Teaching A Pack O' Lies

WHEN I WAS A CHILD i was taught that Christopher Columbus was a great explorer because he discovered America, that he was brave because he didn't know whether the world is flat or round, but was willing to find out, that he was helped out by the king and queen of Spain...and, come to think of it, that's about it. I can't remember anything else i was taught about Columbus. Subsequent levels of history classes, all the way through a PhD program, failed to add much to these basic, presumed facts, perhaps because all my teachers presumed that I already knew them, which I most certainly did not. I do know that Columbus has always been portrayed in American schools as a great man, when in fact he was a monster, the worst kind of monster, very well educated, intelligent, calculating, arrogant, greedy, ambitious. Read HIS words,not mine. Columbus, on first meeting the "indians": "They brought us balls of cotton, and parrots, and spears,and they willingly traded everything they owned. They do not bear arms, and do not know them. They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want." Nice. And there's more. If you read enough, you'll realize; this was not a nice guy, or a good guy. He was not an explorer, he was a capitalist, a looter hungrily looking for gold, and he knew damned good and well that the world is round, like anybody with a brain did in his day. (He was helped out by the spanish monarchy, however). Why do so many of my american colleagues have the idea that our ancient ancestors were idiots? Hell, people with brains knew that the world is round in ancient Roman times. The rest of american history, the way its taught in schools, is also a pack or lies, pure crap, because in america we are arrogant folk and love to think well of ourselves, and our history. Christopher Columbus was a butcher, who wanted only one thing in life,: a whole bunch of money, in particular, gold. (Yes, america's love of money was was inherited, like most else, from good ole Europe.) But ion defense, any other European of his day, in command of his mmission, would have been as monstrous as he. The indians were too naive, too nice, too easy to exploit and turn into slaves. But with regard to distorting american history in american schools, Christopher Columbus is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg.. Soon we will celebrate, or rather, acknowledge, "Columbus Day", which we shouldn't, for Cloumbus was that much of a monster. A fanatic Christian monster, who butchered millions, yes millions of human beings. Of course we don't dare teach that inconvenient little truth in american bastions of learning, either in grade school, nor, as I understand it, in college. But wait; evidently it (the truth) IS being taught about American history in today's american colleges; that must be why conservatives are so mad at them. I taught western civ at the college level, so I wouldn't know. The truth is that euaropeans have always been, and still are, money hungry aggressibve imperialists, as is the United States, whereas the people they conquer are usually relatively mild mannered, peaceful, kind, generous, and virtuous. (regular boy scouts, compared to us) But, as they say, nice guys finish last, and to the victor go the spoils.