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>In recent years, the Islamic State group gutted archaeologically important Iraqi sites in Mosul and Raqqa and Syrian sites in Aleppo and Palmyra. Not to forge
by Abishek_Muthian 8y ago
>In recent years, the Islamic State group gutted archaeologically important Iraqi sites in Mosul and Raqqa and Syrian sites in Aleppo and Palmyra.
Not to forget Buddha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
It is disheartening to think that, these sites & artefacts which were preserved for thousands of years are destroyed during our lifetime.
Perhaps because of its familiarity we value it higher, but powerful people in several parts of the world have been systematically destroying historical objects of value to a culture or civilisation to push forward their ideology.
Edit : Edited to be succinct.
- microcolonel 8y ago> Perhaps because of its familiarity we value it higher, but powerful people in several parts of the world have been systematically destroying historical objects of value to a culture or civilisation to push forward their ideology. This is a particular feature of utopian ideology; marxists, islamists, fascists, etc. seek to carve utopia from reality, and the artifacts which prove that there's something else are just in the way. A look at what's preserved in Taiwan should make you weep to know what was lost just a little bit to the west.
- Abishek_Muthian 8y agoI guess a less violent form of it practised by every country, even the democratic ones is falsifying history text books from grade school.
- microcolonel 8y agoYeah, Canadian grade school history textbooks are a joke. Be a good parent, don't let your kids get all of their historical education from your school district's standard textbook. :- )
- dredmorbius 8y agoSpecifics might aid your argument.
- microcolonel 8y agoIn my experience, there was no mention of the broader historical origins of Canada, the focus was generally on a) stories framed to make French Canadians look interesting and blameless (especially long sections on coureurs de bois), and b) stories of amicable arrangements with native Americans, conveniently away from the various times the public's government has broken promises to various communities in Canada. I'm an adult, why would I have the worst history books I've ever read, which were on loan from the school when I was in school, in my personal library to share specifics from?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- dredmorbius 8y agoThanks for the first. I'd not made any demands to the latter point, though there are times when keeping a spectacularly bad example around for debate, discussion, or reference can prove handy. I'd put specific store in rough order "steelman" or best-case defenses or arguments for the indefensible, officially sanctioned references (as with textbooks), or with particularly poular bad examples, even if not particularly cogent. Knowing your enemy, testing your own beliefs and biases, and walking into battle fully armed, are all benefits. You don't need to find endless such examples (see also: Gish Gallop), but a carefully selected few can be exceedingly useful. This applies to other areas as well, tech included.
- microcolonel 8y ago> Knowing your enemy, testing your own beliefs and biases, and walking into battle fully armed, are all benefits. Sure, to be clear, I grew up with two older brothers and a younger sister, in three different major cities, in three different provinces in Canada, and the history curriculum has largely lacked much particular detail. My history curricula, and that of my brothers, included little or no international history, ancient history, or national history. The main topics of every history textbook (the only source for each curriculum, in my experience) I've seen in Canada (including my brothers', for years I didn't attend in a given school district) have been an obscure subset of clean indigenous stories, and a handful of stories about early Québec. I'm not saying these history textbooks are especially bad among government school history textbooks, but that they are bad in a general sense, and fail to give much perspective on the origin of the tapestry of nations in Canada, or the story of our legal and governmental traditions. A better job could be done with an in-depth reading of a mature historical author's work, the kind of thing you would read if you had a personal interest in understanding the history of something.
- dredmorbius 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies_my_teacher_told_me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies_my_teacher_told_me By James W. Loewen. Or J.S. Mill: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6x7u6a/on_the_role_of_universities_and_primary_education/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6x7u6a/on_the_...
- dredmorbius 8y agoIt seems far more generalised than that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning
- empath75 8y ago> Not to forget Buddha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. That was the taliban.
- Abishek_Muthian 8y agoYes it was, I added it as example of sites of historical significance destroyed in our life time.
- rixed 8y agoNot to forget, even if it does not fit that little theory, Ur Ziggurat and the many other important loses in Irak (see for instance http://www.uruknet.info/?p=58169 http://www.uruknet.info/?p=58169). Of course in that case, the ideology that prevailed was "one can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs", which is more palatable to us that Isis ideology of course, but in the long term that makes little difference I'm afraid.
- dredmorbius 8y agoNot specific to time, place, or ideology. Example, Qin Dynasty China, Burning of books and burying of scholars (213 BCE): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_o... Or the destruction of the Mayan codices by Bishop Diego de Landa in July 1562: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices