It is an interesting “fad,” we might call it, to portray every event in history from the viewpoint of the most “woke” or radical perspectives fostered and pandered-to by today’s politicians. It doesn’t seem to be helpful in terms of increasing knowledge or of increasing understanding of the past. But it has, in the span of 20 years or so, become commonplace. Every example of this new ignorance need not be brought before the bar of reason for the student of history to still be able to ask, “why?”
If we accept the premise that schools are the imparters of truth, then it follows that they should be the bastions of truth, as well. Interesting word, ‘bastion.’ It means a projection from a defensive wall that affords more effective firing angles against attackers, and it also means “bulwark.” A bulwark is a person, or a thing, that is the immovable defense of the fort or castle. In the battle of ideas, persons in the school or education business, are obligated by their office in society – the official role to which they are committed and for which they are well-compensated – to be the bulwarks against UN-truth and lies.
In that regard, their best success derives from having taught students to both find truth and to recognize it when it appears… or disappears.
Parents consign their children to schools in order for them to learn truths and to learn about truth. Human beings entrusted with imparting truth to children of any age, are sorely tested to not convey opinions or beliefs they hold that cannot be demonstrated to be true. One might think – and parents might hope – that a mechanism exists to remove teachers who cannot help but taint truth with their opinions. That the opposite mechanism exists should give us pause. Short of severe debauchery or criminal acts, it is nearly impossible to pry a teacher loose from his or her tenured security. What are they teaching?
Let’s look at a simple event that has caused news stories in recent years; the landing of the “pilgrims” in Massachusetts Bay, ostensibly at what we know as Plymouth, named for Plymouth, England. To get to Plymouth the so-called Pilgrims had to endure privations and tribulations that we, today, in our land of too much food and electricity, cannot conceive of. We lose our cool when another car blocks us or cuts in front of us. Imagine uprooting your family and leaving the place of your birth and generations of customs and history, to sign on to a corporate adventure to the “New World,” about which little is known. Your first ship proves unseaworthy and you limp back to port until another can be obtained and hired to your purposes.
You are unable to carry with you more than a small trunk’s worth of tools and possessions. On your little ship there are no bathrooms, no showers, salted fish and beef to eat, no fresh vegetables, no toothpaste or toilet paper. Privacy is virtually non-existent, you know nothing of germs or disease except that the latter is common. Childbirth is among the deadliest of burdens for women. For years you have planned and hoped for a better life upon reaching the distant unknown shore, and after the final two months at sea you are deposited on the shore, far off from your intended destination, now forced to fend for yourselves from the ground up, in fact, building shelters, foraging for wildlife and wild fruits or berries to try to store enough food for the imminent winter which will be much harsher than what you have been used to, particularly since your delay in leaving England left you in the New World in October, rather than in May or June.
Among your beliefs is deep religious faith in God, bolstered by frequent prayer, but He isn’t cushioning any blows or revealing hidden stores of healthy food. Many of you die in that first winter, yet faith and incredible work see you through. Eventually relations with natives, whom you believe to be “savages,” keep you from dying out altogether and your duties as profitable fur trappers can commence.
Accidentally, in total ignorance, you have brought germs that infect the native people, germs against which they have no defense. You have brought another disease, economics, including concepts of private property, fences and stockades, and guns and swords of steel to defend them. You believe that God has blessed you with a new land over which you have every right to take dominion. History records the clash of beliefs and its outcome.
To this Prudent observer, descended from those Pilgrims and others who followed soon after, the story of immense courage and faith, regardless of what we may, today, think of that faith, is a bit heroic. Courage in the face of danger is one of humankind’s abiding virtues and is worthy of honor and emulation, but what is more frequently discussed, even abetted by public entities, is the awfulness of the Pilgrims and all of their virtues and beliefs, since it turned out badly for the natives. The thanks offered prayerfully to God, for the salvation of the tiny colony, must now be denigrated because of those germs and the new ideas the colonists held dear.
The strength of the underdog fighter who wins against all odds, must be hated because, we have since learned, he once flipped the bird to another driver and… it was a woman! There will never be a good reason to train the way he did, or learn the tactics that he used to win, not ever will there be a reason to mention his name or take his picture. Everything must be expunged.
