "discovering" America isn't demonization. I argue that by accepting such a simplistic view of the man and what he ushered in does us all a disservice. Instead of a child's myth about the "discovery" of the "new" world, I think it's better for everyone to have a more complete, nuanced look at a man's impact on the world and the people he ushered into wider, global contact with. It's not demonization when you're teaching human failings of a human person.
Besides. Columbus Day was just a tool, at least in the United States, to bring about acceptance of Italian immigrants at a time when they were demonized, scapegoated, attacked, and murdered. I think it's achieved it's goal.
First, let me say that I am in agreement with you, TB3, regarding the fact that history should not be taught or learned wearing rose-colored glasses. The good and the bad are all acceptable to report upon historically. Indeed, for the truth to be told the heroic and the evils must be accurately portrayed.
Columbus was not without his failings, as the Prager U video said, even acknowledging his partaking in some slavery of indigenous peoples. What I find annoying and short-sighted is the attempt to only demonize historical figures of western civilization by many on the left, instead of simply revealing the facts. The largely fictitious and scholarly debunked 1619 project is a good example of this phenomena.
As for Dennis Prager, can you give me any specific examples, sir? I am not trying to be contentious, but am sincerely interested if there are things I missed. FYI: I think you have missed some things regarding him too. Prager is a devout and practicing Jew; not Christian. Have you seen or heard these negative things from first hand sources regarding Prager? I'd be curious to know.
By the way, I greatly appreciate your reasoned debate and commentary without getting juvenile or nasty, as some others are wont to do. I wish people on both the left and right did likewise. God knows our own president is guilty of such foolishness, which frankly diminishes the good things he has done and provides fodder for the left to often times justly criticize him.
”When we celebrate Columbus, we celebrate the arrival of Western Civilization to the Western Hemisphere. And if you can’t celebrate that, it says much more about your moral compass than about history’s greatest explorer."
Indeed, those ungrateful “red savages” need to be taught another lesson in morality, amirite?
Western civilization. As the Prager shill said of Columbus, “It’s complicated”.
Yes, that’s what the Proud Boys celebrate. They claim to be “Western chauvinists”. Kinda white of them, isn’t it?
Where is this “Western Civilization” to be found? It would be nice if there was such a thing.
Was it the Greeks, or Roman Empire? Or was is it the Dark Ages and Medieval period? Divine Right of Kings?
Did Columbus really bring civilization? He was a slaver in service to the country famous for the Spanish Inquisition. Is that the Western Civilization we should celebrate?
Or do we celebrate the genocide and slaughter of Native Americans? That wasn’t quite so civilized, wasn’t it?
Western civilization also spawned Hitler and Mussolini, and Trump, so maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
So what are we really celebrating? A voyage of exploration and discovery? Sure. Well done Cristoforo Columbo. (His original name, later changed to the Spanish Cristóbal Colón ) But after that, things went to hell quickly for non-white, non-European types. That’s what happens when Western Civilization arrives.
The Prager U guy was right. It’s complicated. No wonder the Right loves to simplify the world into their black and white field of vision.
“The largely fictitious and scholarly debunked 1619 project is a good example of this phenomena.”
There you go again.
False. Citation please. I bet you dollars to pinecones you never read the 1619 Project. If you did, you could discuss the disagreements on a few of its points. “Debunked” is your political indoctrination speaking, not the truth.
Feel free to show my error, but I don’t think you can. This is very similar to Barr’s dismissal and false portrayal of the Mueller Report. You probably didn’t read that either.
But Prager tells you all you need to hear. Black Lives Matter is "the most racist organization in the country outside of the Ku Klux Klan". Covid mitigation efforts is another area of his expertise: “That attitude, that the only value is saving a life … it leads to cowardice. It has to. No one can die? Then it’s not a war.”
Then there’s this gem from Prager: “To the left, America is essentially a racist, sexist, violent, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic country.”
This is a lie. The Left correctly notes the fact it is the far Right “Western chauvinists” that exhibit those characteristics, not America. I could go on...and on... but my point is made.
