Historical Bias Is The Norm: An Example – The Real Origins of The Renaissance
In the generally well-made history documentary, 1,000 AD – A Tour of Europe (a History Time, YouTuber video linked below) at just 13 minutes in, there is already one giant, elephant-sized error – a common one, which is almost universal among historians of the West. Examining this one common, seismic scale, nearly universal illusion, propounded by nearly all Western historians, colleges, universities and history books, will not only enlighten us, but hopefully, and even more importantly, encourage people to think for themselves, to question everything, and to not be so utterly vulnerable and susceptible to commonplace illusions, propaganda or group-think, which pass for informed, educated, scholarly opinion, or worse, for facts.
Do not assume that YouTube videos are reliable sources of information, even if they sound authoritative and are visually well-made. Likewise, do not assume your history books, history teachers, or history professors, or your bookish intellectual friends, know what they are talking about. Generally they get the details right, though often not; but they almost invariably cannot see the forest for the trees – and they radically mistake and misrepresent the bigger picture or larger narrative, as a result of their own indoctrination, naively, and out of simple ignorance and delusion, or commonly shared illusions. This, we call being “educated”. (See Chomsky on the media, indoctrination and thought control, and on education.)
While the German kings of the Holy Roman Empire are portrayed in the documentary in generally positive, even glowing terms, as rightful emperors of Europe, and heavy focus and attention is given to them; meanwhile, a scant few seconds is devoted to Andalusia, where, we are told, by stark contrast, “a brutal tyrant” ruled (unlike the German kings, who were, of course, righteous and holy), a place in southern Europe where, in the 8th century, under Moorish/Islamic rule, the Spanish Renaissance had begun – the Renaissance which pre-dated the Italian Renaissance by *500 years*, and which was the true beginning of the Renaissance in Europe; a place and time where the spirit of “convivienthia”, or living together peacefully, was the motto and the norm, where the Islamic, Christian and Jewish people lived together in a very tolerant and cosmopolitan culture, where the exchange of ideas flowed freely – which is always what brings about a renaissance – and in Moorish Spain, where a Renaissance had begun, the people lived in general peace, while the warring tribes and nations of the rest of Europe were perpetually at each others’ throats, and living like barbaric savages, by comparison. But, as is the norm in history, cultural bias and massive distortions of historical facts and the true historical narrative, are passed off as informed and scholarly, objective truths.
The people of Andalusia, in what is now southern Spain, in the 8th-11th century began the Renaissance that, over the span of 700 years, swept slowly across a reluctant and recalcitrant Europe, which in general clung to the ways and beliefs of the Dark Ages, and clung to their habits of warring, perpetual bigotry, division, hubris and hate, authoritarianism and narrowness of mind. But this fact, of the real origins of the Renaissance, has been swept from mind in European history, because the true founders of the Renaissance, the people of Andalusia, had the wrong skin colour and the wrong religion. They were darker of skin, and worse, they were ruled by Islamic governments.
The Renaissance is commonly said to have begun in Florence, Italy, with the patronage of the Medici banking family. Firstly, the Medicis didn’t come to power in Florence until the mid-1400s. The Italian Renaissance, which began in Florence, began in the 1200s, and was inspired by St. Francis, not the Medicis – and it began two hundred years before the Medicis even rose to power. The Medicis funded Renaissance artists, to be sure – but only after the Renaissance had been flourishing for two centuries. They were late-comers, who wanted to claim the glory for themselves – as all elites, in their tendency toward hubris and egomania, tend to do.
St. Francis, in turn, was inspired by Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century German mystic, theologian, philosopher, composer, musician, doctor, healer, polymath and activist. So we should rightly view St. Francis and Hildegard of Bingen as the true founder of, first, the German Renaissance, which began in the 12th century, and the Italian Renaissance, which began shortly afterward. But that doesn’t fit with the official narrative, of the triumph of secular humanism and the rejection of a spiritual world-view, so that has also been unacceptable. But the humanism of the Renaissance was not a rejection of spirituality, but rather, an enlivening compliment to it, which was meshed and fused with spirituality.
