The Smithsonian put this rather racist “infographic” up the other day (and pulled it down just as quickly) and I just had to say something about it. So, let’s take this apart, section by section. Before I begin, some historical context.
When Mankind transitioned out of the “hunter-gatherer” stage about 12,000 years ago, we had eight major “groupings” of people. North and South America, East and West Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Asia and Australia. 12,000 years ago, the climate changed. It stopped raining and dried up. In four places (South America, Northern India, Syria and Egypt) Man developed the plow and learned to farm. That was the beginning of civilization. Being able to grow more food than you needed led to pottery to store the food, writing to mark whose food it was and all the rest.
Egypt and Syria are close enough to Greece for the Grecians to learn about this. Surplus food meant you could have people who weren’t farmers. This brought about philosophy and government.
Next, let’s jump ahead to 1492 and Columbus “discovering” the Americas (he never actually set foot on the continent until his third voyage, and even then it was South America). Let’s look at the world as a whole at that point.
The Americas, Africa and Australia were still in the “Stone Age” of technological advancement when White Europeans got to them. India and Asia had made technological advances (China had gunpowder and the printing press centuries before Europe) but didn’t do anything with them. They reached a certain tech level and stopped.
Before you start spouting Leftist tropes about how the Native Americans, et. al., were “living in harmony with the land,” let’s mention the downsides of that lifestyle. High infant mortality, human sacrifice, slavery, cannibalism, any wound could kill due to no medicine beyond a salve or two, shall I go on?
Rugged Individualism:
Until the founding of the United States, you mostly had Nobles and Everybody Else. Serfs were slaves, beholden to their Lord for a safe place in the walls of the castle when trouble roamed the land. It was the Greeks that came up with this idea of individualism. Their thinking about things like that has led to our concepts of this today.
Family Structure:
Most of this comes out of the 50’s, and is more of a straw man than anything else. The nuclear family (male and female parents protecting and raising their children) is a concept that just simply works. It has worked since we started keeping records of things like that, for multiple thousands of years. For the case “against” the nuclear family, I point to the Great Society. For the past 50 years, that has been a sociological experiment within the Black community where the nuclear family was purposefully destroyed. Just look at the results as of today and tell me the results are good or even acceptable. And broader studies across all racial lines have shown children from single parent homes do poorer than children raised in nuclear families.
Emphasis on Scientific Method:
The “scientific method” is the process to develop a theory, develop a model and a method to measure and test it, then test it to see if it works, correct errors, test again, and keep doing that until you prove or disprove the theory (or come up with a new one).
That method has led to the computers you’re reading my words on, the car you drive, literally everything in your world right now down to the fork and spoon in your silverware drawer. And this is a “bad thing” because it was developed by ‘White people’ how? Would have these things be “better” if they had been developed by non-Whites? Or are they just tools without intent or care if they are used correctly or incorrectly?
History:
Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as saying “History is a set of agreed-upon lies.” There is no definitive source for the phrase “history is written by the victors.” But that is also true. History comes from the words “his” and “story.” Go ahead and call it sexist, it doesn’t bother me.
As far as giving women the right to vote and things like that, the experiment is still ongoing and I’m doubtful for a positive outcome on this experiment (that’s SARCASM).
Protestant Work Ethic:
Let’s turn these points backwards:
- Easy/no work is better than hard work
- Play before work
- You can meet your goals without working hard.
Can anyone realistically accept and promote those points? I thought not.
Religion:
Yes, in the United States, Christianity is the religion of the majority of people here. Non-Judeo-Christian religions are foreign (the word itself means “from somewhere else”), that’s a fact no matter what you say about it. In fact, Judeo-Christian is itself “foreign” to the Americas itself since it came about from somewhere else.
“No tolerance for deviation from single God concept.” In the comments below, please provide news articles where Christians firebombed or destroyed any polytheistic (that means more than one God) churches. I’ll wait but I’m not holding my breath.
Status, Power & Authority:
These points are male-related and I will not deny that. It’s how men keep score and since we’ve walked upright, it’s always been a “mine is bigger than yours” kind of competition.
Future Orientation:
Really? Really?? Do you want to make sure you’re around tomorrow? If you die, your children won’t want? That when you get too old to work you can live off your savings?
Time:
Time is a limited commodity, no matter how much you deny it. You spend the first third of your life learning just to be self-sufficient and how to interact nicely with other people. If you squander that time, you will perpetually suffer after that.
In conclusion:
A good portion of the bullet points (oh, gosh! Did I trigger someone with that gun-related microaggression of “bullet points”? Isn’t the term “triggered” also a gun microaggression? Get a life and get over it) of this “infographic” are sophistic strawmen, but in each case, I suggest you reverse each bullet point and ask yourself, “is that the kind of world I want to live in?”
If you’re tired of living in this world of “Whiteness,” no one is stopping you from divesting yourselves of all clothing and technology and going off to live in the wilds. Please do as a matter of fact.
History is brutal, only Big Brother types will deny that. There is war, hate, racism, genocide, slavery and so on. But there is also Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” AC/DC’s“Thunderstruck,” the works of John Coltrane, C.S Lewis, W. E. B. DuBois, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and way more.
In order for Man to do great things of good, he must also be equally capable of evil things.