Now that I think about the farce of the laughable “classical” buildings that litter the tourist’s path in DC, I wonder how anyone can take the “historical” view on anything seriously.
One of the most absolute givens among historians is that people used to think the world was flat. I wonder if it’s true?
Our ancestors in general didn’t travel much, but I am sure that people who had time to study and name the stars probably noticed the horizon, too. If earth were flat it would look different to anyone who had an eye left.
The Bible does not say the earth is flat. It does refer to the heavens and the firmament being created, and if you want to, you can picture that as saying that the land is flat.
In fact, people who want to show how benighted everybody was never think of it any other way.
Egyptians calculated the circumference of the earth, but it is assumed that is because they were Negroid geniuses.
All the talk about sailors being afraid of falling off the edge of the world comes from writers making fun of them. I do not know if any sailor, even a retarded one, ever actually thought the world had an edge.
I would like to think I have not only outgrown a lot of that crap, but LEARNED something from outgrowing it. I remember they used to say that Columbus proved the world was round.
Actually the argument Columbus had with the thinkers of his day was one in which he was wrong. He had calculated the distance it would take to get to Asia going westward, and he calculated it as much closer than it was. No sane person argued that he would reach the end of the world.
Another total misconception I cannot even get people to NOTICE is about the wheel.
I point out that the wheel was not an early invention. In the comic strip B.C. they make jokes about it. Everyone understands the joke because “all the way back to the invention of the wheel” is supposed to be a term for all the way back before anything else was invented.
But when I mention this to people, they frown and say they never heard such a thing.
People not only do not learn from their most basic assumptions, they don’t even recognize them when they are mentioned.
#1 by backbaygrouch on 08/07/2010 - 6:10 am
Am not sure about the math underneath the calculations that Columbus made but they do coincide with the range of ships developed to exploit the fisheries off Iceland during the previous century. These ships were the first that could sail into open seas. Previous ships were coast huggers, even those used by the Portuguese creeping around Africa. Whether his math was opportunistic can be disputed, but the results were convenient for a promoter on the make.
If anyone is interested this comes from a book I just finished, Fish On Friday, Feasting, Fasting and the Discovery of the New World by Brian Fagan. It is not a page turner.He does seem to understand sailing, fishing and the role of markets on innovation. Most surprising factoid: Even in the 16th and 17th centuries the North Atlantic cod fisheries generated more wealth than the precious metal extraction from Mexico and Peru. Most unstated observation, the Indians watched the White man’s industry emerge and never tried to enter it. They were in a good position to do so.
#2 by Dave on 08/07/2010 - 10:39 am
The examination of basic assumptions is at the heart of a scientific perspective. It is called really and truly thinking things through. That means everything absolutely everything has got to be thought through.
Mantra thinking is something that cannot be pretended. My appreciation for it is because I was raised in athletics. There is so much frustration in training. There are so many wrong turns. A sustained price is usually paid to get it right. But having paid the price you can get it right and do what works and that is what makes it wonderful.
Barrack Obama is refection of the world we are living in. He is a product of BELIEF and it isn’t even honorable BELIEF. It is a whole lot lower than that. It is dirty ass ignoramus stuff of the kind churned out by Hollywood Jews. In truth, he doesn’t know anything to the level of a throwback to the simian world. In the larger sense, he is so goddamned dumb that there is really no accounting for it.
Think how bizarre this is. Reality is free to be anything it wants to be and what we are experiencing is stupendously bizarre.
These times force you into Mantra thinking. You have got to do it. It is the only way to stay righted. It is just like in athletics. When you get it right, there is such power at your feet because it is about accuracy. You can stay righted.
Compare Mantra thinking with what is happening, for example, to the Tea Partiers. Compared to us, they are like a bunch of bums standing around an oil drum heater on the street, pretending they know what happened to them.
The real competitors will find us. That’s because we have the training with the big payoff, what will really get you from A to B in recovering your racial bearing and in making plays that actually work and in seeing accurately
#3 by Simmons on 08/07/2010 - 12:28 pm
Bob is crying again, but it is his right, I would say with confidence he has earned it.
Needless to say the myth makers of temporal provincialism are under siege, they cannot leave their heavily moderated internet bunkers or TV studios.
One instance is the idiot magic thinking jew (jews are the premiere magic thinkers) Paul Krugman who was run off his own blog by basically dispossesed high IQ whites. Mr. Magic closed his blog and now is holed up in the bankrupt NYTs that not even the kids at NRO are able to save.
PC is totally corrupt and nearing bankruptcy, in metaphor I would say it is like the USSR 1988 still with an internal security apparatus that could hurt you, but at the same time the government workers were looting the office furniture.