Ok… now that we have the Troll out of the way, we should really get back to the conversation. A Troll’s goal, willful or no is to disrupt communication.
In another thread Phil Dan and LIB are discussing the questions of why it matters that we actually know who got here first, and why we use a single image, Columbus as a symbol of discovery.
This is all regurgitation mind you.
I have mentioned a couple of times a book that I’ve read, which in turn has led me to pick up many other source texts. A lot can be found on the internet, but you have to work for it. The book itself though is not a tough read and is availiable at amazon.com
It covers the subject from a sociologist’s pov. I recomend it to everyone, but for you Phil, it’s a must read. I know you, and I know you’ll go out in search of every single one of his reference materials.
“Lies…”, details the idea of ‘Heroification’ (sp?); basicaly the idea that we need hero images in our lives due to how we have developed over the years. This is reflected in a many places in history, and pretty easy to see once the source data is presented.
The hilarious thing really is, when we find data that doesn’t support the squeekie clean image of someone like Columbus. He was a drunkard, and ran his ship with an iron fist. I think some of the crew thought he was nuts or something like that. Mutany certainly was presented in my history classes, but it was played down.
Another interesting tid bit that the book related which I find infinitely more fascinating than who came here first, is the account of the American Native showing up in Britain Years earlier in a “dug-out”. Now THAT is an impressive feat.
So why is it important to know? I agree with some of the statements in the other thread. It’s important because history is the ONLY teacher we have. The only real teacher. It is full of mistakes, catastraphy, evil. History teaches us the real truths of the Universe.