Page 5: “Women in Indian society were treated so well as to startle the Spaniards.”
This is the best, people. I feel “back in USSR” because only there did historians manipulate facts with such ease as Zinn does. He changes the accounts that don’t serve his purposes and never has even a remotely critical approach to those that do. His reading of Bartolome de Las Casas is so literal and ignorant that I find it offensive. Did Zinn go to Yale? That is the only university in North America, I believe, that teaches that Las Casas is to be memorized verbatim, never analyzed, and given sainthood.
I’m very glad that Zinn starts his book with Columbus because this is something I know well and can judge whether the author’s reading has any value.
OK, I will try to leave you to enjoy your Saturday morning in peace.
Clarissa's Blog 
I guess you were swamped with work. I remember a post you did where you bought that book and the Paul Johnson history book too to read! I haven’t read anything in a while. It’s been since 2010 and early 2011 since I’ve read anything from Zinn.
Thanks for the comment on the last post where I told you about school. I have a friend at the University of Georgia who is withdrawing from college soon and an older sister graduating next month, who I am very worried about because she still wants to be a lawyer despite how saturated the job market for that field has become. I’d probably have a different reaction if she got a full ride scholarship to somewhere like Harvard or UC Berkeley or any of the top 8 law schools though.
LikeLike
Yes, I’m going through these 2 historical volumes slowly, whenever I have time. The information has a way to settle down better this way. 🙂
LikeLike
My impression is that the comment here about how well women were treated by “Indians” is true of Cherokees and Iriquois, but not of any other nations.
LikeLike
Come to think of it, I am not sure the Spanish ever encountered Cherokees, and almost certainly not Iriquois. I know nothing at all about gender relations among the Seminole, Aztek, and others that the Spanish likely did encounter.
LikeLike
For now, Zinn is writing only about the Indigenous peoples of Central and South America. The indigenous civilizations of these places were so varied and complex that trying to analyze them as a monolyth is a failed enterprise.
LikeLike
`Did Zinn go to Yale? That is the only university in North America, I believe, that teaches that Las Casas is to be memorized verbatim, never analyzed, and given sainthood.`
I know what you mean, but I believe that you may be exaggerating.
LikeLike
Did you take Rolena’s class on Las Casas? It was the best sleep remedy ever. There was this ultra-annoying Chilean guy taking it in my year. God, that was bad.
LikeLike
Women are always treated well in any society that isn’t oppressed by The One Oppressor. We are obsessed that One Oppressor even if we can only have him in his negative manifestation. To be free to focus on one’s own deep sins in this way gives us an abundance of narcissistic supply — and obliterates the rest of reality, which really never mattered anyway. Not as much as we do.
LikeLike
I’m sorry, I’m rendered quite stupid after reading too much Zinn, so I’m not sure what you are saying.
I will now go read something smart.
LikeLike
It’s the language Americans can’t understand. Irony.
LikeLike
Oh God. I’ve become Americanized. But not in a good way.
LikeLike
Maybe or maybe not. I’ve been doing something simultaneously healthy and unhealthy recently, which is listening to that entity, Sam Vaknin, chattering away about narcissism on YouTube. It’s unhealthy to listen to him, because kind of contaminating. I’ve known too many people like this, who have been afflicted with this vile personality disorder, and their effect on my life has been significant. Also Vaknin himself is, he admits, disordered. He has done his research on the topic, but he also gets narcissistic supply from making the videos (i.e. attention), which he admits is his purpose for making them. Over the years, I have learned to read people quite well, so I notice that when he speaks , he often seems to be very reasonable and righteous, however a truly noble person (in Nietzsche’s sense) would caution us not to listen to him at all. There’s something reptilian about him, for instance in sometimes embracing an all or nothing idea about normality. It is quite disturbing. Then again, theory itself does this — it oversimplifies in order to shed light on something. But anyway, I find the guy very disturbing. And enlightening.
The theory of narcissism does explain a lot of Western culture to me, for instance the way liberals tend to engage in attributing guilt to themselves. They must enjoy it as it is “narcissistic supply”. Also it explains why people can’t take a relative approach or see the humor in a difficult situation, but instead resort to black-and-white moral condemnation. It must be because they can’ t access their emotions on the inside or because these are underdeveloped.
LikeLike
“I’ve known too many people like this, who have been afflicted with this vile personality disorder, and their effect on my life has been significant.”
– Me, too! The moment you ban them from your personal life, the workplace gets infected with narcissists. It’s like an infestation. At this point, I don’t even care what traumas made them this way. I just want them to go away.
LikeLike
I think I now more deeply understand what Nietzsche’s Zarathustra was getting at when he said that his greatest sin/temptation was pity. That’s because you end up pitying them and then you get pulled toward the black hole, beyond the event horizon, and you can’t get yourself back. People think that Nietzsche was advocating being a nazi or being heart-hearted by expressing this sentiment, but the writing is contextualised as a search for spiritual health and redemption from religious mystifications. It is very advisable for the healthy not to try to help or assist the sick, because those people don’t care for that kind of attention unless they can use you up. Even feeling sorry for them is enough to drain a person of their energy.
LikeLike
I know from personal experience that musteryou is right on the 11:31 27 April comment but: which people in need is it safe to help, how does one distinguish, is still my question or blind spot.
LikeLike
I’ve just made a short video that touches on this.
LikeLike
It implies that people are basically able to help themselves.
LikeLike
Where is it?
(OT I have spent part of the weekend with some Zimbabweans, nice.)
LikeLike
uploading now
LikeLike
LikeLike
Interesting, so you say do not try to “cure” even if they express suffering. I tend to find they want to be joined in it or to spread it, which is why I will express an opposite view in an attempt at self protection. But it makes them very agitated.
LikeLike
I like Nietzsche where he says a sign of maturity is not to confuse gentleness with emotional warmth. You can be very gentle with people without having to be sucked into their games. If they want to learn from you, that is always possible. Just don’t let them feast off your emotional energy.
LikeLike
Yes, these are good points. I am still working on getting my emotional quinine dosage right, as it were, so the negativity does not seep into me.
LikeLike
It’s really about developing a Buddha mind. You can see everything at arms length. Be compassionate, but don’t be involved.
LikeLike