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Posted on 10/13/2003 9:02:24 AM PDT by yankeedame
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:40:44 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is urging Latin Americans to boycott Monday's Columbus Day celebrations.
Christopher Columbus' 1492 arrival to America triggered a 150-year "invasion" of native Indians by foreign conquerors, who behaved "worse than Hitler," Chavez said during a meeting in Caracas attended by representatives of the indigenous population in South America.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Another example of an illeagle alien.
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If you bemoan the antics of your ancestors so much, why not give the land (and power) back to the Inca, Maya, Aztecs.....
Excellent observation. A tip o' my hat to you, RR.
The left is dabbling in race politics again. They elevate the tribal cultures and associate themselves with the tribes, even against all logic, for several reasons. One is that it helps them to establish the idea that we are all victims. It is a way of denying Christianity and those parts of Western Civ that they reject. It is a mental sleight of hand where, by associating yourself with that drop of indigenous blood in your veins, you can now rage against the victimizers without having to accept any guilt. It is as if in the US we suddenly all discovered that we all have a drop of African blood therefore we are all victims of slavery. We could continue to demand reparations payments, but we would all get a fat check.
You read a lot of claptrap about authenticity. Christianity is not authentic, it is not native to America. The oil and gas industry is not authentic, but of course coca is authentic, and the left has begun to elevate the coca industry. They do so because it is a convenient battering ram against the established order, and of course because it is a major source of funding for the more militant left.
They of course defend the coca industry, except where the Colombian "Paramilitary" is concerned; in their case they decry paramilitary ties to drug trafficking because they aren't under leftist control.
The established order, of course, is rich in defects, but the alternative being offered is profoundly evil, it is anti-Christian, anti-development (development is not authentic), anti-capitalist (they rage against "neo-liberalism", which is their pejorative for a free economy that has never existed there), and most especially anti-US.
Their ideology is not rational or consistent, it shifts from moment to moment. On some days Chavez calls for a return to Spanish culture's supposed Arab roots, if on that day he is toadying up to the Arabs. That being also anti-Christian and anti-West, it works just as well.
The European culture was building this:
Senor Chavez please report to the Mayan Temple for a 8:00 sacrifice.
Leave your beret at home.
Ceremonial clothing will be supplied.
The irony is that the real/mythical Quetzalcoatl was supposed to return from the East to reclaim his power in Mayan legend....but the Indians mistook Cortés for him instead. Undoubtedly, the Spaniards took some advantage of this interesting coincidence and when the conquest was in full swing, structures such as the pyramid shown were dismantled to provide the materials for building churches. Plenty of sites and buildings escaped that fate because they were either abandoned by the time the Spanish showed up (the case with Chichen Itza) or they were buried in the jungle far enough away from anyone wanting to drag the stones away. There is a lot we'll never know about the Maya in particular as the Spanish torched all but a handful of the Myan Codices. They were quite a scientifically advanced people in many ways and quite barbaric by our present standards in others. Of course, the Spanish were no strangers to violence as evidenced by one Tomás de Torquemada.
All in all, condeming all the actions of either the Spanish or the Maya, Inca, Aztec or Toltecs by judging them by our modern mores is absurd and ignores the times, society and conditions in which they lived. Things we find repulsive were commonplace and FULLY ACCEPTED for them
and let's not forget this: 
or this: 
About the pyramid shown -364 steps if you count them, the platform at top making for 365. The Maya had independently come to a very accurate counting for the solar year.
The Myan Long Count calendar was far more accurate than the contemporary system used in Europe.
The Maya had a remarkable number system which included the concept of Zero - something we take for granted now but an alien concept to may contemporary peoples in the West.
For all of the "advanced" learnings these people had, none of it was a proper defense against Western technology, Military organization, the zeal of hunting for gold and not a few diseases introduced into a sequestered population which had developed no immunity to them.
Columbus is in no way comparable to Hitler. He was an explorer who like many before and after looked for new lands and opportunity. If Columbus had not gotten wanderlust, it would have been someone else who deliberately set sail or got blown off course who would be the target for the Left's rants and raves. Torquemada may be more deserving of the comparison but you could argue that in his time, he was seen as Spain's saviour.
The Aztec's could have resisted the Spanish except for one thing. They had treated their client states so poorly that they threw in with the Spanish as fast as they could.
If they really want to protest the spread of European genes to the Americas, they need to commit suicide. Otherwise, it's just lip-service.
That the Maya did what they did in isolation with the West is impressive....not earth shattering but still impressive. Knowing the timing of the Equinox without benefit of accurate timepieces is in itself a feat but, sure - you could chalk that up to persistent and fanatical observation. Presuming that their religion held celestial observation and events in high regard, it's not surprising that they translated a bit of what they knew into architecture. Astronomical "happenings" figured more in their daily lives than the typical European except for Mariners.
That nothing seemed to progress for centuries is probably the product of city-states warring with each other being the ever-present reality. That is what the left always tends to play fast and loose with. The persons who lived in the Americas when the mass of Europeans started showing up on the shores weren't - by and large - the agrarian pacifists the left would have you believe.
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