HISTORY AS PROPAGANDA:
The basic problem with history is that whomever is writing the history writes it from a particular perspective. I do not know how this can be avoided. Thus, what you read invariably has certain religious, political, ethnic, and cultural biases. Objectivity is limited in anyone's peculiar world. Except, of course, for you and I and often I wonder about you.
When I was growing up Columbus was a revered historical American figure with a national holiday. Of course he wasn't American, he didn't discover America, and he was essentially a low class thug with endless greed for money, titles, and power. Like many such thugs he wrapped all of his unethical behaviors behind a cloak of self proclaimed religious piety. He was a Pat Robertson, a Reverend Jackson, a Jerry Faulwell, and a typical Pope with an added tough risk taking adventurous spirit.
I can't help but wonder what kind of American History might have evolved if a different sort of person had 'discovered' America. We know quite a bit about Columbus from his own words. When he first came ashore in the Bahama Islands the natives, called Arawaks, ran to greet Columbus and his men, brought them food, water, gifts. Columbus wrote in his log:
" They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned...They were well built, with good bodies and handsome features.....They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They would make fine servants....With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
I guess one can read into this a lot of things. But I say to myself, "Wow, and these are the people Europe is going to send missionaries to save them and make them Christians." Many of the Indian tribes, when first encountered by the invading Europeans, had similar cultures---cultures remarkable for their hospitality, their belief in sharing. They didn't own land personally, they shared it. They didn't worship in temples or invent imaginary tribal Gods----they worshipped nature, God's creative process of which they were a part. Columbus was from Spain, a culture dominated by the religion of the Popes, the government of Kings, the frenzy for money, and an appetite for torture.
Columbus writes: "As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts." Columbus wanted to know where the gold was.
Next, our charming American hero, sailed to Haiti and the Dominican Republic where our pious religious hero reported that the natives "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone" He wrote to his Majesties back home that he "would bring home to them as much gold as they need and as many slaves as they ask".
He added, "Thus the eternal God, our Lord, gives us victory to those who follow His way over apparent impossibilities." Onward Christian soldiers!!!!!
Columbus then built a fort in Haiti and left behind some soldiers to guard the fort. On his next voyage, when he returned he found all the soldiers had been killed after they roamed the island in gangs looking for gold, taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor. The Indians were slowly becoming savagestized and learning how to kill. On his second voyage Columbus rounded up 500 of the best Arawak men, women, and children and sailed back to Spain with his bounty. Although half of them died en route, the rest were were put up for sale in Spain. Columbus wrote: "Let us, in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold".
The Spaniards descended now on Haiti with pent up religious and patriotic furor. Those natives who could not cough up some gold were simply slaughtered. Among the Arawaks, mass suicides began, with casava poison. Infants were killed to save them from the Spaniards and I guess the work of the 'Holy Trinity". In two years, half of the 250,000 Indians in Haiti were dead. With no Gold to be found these Indians were then taken as slave labor. By 1515 there were maybe 50,000 Arawak Indians left, by 1550 there were 500. By 1650 none of the original Arawaks or their descendants were left on the island. God, everybody's inherited real God, works in mysterious ways, or so it is always claimed. As was to be so common---missionaries aside----natives were eliminated. Missionaries always mean well, in a narrow sense of the word, but for the most part what do religious missionaries to other countries ever really achieve? Domestic religious turmoil in the targeted country is almost always the end result.
One missionary who lived in Haiti during this period described the Arawak Indians thusly: Aside from their kindness and willingness to share everything, they treat women very well, so well as to startle the Spaniards. On sex relations the missionary wrote: "Marriage laws are non existent; men and women alike choose their mates and leave them as they please, without offense, jealousy, or anger. If women tire of their men they give themselves abortions with herbs that force stillbirths. Indian men and women look upon total nakedness with as much casualness as we look upon a man's head or at his hands." The missionary recounted numerous examples of how the Indians were treated. "Two of our so called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys....Indian attempts to defend themselves failed, and those who didn't commit suicide suffered and died in mines and other labors in desperate silence, knowing not a soul in the world to whom they could turn for help."