How many giant, glaring errors of historical omission and distortion can we have with regards to one single, albeit pivotal, era of history, which are taken as objective, scholarly, indisputable historical fact? A shocking number, with a shocking, and mind-numbing gravity to each, is the true answer.
Wikipedia, that bastion of utterly unreliable information, which frequently if not typically is simply a source of gross distortions and misinformation, says of the Spanish Renaissance that it spread from the Italian Renaissance, and came in the 14th and 15th centuries. The fact is that the Spanish Renaissance began in the 8th century, and spread to Italy, giving birth to the Italian Renaissance, and not the other way around. Never rely on Wikipedia for anything. And do question everything.
We can and should, and must, trace the origins and the birthplace of the Renaissance back to its beginning, naturally, if we are true scholars, and not merely pseudo-intellectuals, mouthing the confused and deeply distorted narratives that we have been indoctrinated into accepting as the veritable word of God on the matter. And the real origins of the Renaissance in Europe, which transformed Europe, and brought Europe out of the Dark Ages, were in Spain, in Andalusia, in the 8th century, 500 years before the Italian Renaissance got going.
History is written by the conquerors – and we all lose by losing the real story, the fuller story, the more honest story. It is high time we reclaimed the bigger picture. And by we, I mean humanity, in all its wondrous diversity.
– J. Todd Ring,
Author of, Enlightened Democracy,
and,
The People vs The Elite
February 28, 2021
Find my books and essays on Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
WordPress, Patreon and Minds.
As I say, the history documentary referred to above and linked here below is generally well done, but glaring errors of massive implications must be pointed out and corrected.
*********************************************
Important Reading In History – The Clearing of the Fog:
Year 501: The Conquest Continues – Noam Chomsky
Stolen Continents – Ronald Wright
A Short History of Progress – Ronald Wright
The Ecology of Freedom – Murray Bookchin
The Chalice and The Blade – Rianne Eisler
Mutual Aid – Peter Kropotkin
The Wayfinders – Wade Davis
The No-Nonsense Guide To World History – Chris Brazier
A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
The CIA’s Greatest Hits – Mark Zepezauer
Blowback: America’s Secret Recruitment of Nazis and Its Disastrous Effect on US Foreign and Domestic Policy – Christopher Simpson & Mark Crispin Miller
This entry was posted on February 28, 2021 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags anthropology, education, historical bias, history, illusion, indoctrination, Italian Renaissance, philosophy of education, philosophy of history, propaganda, renaissance, social commentary, social philosophy, social theory, sociology, Spanish Renaissance, systemic racism, thought control. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Writings of J. Todd Ring 
March 1, 2021 at 3:19 pm
Here is a series of short videos on European history 1450-present that seem so far to be very well done. He covered the Enlightenment far better than most do, and that was a good litmus test, and an important one. Now, going back to the Renaissance, although he keeps it extremely concise, he seems so far to be doing a much better than average job of that, too. Since these are the two founding periods of the modern world, getting them right is critical, or else we understand little or nothing of anything. Most treatments of these two periods, or any periods of history, are filled with giant, seismic scale errors. It is beyond merely refreshing when someone actually does an intelligent and honest job of presenting history. Question everything. Most of what you read, watch or hear, is fundamentally wrong in terms of the overarching narrative, in one or usually several major ways. Question, reflect, seek out multiple sources and multiple perspective, and think for yourself.
LikeLike
March 1, 2021 at 5:01 pm
Centralization of power, authoritarianism, division, fear, mistrust, bigotry, hate, persecution, oppression, mass looting, pillaging and theft: this is the birth of the modern world. Very successful in terms of raw power, but disastrous in terms of ethics, spirituality, and human society.
Not that the age of the Renaissance was anywhere near perfect, but by comparison, we arguably lost more than we gained in modernity, in comparison to the great flowering of the Renaissance; which, even at its peak in the late 15th century, was already beginning to be replaced by something far darker and more menacing.
