- Feb 5, 2002
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So everyone was buzzing about Pope Francis' usual off the cuff remarks. In this case, praising the history of Imperial Russia, giving high fives to China without qualifiers and, in a shock to many, praising the glories of the Mongol Empire.
Now, this is standard leftwing boilerplate. If it's west of the Danube or from North America, then it's a watermarked Swastika. Otherwise, eh. It's generally pretty awesome. In this Washington Post piece, we learn just how cool the Mongols were, as oppose to those backward Europeans and Christians who were all about thinking on how cool the Mongols were.
When I was in high school and college in the 1980s, the uber-narrative of history was that the world still owed the Western Tradition big time. Though you could find glimmers of good things here and there throughout the ages, the whole package came together in the West like no other time or place in human history. The wealth and luxury, the medical and technological breakthroughs, the basic creature comforts we take for granted that would have been science fiction a century before. Not to mention the full package deal of democracy, equality, human rights, and rule of law. All came together in the West and culminated in the American Experiment like never before.
With that said, in the post-60s and 70s, we were also being called on to revisit the sins of our past. It wasn't enough to say it was bad we used to own slaves, but isn't it awesome we stopped? We had to bring back the sins and repent, repent and repent again. We also had to admit that, at our worst, we were just as bad as any other culture in history. Likewise, in different ways, those cultures could at times be as good as us. OK, fair enough.
But by the time my boys entered public school in the 2000s, that narrative was gone. Two decades of a corrupted view of multi-culturalism, injected with leftwing and Marxist sympathies, threw that narrative out the window. By the time my sons came along, we had long proved the Mormons had to be wrong. Jesus never came to the New World. He wasn't good enough. The Americas, like anywhere outside of Europe/ North America, were perfect and beautiful and filled with perfect and beautiful people. Think Dances With Wolves.
Continued below.
davidgriffey.blogspot.com
Now, this is standard leftwing boilerplate. If it's west of the Danube or from North America, then it's a watermarked Swastika. Otherwise, eh. It's generally pretty awesome. In this Washington Post piece, we learn just how cool the Mongols were, as oppose to those backward Europeans and Christians who were all about thinking on how cool the Mongols were.
When I was in high school and college in the 1980s, the uber-narrative of history was that the world still owed the Western Tradition big time. Though you could find glimmers of good things here and there throughout the ages, the whole package came together in the West like no other time or place in human history. The wealth and luxury, the medical and technological breakthroughs, the basic creature comforts we take for granted that would have been science fiction a century before. Not to mention the full package deal of democracy, equality, human rights, and rule of law. All came together in the West and culminated in the American Experiment like never before.
With that said, in the post-60s and 70s, we were also being called on to revisit the sins of our past. It wasn't enough to say it was bad we used to own slaves, but isn't it awesome we stopped? We had to bring back the sins and repent, repent and repent again. We also had to admit that, at our worst, we were just as bad as any other culture in history. Likewise, in different ways, those cultures could at times be as good as us. OK, fair enough.
But by the time my boys entered public school in the 2000s, that narrative was gone. Two decades of a corrupted view of multi-culturalism, injected with leftwing and Marxist sympathies, threw that narrative out the window. By the time my sons came along, we had long proved the Mormons had to be wrong. Jesus never came to the New World. He wasn't good enough. The Americas, like anywhere outside of Europe/ North America, were perfect and beautiful and filled with perfect and beautiful people. Think Dances With Wolves.
Continued below.
Pope Francis and those rascally Mongolians
A blog about a convert to Christianity, culture, politics and general meanderings.
davidgriffey.blogspot.com