Here’s History.com’s brief account of how “civilizing” old Chis was:
https://www.history.com/news/columbus-day-controversy
On his famous first voyage in 1492, Columbus landed on an unknown Caribbean island after an arduous three-month journey.
On his first day in the New World, he ordered six of the natives to be seized, writing in his journal that he believed they would be good servants. Throughout his years in the New World, Columbus enacted policies of forced labor in which natives were put to work for the sake of profits. Later, Columbus sent thousands of peaceful Taino “Indians” from the island of Hispaniola to Spain to be sold. Many died en route.
Columbus imposed iron discipline on what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic, according to documents discovered by Spanish historians in 2005. In response to native unrest and revolt, Columbus ordered a brutal crackdown in which many natives were killed; in an attempt to deter further rebellion, Columbus ordered their dismembered bodies to be paraded through the streets.
I guess we could say Hitler “civilized” Poland and France too.
Ouch. Western Civilization hurts, and kills, if you don’t obey the White Masters. Still does. Drive while Black and find out.
First, I believe you assume that I think "western civilization" is somehow sainted and without stain. There is no such civilization in human existence as we are all fallen, sinful, and suffer from the human condition, Dave.
Even the Carib tribe on the islands where Columbus first landed engaged in cannibalism. They were not all "noble savages" whose paradise the white man destroyed. It has always been that civilizations and cultures warred with each other and atrocities are often the result. With all of that said, it was the western civilization that ushered in huge advances in science, philosophy, art, and religion that greatly improved the standing for untold numbers of people over history, even for many of those people who were victims to the conquering westerners.
As for the Proud Boys, your past characterization of them as white supremacists is wrong. I can only assume you didn't know any better and only listened to what the left was telling you. I finally did some research and they are multi-racial in nature. Indeed, some of their leaders are even people of color, including a brown Cuban-American. Yes, they see themselves as western chauvinists. Having traveled the world, I have to admit that western civilization for me is definitely far superior to others, even though there are still aspects that are admirable and things to be learned from other cultures.
"Then there’s this gem from Prager: 'To the left, America is essentially a racist, sexist, violent, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic country.' This is a lie. The Left correctly notes the fact it is the far Right 'Western chauvinists' that exhibit those characteristics, not America. I could go on...and on... but my point is made."
Oh I see. It is only Americans like you that aren't racist, sexist, violent, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic. I think that is what Prager said exactly... "to the left".
Regarding the 1619 Project, there are numerous historical experts that have come out and debunked many of the main premises of this socialist and "anti-racist" dogmatic program. You can look it up yourself, if you cared about the truth of the matter. The 1619 project is merely another step in the tradition of Howard Zinn to portray America in an unjust representation of the facts of its history in order to perpetuate a leftist agenda. That is the real truth of it, sir.
"partaking in some slavery"
I shouldn't laugh at that turn of phrase, but I did. I mean, what's just a little slavery between peoples, am I right?
"What I find annoying and short-sighted is the attempt to only demonize historical figures of western civilization by many on the left, instead of simply revealing the facts."
Back to demonization. First, we need to drop the whole Right/Left dynamic. History is history. And, it seems, "demonization" is the revealing of facts... so I'm very confused. We, as "western civilization" have taught the "heroic" adventurous deeds of Christopher Columbus (and, hell, most of the Age of Exploration characters) with little thought, regard, context, or focus on how their deeds affected the people that they came across. It's not demonization to put a spotlight on the peoples Columbus interacted with. It's not demonization to be made aware of or encouraged to look at history from a point of view other than Columbus's. Why is this demonization, to you?
