Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to You surprise me.

Closer to the time?
Mary Anne — (archived)

I'll give you that the books about American history tell me a lot about why the Native Americans were treated the way they were, because the text reflects the institutionalized racism of American society at the time. It doesn't tell us anything meaningful about the essence of the conflict between white settlers and Native Americans, though, in terms of politics, economics, and yes, religion, because it only tells one side. Though events recounted may be factual, they are not truth; they are items of interest. They need closer scrutiny because of their manifest bias.

For anyone to say that 1900 is closer to Babylonian history than 2006 in any meaningful way, since we're talking about a civilization that flourished and fell thousands of years ago, is silly. To cite sources that had no access to one hundred years' worth of archaeological field work and analysis because that work had yet to occur as more accurate than contemporary ones is equally short-sighted. It's as if I were to quote research about dinosaurs from the 19th century as being more accurate because that time was closer to when dinosaurs really lived.

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