Our modern conceits are hollow. We are not only the hollow men, as TS Eliot said, we have also become lost, and unmoored.
Where did the capital come from for the industrial revolution, for example? Mass looting, at home and abroad: land enclosures, mass theft from Jews, Moslems and other “undesirables”, and the conquest of Africa, the Americas and Asia. Hardly the glowing history of cleverness, hard work, and moral and intellectual superiority that has been the official narrative for centuries, and which we are taught and indoctrinated into in schools.
LikeLike
March 1, 2021 at 6:05 pm
One more example of historical bias, running strong right into the present: the myth of modern agriculture as boon to humanity:
I want to say, as well, for the record, I do believe, as Vandana Shiva, Helena Norberg-Hodge and Allan Savory have said, and have proven beyond doubt, that regenerative organic agriculture is the single most important and most powerful way that we can heal our world – and that small scale farmers, using organic regenerative agriculture methods, are the key. The evidence is overwhelmingly clear: the petrochemical industrial agriculture model, with its intensive use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, genetic engineering, centralization of powers and control, mechanization and monocrops, has been a social, economic and ecological catastrophe, as well as a public health catastrophe.
I hope and trust you are on the right side of that equation.
LikeLike
March 1, 2021 at 11:34 pm
The Moorish Influence On Renaissance Europe
“Normally the Renaissance is traced back to Florentine and Venetian Italy, and with good reason: Venetian trade with the Arabic world did indeed allow Classical learning to re-enter Europe through “Italy”. But studying the Spanish roots of the Renaissance allows us to ponder how Classical learning only declined in certain parts of Europe, that it continued to flourish in both the Byzantine and Arabic worlds, and that it was returned to Europe via al-Andalus – “Moorish Spain” – roughly 500 years before the Italian Renaissance.
This semester we will mainly cover this topic via video (When the Moors Ruled In Europe) but our main concern is in realizing or remembering that while most of Europe stumbled through the Dark and Early Middle Ages, the Renaissance was already occurring in al-Andalus, or what we now call Spain, and throughout the entire Islamic Empire.”
– University of Idaho course introduction
(The bigger picture and fuller story is slowly beginning to get out.)
*****************************************************************************
The film that is the primary focus of the class above:
When the Moors Ruled in Europe – BBC 4
“When The Moors Ruled In Europe is a documentary movie presented by the English historian Bettany Hughes. It is a series on the contribution the Moors made to Europe during their 700-year reign in Spain and Portugal ending in the 15th century. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 Saturday 5 November 2005 and was filmed in the Spanish region of Andalusia, mostly in the cities of Granada, Cordoba and the Moroccan city of Fes.
The era ended with the Reconquista during which the Catholic authorities burnt over 1,000,000 Arabic texts.
—————————————————————————————————————-
Join British historian Bettany Hughes as she examines a long-buried chapter of European history–the rise and fall of Islamic culture in what is now Spain and Portugal.
Although generations of Spanish rulers have tried to expunge this era from the historical record, recent archeology and scholarship now shed fresh light on the Moors who flourished in Al-Andalus for more than 700 years.
This fascinating documentary explodes old stereotypes and offers shocking new insights. You’ll discover the ingenious mathematics behind Granada’s dazzling Alhambra Palace, trace El Cid’s lineage to his Moorish roots, and learn how the Iberian population willingly converted to Islam in droves.
Through interviews with noted scholars, you’ll see how Moorish advances in mathematics, astronomy, art, and agriculture helped propel the West out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance. What emerges is a richly detailed portrait of a sensuous, inquisitive, and remarkably progressive Islamic culture in Christian Europe.”
Directed by: Timothy Copestake
Release date: 2005
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
LikeLike
March 1, 2021 at 11:57 pm
The Black Kings of Europe
https://theafricanhistory.com/633
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 1:59 am
“The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they’re being objective.”
