Today, October 12, 2017, is
the 525th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the New World.
Here
is a series of tweets I published yesterday in his honor.
Humans have been on earth for
a million years. Yet the oldest civilization is less than 6000 years. In the
interval everyone was a savage.
Some people, such as various
tribes in Spain, France, and England were savages as recently as the time of
Julius Caesar.
Others, such as various tribes
in Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, were still savages even centuries
later.
The “indigenous people” of the
Western Hemisphere were savages when Columbus reached them and brought them
into the civilization of his day.
In bringing civilization to
savages, one enables them to achieve what they had not been able to achieve for
hundreds of millenia.
Those who bring civilization
to savages are cultural heroes. Columbus, who brought it to the people of 2
continents, is one of the greatest.
Civilization is incomparably
better than savagery. So celebrate Columbus Day not savages day.
