Friday, May 10, 2019

Past Heroes

As Bob Dylan said years ago "The Times They Are a-Changing".

Generally the changes were good if incomplete as we saw improvements in issues like civil rights, women's liberation, more tolerance for sexual preferences and generally a better awareness of differences.

The improvements are hardly complete as we still have disparities and work to do.

However, one of the ways to not make progress on real issues is to focus on imagined ones.

Take our historical figures, often considered heroes to generations now being questioned.

The conquest of the Americas was brutal and oppressive to Native Americans who, while the victims, weren't lambs to the slaughter.  The history of humanity if filled with conquests and wars and the explorers, Conquistadors and settlers didn't think they were doing anything wrong, and by the standards of the time, they weren't.

We might condemn that behavior currently, (but that is by no means certain) but they took risks, acted boldly and secured two continents.

Yes they practiced slavery and had little consideration for the peoples they subjugated, except to convert them, and we can look at that period and see it for what it was.

They should however be judged by the standards of the time, not standards of today.


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