And so education has purged itself of the role of Christianity in the creation and final founding of the United States. Since many teachers and professors, now, are so sure that belief in the Bible’s teachings is superstition, they cannot bring themselves to learn how it is woven into the fabric of America, and certainly not to teach about it. Is it all just economics? That was Marx’s view; we certainly must teach about that. So, is the “new” narrative about where America came from the same as “truth?” It would seem Prudent to judge that it is a half-truth at best. Does that fulfill the essential requirement that educational institutions… and functions… be the defenders and imparters of truth? If not, what are they? What are they being paid to do, if not impart truth?
Christopher Columbus was nothing if not unusually brave. It took unusual courage to set sail beyond the sight of land, not knowing how far it was to reach another shore. It was a struggle for him to obtain not one, but 3 crews to follow him on his undefined journey. When he landed he was thousands of miles from where he thought he must be. His mission was financed by the newly victorious, fused monarchies of Ferdinand and Isabella, who defeated the Moors just one day before granting Columbus the support he needed.
They needed gold, which the “indies” reportedly had, and some other valuables Columbus’ crewmates and soldiers might come across. No one on earth had knowledge of germs, viruses or infections. No one. The Spaniards were simple thieves who believed non-Europeans, non-Catholic non-Europeans most particularly, were “savages.” In other words, Spaniards, like French, British, Italian, Dutch and other explorers… Portuguese, were brought up to believe that because of their relative enlightenment, manufactures, printing, marriage, courts, police, and religion, they were superior to savages wherever they found them. The Spaniards were fulfilling the charge of their King and Queen, whose authority came from God. There was no better work they could do. Not so simple, perhaps.
Today Columbus is vilified, as if current hot feelings might improve Columbus’ own attitudes, causing him and all of his crewmates who had just risked their lives on their mission to the “Indies,” to renounce every belief they held and their faith, and to switch to social services for the savages they had found, perhaps teaching them how to forge iron and smelt bronze, and to build better huts and grow more crops. The next expedition could teach them to read the Bible and raise their children.
Many teachers seem consumed by the estimates of decimation brought about by European diseases thanks to Columbus’ discovering the new world. Rather than recognize the essential sacrifice and bravery of mariners of Columbus’ day, along with the unintended consequences of the intercontinental movement of peoples, educators convinced of the evil intent of all white-skinned peoples, pummel their students with the evils initiated by white Europeans. Increasingly liberal teachers twist the views of their students such that whites begin to hate themselves and question not only bad actions of the past, but even ideas and philosophies generated by people whose skin is not brown.
This immediately translates into hatred of America and the ideas that created it; it also validates hatreds the racialist hate-mongers are encouraging non-stop in black communities. Neither trend is healthy for our nation, our future progress or our steady destruction of disease and poverty. It’s stupid, essentially. Shame on us.
This same poisoned outlook has been seized upon by socialists now to fuel their never-ending struggle to destroy individual freedom, a goal that may only be achieved by destroying America. They must destroy Christianity, too, since many white people believe in it.
Can the descendants of slave owners atone not only for the sins of their ancestors but for the sins of their ancestors’ ancestors’ ancestors? No, never. The actions of the past still remain no matter what is done, now. Can the descendants of slaves (which are virtually all of us depending on how many ancestries we include) receive some kind of justice for the sufferings of their ancestors? No, the suffering will have still happened. Is that suffering the reason some brown-skinned people are economically behind the curve today? Or educationally? No.
Up until the “Great Society,” which federalized welfare has purchased the votes of blacks for generations, the suffering of slaves had created a great strengthening of their descendants. “We shall overcome” had genuine meaning and blacks were overcoming and gaining economic power faster than their white “oppressors.” But when hate became a tax-funded industry, black progress not only slowed, but reversed. And still they excel… in virtually every field, yet more also fail, convinced by their hate-filled leaders that life is unfair because of (pick all that apply) whites, Christians, police, schools, businesses, Republicans, slavery, Columbus, NASA, Trump. What a waste, however enrichening it is for some.