It’s out ninth annual Thanksgiving episode! So we mostly talk about vanishing indigenous cultures, the horrors of colonialism, and the pursuit of “evidence” in the absence of faith. You know, good Thanksgiving stuff! Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
None. Sorry, we really got caught up in our own conversation. 🙂
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In the British museum, there are illustrations of the childhood of Jesus based on apocrypha, and the story comes off like a superhero origin story in which the kid has dangerous powers he hasn’t yet learned to control. Like child Jesus loses his temper at another kid and makes him wither up and die.
That whole period of competing Catholic and Protestant versions of the Bible is really interesting. It sort of reads like John le Carre stories of the cold war. And the language choices are interesting too (like the Catholics using “Charity” and the Protestants using “Love” in first Corinthians 13). I think one of the aims of King James (aside from his witch obsession) was a compromise between the Tyndale (Protestant) and Doay Rheims (Catholic) version.
Imagining the world without colonization is a very cool mind game. For one thing, I sort of think there’d be no English language (since English is based on various invasions and colonizations of the British Isles). And maybe no Asians in Japan, ’cause the indigenous Ainu would be the ethnic group? Or maybe some of those things would have happened but in different ways.
Indeed, I think some of those things would have happened, just in different, far less horrifying ways.
Tony pointed out that it’s hard to find examples of cultures coming into contact with one another where one didn’t more-or-less bully the other into submission. If he meant, specifically, in the historical record as it’s commonly taught in US schools, I think he’s correct. But a broader view of history shows us, over and again, how cultures made contact with and integrated with one another peacefully during various periods over the past 300 thousand years. In fact, across all of human history, the preponderance of evidence that I see indicates that peaceful and voluntary integration has been the rule *by far*, rather than the exception.
But, again as Tony pointed out, the cultural messaging in the West is deeply inculcated, the notion that there is “a weaker” and “a stronger” and it’s a moral good for the weaker to be conquered and “civilized” by the stronger. Even if an indoctrinated Westerner rejects the latter “moral good” part of that particular message, they persist in believing the weaker/stronger part of the message, usually insisting that xenophobia and conflict are inherent parts of human nature; they then transform “the weaker” into “people who haven’t evolved beyond their basic hateful nature” and “the stronger” into “people who are elite in terms of their intellectual and moral development”, and the strong subduing the weak is once again morally justified, albeit under a subtler guise.
Dysfunctional cultural indoctrination is very difficult to root out entirely. And addressing it only halfway is often little better than not addressing it at all. That’s how pernicious it is. And it’s why imagining a world without colonialism (or simply one with much less of it) is a significant challenge. So challenging, in fact, that too many just accept colonialism as, at the very least, an unfortunate inevitability.
Oh, forgot something. Was going to recommend the book “Last Standing Woman” by Winona La Duke. It’s fiction, but based on real events in her family. Setting is the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota in the 19th and 20th centuries. (Of course “reservation” is an anachronism in the early part of the book.)
I think this is your 10th Thanksgiving episode (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019).
The Magical Talking Hat podcast did not yet exist on Thanksgiving of 2010.
Unless in another dimension.
🙂
Well then 9th it is.
🙂
Holy crud, HOW many episodes am I behind? Because all of our home data gets eaten up with the kids streaming, I decided to try some audiobooks when tidying up at night, using Libby. After a couple of PKD novels (A Scanner Darkly is shaping up to be one of my favourite books ever), I thought I’d best check in on the hat. PocketCasts helpfully tells me I’m like 14 behind or something daft. Argh!
Anyway, I especially enjoyed this episode, particularly as I learned so much. Obviously, I knew colonialism was barbaric, but it’s always fascinating to hear the details. For what it’s worth (and bearing in mind the syllabus may have changed since the late 80s/early 90s), my mandatory (up until I was 14) history lessons ended in medieval UK. From listening to friends who took it at the end of schooling (17-18) history focused on early 20th century politics. So, I literally have no idea how the British Empire is taught in school, and I’m only supposing it is during those 2 years (when you take your GCSEs). But the point is, it’s completely possible to have no idea about any of it, and proudly subscribe to RULE BRITANNIA type nonsense of modern politics, without any sense of irony. Perhaps your only exposure to it is the redcoats in Pirates of the Caribbean.
So yeah, if you ever see a moron online complaining that their Yorkshire Gold isn’t grown and bagged in Yorkshire, you’ll know why.
You’re so far back, I had to go to the second page to find the comment. 😛