Thanks for including a link to a PDF of almost the entire Columbus book, which I have downloaded for future reading when I am no longer able to type (I am now 80 years old) and will have to resort to reading dozens of great books which I have downloaded over the years. I read Zinn's real American history book 20+ years ago, and that started me to read as many similar books as possible. I was also triggered to read more about Columbus by one or two sentences I accidentally found on your website back then, which led me also to read more, and then all, of your website as it was then in ca. 2000. Wikipedia, which you have said many times has wrong-thinking biases, at least mentions the fact that Columbus's treatment of the native Americans outraged the Spanish Catholic Church's officials so much after he returned from his 2nd voyage that they excommunicated him from the Church and only grudgingly allowed him to return to the New World for a 3rd time, but forbade him to hold any government office in New Spain (all the newly claimed Spanish territories in the New World) when he sailed back to the New World for his 3rd trip. Wikipedia did not go into atrocious detail of Columbus's behavior in the New World, as you did on your website, but at least they did add enough detail to de-sanctify him for all time as a great human being in the American pantheon such as George Washington was, and who has now been much de-sanctified.
Humans seem to have an inner need to believe in nearly perfect heroes of the past. The ancient Greeks and Romans invented myths of the great things that their invented gods had done, which gave them reason to worship those gods and try to emulate the good things which they supposedly did. Today we "know" these ancient deities were invented to satisfy this inner need, but yet we cover up any bad thing ever done by our modern historical heroes; e.g., George Washington, General Curtis LeMay, Winston Churchill, General Douglas MacArthur, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, Davy Crockett, Alexander Nevsky, Dwight Eisenhower, Thomas Edison, Alexander Hamilton, J. D. Rockefeller Sr., Andrew Carnegie, King David of ancient Israel (who may be totally fictional), David Ben-Gurion, Napoleon I, et al.
And our modern entertainment media also invent great fictional heroes for us to idolize, such as Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Jack Reacher, James Bond, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, etc. The reality of human behavior is a very hard thing to understand and accept.
Yes, the hero-worship is a strange aspect of humanity, especially when the heroic deeds are almost all fictional, for both living and fictional heroes. Or those that are are almost vastly overblown. I recently read about the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, which was far gentler than the occupation of Poland, for instance. There were some acts of resistance, but 99.9% of the Dutch just kept their heads down or collaborated. After the war, the Dutch created a fable of widespread resistance to the Nazis. This is a human universal. What I discovered about all the lies I was taught was just the American version.
As I often state, becoming a sentient species is not easy. I have my own pantheon of heroes:
that have inspired me and whom I carry on for. Zinn made it. People who live by their consciences are very rare in today's world, which was the primary lesson of my journey. Acting with integrity when it is costly to do so is the rarest of human behaviors.
Thanks for including a link to a PDF of almost the entire Columbus book, which I have downloaded for future reading when I am no longer able to type (I am now 80 years old) and will have to resort to reading dozens of great books which I have downloaded over the years. I read Zinn's real American history book 20+ years ago, and that started me to read as many similar books as possible. I was also triggered to read more about Columbus by one or two sentences I accidentally found on your website back then, which led me also to read more, and then all, of your website as it was then in ca. 2000. Wikipedia, which you have said many times has wrong-thinking biases, at least mentions the fact that Columbus's treatment of the native Americans outraged the Spanish Catholic Church's officials so much after he returned from his 2nd voyage that they excommunicated him from the Church and only grudgingly allowed him to return to the New World for a 3rd time, but forbade him to hold any government office in New Spain (all the newly claimed Spanish territories in the New World) when he sailed back to the New World for his 3rd trip. Wikipedia did not go into atrocious detail of Columbus's behavior in the New World, as you did on your website, but at least they did add enough detail to de-sanctify him for all time as a great human being in the American pantheon such as George Washington was, and who has now been much de-sanctified.
Humans seem to have an inner need to believe in nearly perfect heroes of the past. The ancient Greeks and Romans invented myths of the great things that their invented gods had done, which gave them reason to worship those gods and try to emulate the good things which they supposedly did. Today we "know" these ancient deities were invented to satisfy this inner need, but yet we cover up any bad thing ever done by our modern historical heroes; e.g., George Washington, General Curtis LeMay, Winston Churchill, General Douglas MacArthur, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, Davy Crockett, Alexander Nevsky, Dwight Eisenhower, Thomas Edison, Alexander Hamilton, J. D. Rockefeller Sr., Andrew Carnegie, King David of ancient Israel (who may be totally fictional), David Ben-Gurion, Napoleon I, et al.
And our modern entertainment media also invent great fictional heroes for us to idolize, such as Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Jack Reacher, James Bond, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, etc. The reality of human behavior is a very hard thing to understand and accept.
Thanks Bill. I discussed how Columbus was given a somewhat accurate treatment in Wikipedia, and I guessed why:
https://ahealedplanet.net/forum/threads/223-Western-Censorship-and-Propaganda?p=3765&viewfull=1#post3765
Yes, the hero-worship is a strange aspect of humanity, especially when the heroic deeds are almost all fictional, for both living and fictional heroes. Or those that are are almost vastly overblown. I recently read about the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, which was far gentler than the occupation of Poland, for instance. There were some acts of resistance, but 99.9% of the Dutch just kept their heads down or collaborated. After the war, the Dutch created a fable of widespread resistance to the Nazis. This is a human universal. What I discovered about all the lies I was taught was just the American version.
As I often state, becoming a sentient species is not easy. I have my own pantheon of heroes:
https://ahealedplanet.net/forum/threads/139-The-Cast-of-Characters-on-My-Journey?p=2042&viewfull=1#post2042
that have inspired me and whom I carry on for. Zinn made it. People who live by their consciences are very rare in today's world, which was the primary lesson of my journey. Acting with integrity when it is costly to do so is the rarest of human behaviors.