Posted on 11/13/2024 3:56:10 AM PST by karpov
Professor John Ellis has been a critic of our higher-education system for many years. His book The Breakdown of Higher Education (which I reviewed here) masterfully analyzed the perverse trends that were (and still are) causing our colleges and universities to deliver much less educational value at much higher cost. His latest book, A Short History of Relations Between Peoples, is not primarily about higher education, but Martin Center readers will find it important because Ellis indicts our academic elites for their role in undoing centuries of progress and turning humanity back towards tribalism.
The main goal of this book is to explain, as the subtitle reads, “How the world began to move beyond tribalism.” For all of human history up to around 1500 A.D., people naturally had a tribal outlook—they feared those from outside of their own tribe, and for good reasons. Few human beings had any moral qualms about pillaging and enslaving people in tribes that couldn’t defend themselves. Almost nobody thought of humanity as one family that could cooperate peacefully for mutual advantage.
So, how did we (mostly) get past our ingrained tribalism and begin to think of all humans as family members? Ellis argues that only within the last 500 years have people gotten away from tribal hatreds and adopted a gens una sumus (humanity is one family) philosophy. They did so for several interrelated reasons.
First, the Age of Discovery brought many far-flung peoples into contact for the first time. The discoverers themselves were not interested in spreading a humanitarian philosophy but merely gaining wealth and power for their sovereign backers. But after the discoverers came missionaries, who sought to persuade natives to adopt Christianity, something that called for peace and understanding, not violence and exploitation.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Right.
El Conquistadores were the noble spreaders of the Reformation and the Enlightenment.
Tell it to the Taino and the Arawak.
Guess that explains your support of Rueben Marinelarena, the new Jefe de Arizona.
Leftism is the project of DESTROYING WESTERN CIVILIZATION!
They are not shy about announcing that.
Spaniards enslaved as well.
The missionaries themselves were different but as a group Spaniards were as into enslavement as anyone else.
Good stuff, worth a read.
We've fallen because the communists invaded. And theirs was a multipronged attack. You liberal sister-in-law is the product of 60 years of commie indoctrination and she's beyond redemption, at this point. She is the enemy.
The missionaries were the enablers of the slavery known as the Encomienda.
Baptism of the Neophytes meant that you became the subject of the Spanish King, who derived his authority from the Pope.
African slavery was definitely a different thing - they imported millions into the islands and Brazil, then worked them to death - but the conversion of the aboriginals was not about saving souls, but rather legitimizing serfdom.
Seperation of School and State is an idea whose time has come.
The schools will change when industry and business insist on capable graduates who won’t make trouble.
Great article. Thanks for posting.
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