Celebrate pro-Civilization Columbus Day!
Recently the forces of multiculturalism have banded together to try to deride the accomplishment of Christopher Columbus in discovering the New World. They say the very word “discovering” is something racist and Eurocentric.
They say that Columbus was a raging conquistador, too stupid to know the world was round, and seeking only to destroy other cultures.
The existence of the Indians on the American continents was nasty, brutish, and short. People like to pretend that the Indians had a blissful existence in perfect harmony with nature. If that was the case, then you’d have to argue that slaughtering each other in wars for the sake of capturing slaves for human sacrifice is bliss.
They will say that the Indians had a calendar more accurate than the European calendar. This is true. It was less than a tenth of a percent more accurate. Didn’t really help them navigate the oceans or invent the wheel, or develop a society without human sacrifice, did it?
This is all besides the point – however you want to compare societies, the fact is this: this was the meeting of two completely different cultures, one which was advanced, the other which was not. No matter how the Europeans had interacted with the Indians, the enormous deaths they suffered would have happened anyway, because it was do to germs and not European evil.
For those who will try to argue using the oft-cited example of colonists giving blankets to Indians to make them sick, I gladly point you to Michael Medved’s book, “The Ten Big Lies about America” where he exhaustively details where this lie originates from, and the truth of history. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that any European purposely tried to get Indians sick. This lie fits the liberal worldview that says Western Civilization is the cause of all evils, so it continues to be spread far and wide.
To be sure, Indians were treated unjustly in many ways. However, this cannot be put at the feet of Columbus. He first was seeking a passage to the East Indies to improve trade routes. Secondly, his letters show a profound faith in Christianity, and he wished that better transport to the East would help spread the Word of God. To blame him for what occurred after his discovery to malign the character of a great man that deserves honor and respect.
So on this day, when we celebrate Columbus Day, I raise my glass to a great man that brought civilization to the Americas. Thank God it was Western Civilization and not the East, or the world might still be under the chains of slavery and intellectual darkness – both of which Western Civilization helped destroy on God’s green Earth.
I encourage you to celebrate as well, in full gratitude to the God that sent Columbus to the Americas, and to the great American country that rose from that momentous discovery!