— Noam Chomsky
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 2:58 pm
Chomsky is unquestionably right: our “education” system, like our major media and systems of mass communication, functions primarily as an indoctrination system; higher education generally means higher indoctrination; but that indoctrination process spreads far beyond academia, and virtually all “educated” people, whether it was formal or informal education, are deeply indoctrinated. But of course, within modern society there are a few who, for some reason or set of reasons, are resistant to being indoctrinated, or begin to question their indoctrination, and begin to find their way out of it – and this applies both to academia and to the broader intellectual culture. So yes, there are genuinely thinking, thoughtful scholars and well-informed people, even highly well-informed people, both within academia and in the broader society, but they are the minority, for the simple fact that the indoctrination and propaganda systems works extremely well. Chomsky did note that in science, there is less room for illusions, distortions, and indoctrination, because it is empirically based, at least to a considerable degree, though not nearly to the degree that it thinks it is. In math, it is hard to have indoctrination. 2+2=4, and there is no debate about it – yet, at least. And in geography, Paris is a city in France, and there is no debate about whether it is in Scotland or Arkansas. Likewise in science, though less so, it is somewhat tied to empirical evidence, so there is some resistance to it being taken over by a system of propaganda and indoctrination. But in virtually every other academic and intellectual field outside math, geography and science, propaganda, group-think and indoctrination rule supreme, and dissidents, critical thought and empirically-based thinking are rare. There, indoctrination is the norm.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 3:17 pm
Renaissance humanism was not a rejection of spirituality, as it is erroneously and frequently presented. It was a complimentary view which meshed with spirituality, not seeking to reject or replace it.
Layer after layer of illusion must be peeled away from the standard, official narratives, to reveal the truth beneath.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 3:24 pm
Another illusion that is spread by “educated” people and seemingly authoritative accounts of the Renaissance is that the Renaissance brought in a view of man and nature as machines. The Italian Renaissance spanned roughly 1150-1550, or 1250-1550 if you prefer a more conservative view. But the mechanistic world view did not emerge in Europe until more than a century after the Renaissance. The mechanistic world view was shocking and appalling to Europeans when it was introduced; and it certainly had nothing to do with the Renaissance, and was not present during the Renaissance. As I say, layer upon layer of illusions must be peeled away.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 4:02 pm
What does it matter how we interpret or depict the Renaissance? Most people seem to think that anything before last week is irrelevant ancient history, to be quickly forgotten. A distinguished scholar of ancient history even said of his historian peers, that most of them believe that anything that happened more than a century ago is irrelevant. But we should be aware that without the Renaissance, which began in 8th century Andalusia, in the Spanish/Moorish Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution would have been impossible. In fact, without this rebirth of free thinking and thirst for knowledge which Moorish Spain brought to Europe, Europe would have remained in the Dark Ages, steeped in superstition, narrowness, prejudice, division, bigotry, small-mindedness, perpetual squabbling tribal warfare, fear and hate. The Renaissance transformed Europe, and the Renaissance was born, thanks to Moorish Spain. Even Oxford University, the pinnacle and crown jewel of British scholarly intellectual life, had its origins in the Moorish Renaissance. The debt we owe cannot be overstated, yet, it has been swept from the mind, swept from history, and completely forgotten – until now.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 4:17 pm
Without the knowledge brought to Europe by the Moorish Renaissance, modern medicine would be absent, and brutal, ignorant, superstitious practices would still be the norm; the mathematical knowledge and numerical system that was brought was essential to all advanced architecture, science, exploration, navigation and industry; the rediscovery of the science, medicine and philosophy of the ancient Greeks also came from the Moorish Renaissance, as did the new system of learning, education, scholarship and intellectual life, which placed science, math, medicine, technical knowledge and philosophy side by side with religion, as the Arabs and the ancient Greeks had held, and held that they are not at all in conflict, but complimentary; and the list goes on. The social, cultural, spiritual and intellectual transformation of Europe which followed, was tectonic, as a result of the Moorish Renaissance. The importance of this absolutely pivotal period cannot be overstated. The Moorish Renaissance took Europe from the Dark Ages to the modern world. It is as simple and as profoundly important as that.
