Capability: The Secret Behind World History

[corbe]

Capability: The Secret Behind World History

The white man’s sins in context.

Thu Oct 28, 2021 Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

In many ways, Columbus Day, which recently passed, has become emblematic not just of the accusation that Columbus was a racist who inaugurated a genocidal campaign against the natives, but a reminder that virtually all Europeans preceding the great era of woke were horrible people.

This conflation was especially on display during the summer of 2020, following the death of George Floyd, when not just Columbus’s statues but the statues of many traditional heroes of Western and American civilization were attacked on the accusation that the men they represent were all racists and somehow involved in or approved of the slave trade of Africans.

The problem with this otherwise entrenched view is that it completely ignores one simple fact: if Europeans were aggressive or exploitative of nonwhites, that is not because they were intrinsically violent (a racist point, incidentally) but simply because they were able to. And that’s the virtual bottom line of all history: capability.

Europeans did not defeat and uproot American Indians, enslave Africans, and colonize the rest because they lived according to some sort of unprecedented bellicose creed specific to whites and alien to nonwhites. Quite the contrary: they did so because they—as opposed to natives, blacks, etc.—were able to do so. That is the fundamental difference.

<..snip..>

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/capability-secret-behind-world-history-raymond-ibrahim/

[goatprairie]

It's simply a natural desire of most people to believe that their ancestors going back many hundreds of years were all peaceful, wonderful persons who never did evil things.
All groups of people of whatever color or ethnicity did evil things in the past. But, of course, leftists wish to believe or at least accuse whites of being the only people who did bad things in the past.
Everybody did. But it was Europeans who basically set in motion the rule of law and civilized societies that abolished slavery and tried to settle disputes without resorting to bloodshed.
Would all non-whites currently enjoying living in the U.S. wish to go back  to the countries they came from? I don't see vast hordes of non-whites permanently leaving the U.S. All I see now are many thousands of non-whites trying to get into the evil U.S. where, according to leftists, they will be horribly mistreated. If that's the case, why don't we see many thousands trying to get out and go back to the countries they came from?
They're certainly welcome to leave if it so pleases them. Nobody will miss them.

[Absalom]

It's simply a natural desire of most people to believe that their ancestors going back many hundreds of years were all peaceful, wonderful persons who never did evil things.
All groups of people of whatever color or ethnicity did evil things in the past. But, of course, leftists wish to believe or at least accuse whites of being the only people who did bad things in the past.
Everybody did. But it was Europeans who basically set in motion the rule of law and civilized societies that abolished slavery and tried to settle disputes without resorting to bloodshed.
Would all non-whites currently enjoying living in the U.S. wish to go back  to the countries they came from? I don't see vast hordes of non-whites permanently leaving the U.S. All I see now are many thousands of non-whites trying to get into the evil U.S. where, according to leftists, they will be horribly mistreated. If that's the case, why don't we see many thousands trying to get out and go back to the countries they came from?
They're certainly welcome to leave if it so pleases them. Nobody will miss them.

-----------------------------
Reject the assertion/premise that those of the past, "did evil".
Since Adam, Man is Mortal and Imperfect, a reality.
Those who preceded us, surely erred, yet compensated Humanity w/their Wisdom,
the heritage & legacy that allowed us to survive and thrive in our time.

[goatprairie]

-----------------------------
Reject the assertion/premise that those of the past, "did evil".
Since Adam, Man is Mortal and Imperfect, a reality.
Those who preceded us, surely erred, yet compensated Humanity w/their Wisdom,
the heritage & legacy that allowed us to survive and thrive in our time.

Well, by any definition evil was decidedly committed unless you believe rounding up "inferiors" and slaughtering them by the millions is not evil. I'm sure you don't believe that.

[sneakypete]

It's simply a natural desire of most people to believe that their ancestors going back many hundreds of years were all peaceful, wonderful persons who never did evil things.
All groups of people of whatever color or ethnicity did evil things in the past. But, of course, leftists wish to believe or at least accuse whites of being the only people who did bad things in the past.
Everybody did. But it was Europeans who basically set in motion the rule of law and civilized societies that abolished slavery and tried to settle disputes without resorting to bloodshed.
Would all non-whites currently enjoying living in the U.S. wish to go back  to the countries they came from? I don't see vast hordes of non-whites permanently leaving the U.S. All I see now are many thousands of non-whites trying to get into the evil U.S. where, according to leftists, they will be horribly mistreated. If that's the case, why don't we see many thousands trying to get out and go back to the countries they came from?
They're certainly welcome to leave if it so pleases them. Nobody will miss them.

@goatprairie

One of the radical Marxist blacks of the 60's (I THINK it was Stokley Carmichael,but my memory sucks) fled to "the Muthalan" to avoid time in Club Fed,but willingly came back to America a few years later,and BOY,HAD HIS OPINIONS CHANGED!

He said he encountered more racism,corruption,brutality,and outright ignorance there than he had ever seen or imagined in his whole life.

I THINK he was even featured in Look or Life magazines at the time,but the official press took VERY little notice of his statments and pretty much ignored him.

[sneakypete]

Well, by any definition evil was decidedly committed unless you believe rounding up "inferiors" and slaughtering them by the millions is not evil. I'm sure you don't believe that.

@goatprairie

When did this happen,other than in the 30's and 40's?

[Absalom]

Well, by any definition evil was decidedly committed unless you believe rounding up "inferiors" and slaughtering them by the millions is not evil. I'm sure you don't believe that.

-----------------------
Respectfully, my perspective is formed by the Wise of the past which is that Man is Imperfect & Mortal.
However, I am not Morality Man judging those of the past.
So let history make its case which I will reflect on then measure those claims against the Wisdom of those
Ancients.

[corbe]

   When we replaced Philosophy (Homer, Socrates) with Religion, that began our downfall.

[Absalom]

When we replaced Philosophy (Homer, Socrates) with Religion, that began our downfall.

-------------------------
Intuitive and preceptive comment begging a fundamentally profound question.
Considering only Philosophy and Theology, which is the more powerful measurer of Human Nature?
Consider: Plato, arguably the greatest creation of the Almighty, defined the Soul (Psyche) of Man
as the catalyst of his immortality in contrast to his Body, the catalyst of his mortality.
He asserted this in his monumental "Republic" some 400 years before Christ and the creation of
Roman Catholicism!!!

[corbe]

   Through many periods of Mankind's recorded existence it has been proven that with the introduction of Organized Religion the scientific
 advancements slow to a crawl or are outright outlawed.   
   Wasn't Socrates exterminated and Galileo shunned? 

[sneakypete]

If organized religion controlled everything,we would all be the slaves of the various religions,and drafted into their armies to defeat and kill all the "true believers" of the other religions

And of course,the non-believers would all be tortured to death in the name of whatever "Loving God" the locals obeyed.

Just like in the "good old days" of Catholicism,and Islam from ancient history to this very day.