Today seems to be the day when everyone who ever took World
History 101 or had American History in High School comes out to play the social
critic. Columbus Day is the perfect day for post-colonialists who have read a
lot of theory to step up to the bat and pretend to know something about history.
The problem with applying such meta-theoretical perspectives as post-colonialism
is that such applications obscure the people of the past, Columbus in this
case, and prevent modern audiences from ever understanding them as they saw themselves.
This is not to draw attention away from the rape and pillage of the Caribbean
which Columbus oversaw, but to properly contextualize it.
The tendency of post-colonial amateurs is to isolate what Columbus
did once he came to America and forget that the process of arriving did not
happen automatically. Post-colonialism obscures all of Columbus’ virtue behind
his manifold vices. His virtue lies in the fact that he stepped out beyond the
parameters of defined existence and looked for something beyond the known. The
intellectual and physical bravery of Columbus is rare in the modern world and
particularly rare in the academy, which, if we measured it metaphorically
against Columbus, would have burned its ships before sailing or at best stuck
close to the shores of the Mediterranean and remained a Genoese trader for
life. Such is the attitude in our
institutions of ‘learning.’
Imagine for instance if Columbus had been possessed of a mind
that was afraid of falling off of the side of the earth, of stepping out beyond
the approved dogma of the collective. Such an individual would never have left
Genoa, much less had the audacity to try selling his plan to the crowned heads
of two of the world’s most powerful monarchies. Would such a mind have ever
risked life and limb to sail toward something unknown in search of riches which
were, according to the accepted nautical norms of his day only available by
sailing east or bartering with the Ottoman Turks?
It is OK to teach children that such an individual was
courageous and that they should strive to embody the ideal of courage. There is
nothing wrong with teaching children that cultural ideals exist and that they
should live their lives to embody those ideals. When I speak of ideals, I mean
ideals which humans can embody such
as courage, in this case. This is radical or insane, I understand, in a world
that has no ideals i.e. a post-colonial, neo-Marxist world.
Eventually, children should be clued in to the fact that the
raping and pillaging happened. Not to destroy the image of Columbus for the
sake of destroying an image and showing that “humans are fundamentally flawed”
but to show that Columbus held ideas which were non-objective and irrational,
such as the moral superiority of European Christians. This will also show them
that non-objective and irrational ideas lead people to commit savage acts of
barbarism and that such ideas cannot form the permanent basis of civilization
without destroying it. Columbus’ real vices were the bad ideas he had about
civilization, not the barbarous acts he committed in Hispaniola.
Columbus’ actions in the new world are a classic example of
one collective oppressing another and should provide us with evidence that the
best moments in human history have been the achievements of daring and bold
individuals not collective actions. It should also show us that people who
cling to the collective, which Columbus did with regard to religion but not nautical
science, are only going to be products of their era and are what Ayn Rand, the
novelist, calls ‘social ballast.’ Post-colonialists are also not keen on
mentioning another facet of Columbus’ life: the fact that his mismanagement of
the new world got him thrown in prison and that he more or less died in
poverty.
Columbus’ legacy is indeed a mixed one, but there is
something to be celebrated on Columbus Day – the joyous and triumphant
individual achieving success in spite of tradition. Post-colonial theorists should hold their
theory in for a few minutes and attempt to understand Columbus’ virtues before running
amuck in their attempt to list his vices.
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