As for Dennis Prager, I apologize. You know, I knew he was Jewish, but it slipped my mind. It slipped my mind because of how closely aligned he is, and advocates for, working alongside the "Christian Right". That and having radio programs on Christian radio broadcasters. I apologize for my mistake... however, he still holds views regarding other faiths and other beliefs that I find distasteful and the anti-Israel rhetoric he perpetuates about the Democratic party is needlessly divisive. And I find the hypocrisy of political commentators who rally behind the Defense of Marriage Act when they themselves have had divorces and are unfaithful to be arguing for something they actually don't believe in. As for first hand sources? Probably, I'm not going to dig through Google to look for old articles I've been exposed to. That wasn't the point of my comment. I didn't bring this up to change your mind about him, just as an explanation why I didn't want to give PragerU a click.
"I greatly appreciate your reasoned debate and commentary"
Oh, Lord, I try Darrell. But, you have to admit, it can be tiresome and frustrating when engaging with certain people on the internet. Sometimes we lose focus and devolve our discourse into school yard bickering. It's not productive and, I admit, sometimes I throw my hands in the air and engage in the muck with the trolls. I appreciate your even responses. When we talk like adults, we can act like adults. I'd love for you to change your mind on things as I'm sure you'd love for me to change mine... maybe one day it'll happen if we're engaging like this rather than the trollish alternative, eh?
Circling back to the 1619 project: I found it fascinating. Why do you say it was debunked and fictitious? Who are the experts that have come out against it? Bonus points if it isn't just contrarian response from a Right-Wing site.
I found the video to be unexpectedly impressive. Going in, my feathers were already ruffled at what I thought I was about to see, but the editorial was very disarming.
“I could be wrong, but it seems to me better defenders of Columbus must be available somewhere.”
Since this was an editorial, the source is irrelevant. Coming from Prager University does no disservice to the analysis. However, the editorial itself raises in esteem, Prager University. Therefore, kudos to Prague University. Well done.
Here is a more detailed explanation of my emotions after watching:
“Let those who are fond of blaming and finding fault, while they sit safely at home, ask: “Why did you not do thus and so?” -- Christopher Columbus
I find this to be a fantastic quote. It reminds me of the moral grayness of the best series Netflix ever produced: the 100’s.
All of that said, Columbus revealed his own motives. He was a conqueror, not an altruist:
“My desire was not to pass any island without taking possession, so that, one having been taken, the same may be said of all.” -- Christopher Columbus
Oh and...
I love America. I honor America, I am as American as Apple Pie, if Apple Pie were American.
Our fathers fought for this nation, died for this nation, gave up everything for this nation. We should honor them for who they were. We continue to benefit immensely from their sacrifices.
They committed treason against their benefactors to take this nation. They committed genocide against its inhabitants to clear it. None of that is easy. It is harrowing, terrifying stuff.
All Columbus did is to conquer people, which is what conquerors do. History admires Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Constantine The Great. They were conquerors, but they were very good at it. Columbus was good also.
The lion is a great hunter. He kills. He is not evil. He is a lion. It is the mission of a lion to do what a lion does. It is the mission of a conqueror to do what a conqueror does. We respect that. I respect Columbus.
History does not admire so much, Hitler, Nero, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, etc. They are just awful and nothing like our treasonous, genocidal, destiny-manifesting fathers, who, I must say, much more resemble Christopher Columbus or Alexander the Great than they do Ivan the Terrible or Mussolini the Just Awful.
But to be fair, if we pluck ultimate victory or defeat out of the equation, then the math becomes simple:
We should celebrate them all. They were all great men.
When we celebrate Columbus, we celebrate the arrival of Western Civilization to the "Western Hemisphere. And if you can’t celebrate that, it says much more about your moral compass than about history’s greatest explorer."
I was unaware that not attending a celebration was immoral. Dang it! I hope Jesus will forgive me.
My apologies to all for the delay in posting your comments. Unfortunately I was out of pocket and out of WiFi range for a bit. As this is my hobby and not my day job, I am not as quick as I would like to be with comments. I will endeavor to always post your comments as quickly as circumstances allow.
It stinks that I cannot just let this blog go without comment moderation; however, there are folks that wish to troll and be nasty out there that have proven this to be a bad choice for reasoned debate in the past.
Sad, once again Dave Dubya plays the race card. It's all he's got.
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