Everyone knows of the famous New York pentagon one
Not so many know the other Chilean one
And is therefore a good day to reflect on the ideals that make the one universally known and important and the other utterly neglectable.
Ideals variously called secularism, liberalism or just plain-ol democracy
Credo of Democracy: Slavery and Freedom
A single religion holds sway today…
At a sweep unprecedented in the history of humanity…
Across races, sexes, peoples, continents, incomes, ages…
Everyone believes the same grandiloquent Credo
The Credo of FREEDOM
And it is this credo enshrined at the centre of the UN-charter that defines our current World-Order
Quote from Charter
And it is this credo that consolidates, strengthens, stabilizes, and ultimately defines the texture and tenor of our common collective life in the 21st century, viz
It would help to rewind and see the world as it appeared in less ‘free’ more sane times:
The Credo of FREEDOM
And it is this credo enshrined at the centre of the UN-charter that defines our current World-Order
Quote from Charter
And it is this credo that consolidates, strengthens, stabilizes, and ultimately defines the texture and tenor of our common collective life in the 21st century, viz
- Nuclear Armageddon
- Escalating wars inexorably tending towards nuclear meltdown engineered by…
- Mobsters→Gangsters→Banksters driving…
- Unprecedented, unimaginable levels of prosperity-inequality, leading to…
- Escapee-Exodus
- Making not just countries but continents into a mass of moving refugees
- Terracide
- The spectre of climate-change galloping us all towards the precipice within our own lifetimes
It would help to rewind and see the world as it appeared in less ‘free’ more sane times:
America
… called the land of the free is actually founded on slavery.
Immediately on hearing this people either divide into
- Those who AFFIRM this… and are ANGRY with US of America
- Those who violently wish to DENY this at all costs
England
…on which empire the sun never set
…because pf their mastery of colonialistic deceit and treachery
And so here again like with America we have a division:
Nevertheless we may ask: Is the continued anger towards the British 70 years after the end of colonial rule for their 200 years of colonialism justified?
This question needs to be nuanced a bit: Are all aspects of British colonial history equally reprehensible??
The arguments run to-and-fro on this thusly:
British apologist: England gave you railways, modern education, English, common law system
Indian nationalist: Vigorously dispute the facts/relevance of these apologies
And both sides forget one important fact:
India did not exist prior to the Europeans
neither political unit nor the the name.
Sure there was Hindustan, the creation of the muslims to distinguish Turkestan, Kyrghistan, Kazakastan… ie it was largely a geographic understanding.
And before that there was Bharat, Jambu-dweep, largely a mythological understanding
Starting from the very name ‘India’, today's India was almost the single-handed creation of the English, and the greater their atrocities of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the greater the corresponding cohesiveness of modern India
In short, modern India is as much as child of its ancient Hindu and medieval Muslim history as it is a product of modern European.
A analogous situation is seen in modern America: Most so-called blacks in today's US are not purely of African origin but have some amount of mixed blood. Alex Haley's roots is a famous example of this, more recent one is Malcolm Gladwell. When these gentlemen criticize the 'whites' they are specifically criticising one of their forefathers who typically raped the corresponding grandmother.
Does calling my father (grandfather, great-grandfather…) a rapist improve my legal, social, cultural, educational, emotional, spiritual standing?? And what if it is a bare-faced truth? If I do so, who is helped? And if I duck the truth, is anything better? For anyone
And so here again like with America we have a division:
- People who want to ignore forget whitewash such truths
- People who wish to punish the British their colonial history
Nevertheless we may ask: Is the continued anger towards the British 70 years after the end of colonial rule for their 200 years of colonialism justified?
This question needs to be nuanced a bit: Are all aspects of British colonial history equally reprehensible??
The arguments run to-and-fro on this thusly:
British apologist: England gave you railways, modern education, English, common law system
Indian nationalist: Vigorously dispute the facts/relevance of these apologies
And both sides forget one important fact:
India did not exist prior to the Europeans
neither political unit nor the the name.
Sure there was Hindustan, the creation of the muslims to distinguish Turkestan, Kyrghistan, Kazakastan… ie it was largely a geographic understanding.
And before that there was Bharat, Jambu-dweep, largely a mythological understanding
Starting from the very name ‘India’, today's India was almost the single-handed creation of the English, and the greater their atrocities of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the greater the corresponding cohesiveness of modern India
In short, modern India is as much as child of its ancient Hindu and medieval Muslim history as it is a product of modern European.
A analogous situation is seen in modern America: Most so-called blacks in today's US are not purely of African origin but have some amount of mixed blood. Alex Haley's roots is a famous example of this, more recent one is Malcolm Gladwell. When these gentlemen criticize the 'whites' they are specifically criticising one of their forefathers who typically raped the corresponding grandmother.
Does calling my father (grandfather, great-grandfather…) a rapist improve my legal, social, cultural, educational, emotional, spiritual standing?? And what if it is a bare-faced truth? If I do so, who is helped? And if I duck the truth, is anything better? For anyone
Lincoln and Genocide
It is a documented fact that Lincoln hanged the largest number of native
Americans in American history. Clearly the cause of the ‘negroes’ freedom’ was too important to
be side-tracked this small matter. Just as the aryan cause justified
Nazi actions. Shall we say therefore that Lincoln was equivalent to Hitler?
Heisenvote
“If I knew he'd win I would not have voted for him”
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