Heroes?

Want to get some students interested in Columbus? Give this a shot. It’s amazingly easy to find out some really dark things about people we have set up as pretty one-dimensional heroes.

Remember this guy was arrested for excessive cruelty during the SPANISH INQUISITION. He did some really twisted things. Wild to think that people want him canonized.

I learned quite a bit researching the information to make this. Students would too.

15 thoughts on “Heroes?

  1. Listen,

    Columbus was a man of history, how could he know what would become of his sailing? Columbus gets a bad rap, and like any criminal officially wanted by the FBI, the norms and mores of our culture have overshadowed the greatness of his crimes—which all of our crimes.

    Not to mention the fact that I was born on Columbus day, and if this kinda lame ass propaganda is continued, it will no longer be a holiday. And if that happens, I blame you, Tom Woodward, and I will have my revenge.

    1. Columbus was a psychopathic killer and not in the good kind of Dexter psycho killer way.

      Your day, however, is safe. Our society has no common sense or logic.

  2. I think the point of this is that retrospect is piss poor.

    Columbus was an idiot who grossly miscalculated the size of the Earth (which everyone knew was round). The “bringer of Christianity” then opted not to baptize the natives because then he couldn’t keep them as slaves.

    So our historical retrospective view is 20/20? I’m thinking we have no view. We’re blind and stupid, especially historically.

  3. Listen you,

    Columbus certainly did these things, but he was also a man of his moment, not a devil. There was a sense of superiority and the domination that came to characterize a Western Civilization, the culmination of which is the Age of Enlightenment, in which all of these atrocities were explained away. So while I am being tonguw in cheek above, I’m also wondering if we can truly understand the concept of this kind of cultural contact, it is insanely complex and rich with all kinds of readings, but the genocidal Christopher Columbus one gets kind of old and simplified in my mind.

  4. There is no doubt a great deal of complexity. You could say the same for Stalin or anyone else you pick. Yet, because they “lost” they are vilified instead of glorified and while it seems that Columbus is getting fresh beat downs in higher ed that sure isn’t the case in k12. He’s golden here baby. Pure as the driven snow, navigational genius, fearless traveler and prover of a non-flat world. Check the SOLs, you’ll see exactly what your kids will learn about CC.

  5. You two need to have some sort of weekly feature where you argue about something. I love this.

    1. We can work it into the upcoming podcast. I say we start with the conversation we had at SXSW over American medical treatment for soldiers. We can do Columbus next time.

  6. I think at SXSW we were talking about Military schools when you almost jumped over the table to beat me up. The thongs I have to put up with to hang out with you!

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