History is full of these kind of sad and cruel episodes. Myself, I become quite jaded about organized religion because behind most of this 'man's inhumanity to other humans' is some sort of religious zeal. I think of the Taliban, I think of Americans in Vietnam, of the Muslims and Christians in Darfur, of the religious right in this country and you see the same kind of intolerance for others who are different, who fail to worship the right God, and you just sense, if ever the laws and police which protect the targets of their hate are ever loosened, these despised people will be treated with the same hatred those two boys were with their parrots.
On Columbus Day I am not going to honor Columbus at all. I instead will wonder what kind of History might have emerged if there had been a different kind of Columbus who happened upon the Arawak Indians. You know, someone who had some kind of real religion, some kind of adherence to the Golden Rule, someone who respected others, especially others who are kind and peaceful and sharing. No, to hell with the likes of Columbus---seemingly some kind of testosteronized Sarah Palin--- and instead I shall honor those two Avarak boys with their pet parrots, and all the other hapless and helpless nobodies across the globe whose lives to me are beyond comprehension---mired in the kind of desperation and hopelessness that bears reality to Lincoln's oft felt sadness at how much real sadness there is in our world.
To be fair, the level of cruelty, in general, has decreased over time, perhaps part of human evolutionary progress. We still have isolated acts of senseless cruelty---the Taliban, our own religious right, and of course the renowned 5-time deferment cowardly self proclaimed warrior Dick Cheney who thinks returning to torture is the way to reduce violence in the world. He and his ilk have no real comprehension of life in places like Afghanistan. Reporters who have been in the area over any period of time explain Afghan fighters this way: For most Afghanistans the priority is to survive. Religion, politics, right and wrong, are all luxuries they can ill afford to spend time on. A young man might be fighting with the Taliban one month, with the local Mushadeen war Lords a different month, and with the government forces another month. It all depends on who is in charge at gunpoint at the time. Death and violence has been a way of life for centuries now. So when we capture one of these Taliban 'for the moment' soldiers (if I can use the term soldier loosely) what prey tell, is there to torture them for? One has to be substantially dense not to understand that if we can torture captured enemies, our enemies can feel the right to torture captured Americans. When you start capturing chauffeurs, and messengers, etc. and torture them you reveal more about your own ethics than theirs. And of course if you capture a real high up leader, anything he knows his sponsors know and will be sure what he knows is no longer operative. And of course torture simply produces whatever the one being tortured thinks you want to know. I think I will keep in my back pocket a list of people I really dislike and if I am ever captured and accused of being an American spy, I will readily, upon being tortured, use this list to identify these secret top level American war planners.
When I think about the Arawak Indians and the Columbus invaders it is hard to identify Columbus as the more civilized and ethical party. It just seems Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Moses, and most any other original prophet of a major religion, would choose the Arawak culture over the Spanish/Italian culture from whence Columbus sprung. No matter the ethical principle applied, the Arawak are more admirable. The Arawak have long since become extinct, I guess some version of the survival of the fittest. Sadly, Haiti never has recovered from the cycle of violence and cruelty imposed on that country by Columbus and his followers.
Whenever I see religious fanatics with Bibles of some sort waving in the air, armed with guns and blind patriotic and religious fervor, I cringe. They are not much different from Columbus. They love weaponry, huge defense budgets, military shows, support every invasion their government undertakes, support the death penalty, torture, and like Columbus, are driven into a frenzy by the accumulation of material wealth. "Where is the gold" is still the engine which drives much of their behavior. It is private property and personal wealth which comprise their priorities, never sharing. Their world is always one of 'us' vs 'them', a mentality of conflict which fuels their discontent which radiates from their pronouncements and actions. You can tell those outside their family or neighborhood enclaves by the hunted look in their eyes. Their message to others is always some sort of "Someday we will get you and when we do our God will be pleased and reward us for our efforts". Whatever.
Me, I have more admiration for the Arawak Indians than the Europeans who invaded them. Heaven was turned into hell and we know who did it.