And what is modernity itself? To some considerable degree, and in the larger part, it is the pale imitation of ancient Greece, and even more so, of Andalusian Moorish Spain. There have been major meaningful advances since, certainly, but in large, the portrait painted here is the accurate one. We now have powerful technology, powerful military, economic and financial empires, and many fancy gadgets, baubles and trinkets, but we are barbarians, ethically, spiritually, and intellectually. We moderns, especially in the West, are consummately smug, profoundly lost, unmoored and drifting, racing towards our own self-annihilation, and filled with an infantile grandiosity, and a childish hubris. A renewed confidence and dignity are in order, but so too, a renewed humility, and an honouring of our debts. Place truth above all, and we will have a new Renaissance. Refuse this urgent call, and we will continue our rapid descent into a new and darkest of dark ages, in a dystopian world we would scarcely care to imagine.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 4:28 pm
Note that in the second civil war in Spain, in 1936-39, republican democracy and freedom was crushed, and fascism triumphed – because the Western business and political elite sided with the fascists, and against democracy and freedom. Another stark warning comes from the first Spanish civil war, in the 11th century, which was a brutal and bloody power struggle that lasted for three centuries, and which culminated in the horrors of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the Spanish Inquisition. We stand now on the cusp of repeating these horrors, once again. We should be deeply concerned that fascism is again on the rise, and has in fact, taken over the Western world, and most parts of the broader world. And we should be aware that any resort to violence as a solution, would almost certainly result in a long and bloody stalemate, that carries on for decades or even centuries. Immediate bold action is required to defend constitutional democracy and to renew and strengthen it, and to defeat this latest wave of fascists. But that action must be firmly rooted in non-violent direct action and civil disobedience, or else the results could be simply fascism plus civil war – and genocide. This is why history matters: because, apart from being immeasurably enriched by a knowledge of history, without that knowledge of history, we are doomed to repeat our worst mistakes.
An excerpt from my new book, All Hell Breaks Loose: Global Geopolitics 1945-2045 – coming this spring.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 4:50 pm
Note that in the early part of the Moorish/Spanish Renaissance, not only was Europe still mired in the Dark Ages and petty tribal warfare, not only did centres of higher learning such as Oxford not exist, or else were steeped in ignorance, superstition and narrowness, but the most grand library of Paris contained a mere 100,000 texts, while just one of the seventy libraries in Cordoba contained half a million volumes. Cordoba, with 100,000 inhabitants, was the largest, most resplendent, most technologically advanced, and most flourishing city in Europe, and was far and away the intellectual and cultural centre of all Europe. Florence, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, owes its rebirth to Cordoba, Toledo, and Genada, of Andalusian, Moorish Spain.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 5:07 pm
Even the depiction of how the Moors arrived in Europe, according to the centuries old official narrative, is fundamentally and radically wrong. The Visigothic society of the Iberian Peninsula, after the fall of the Roman Empire, was not only locked in the Dark Ages, but was crumbling, and to a large extent, had already crumbled. Latins were continually trying to reconquer the peoples and the lands, in addition, to make troubles worse. It was a true dark age. In the midst of that dark time, the Moors arrived via the Straights of Gibraltar, and, similar to the Saxons arriving in Britain, it was more of an immigration than a violent conquest. In fact, there is no archeological evidence of violent struggle during the Moorish arrival in the region. It would seem that, as with Dark Ages Britain, when the Saxons arrived, they were, by and large, welcomed. (The Saxons then helped to defend the Britains from the Vikings, who were true, violent raiders, paralleling the Moorish defense of the people of the Iberian Peninsula from the marauding Latins.) What is even more clear by the archeological evidence is that the immigration of Moors to the Iberian Peninsula was by and large peaceful, and welcomed – since the native people there sought the protection of the Moors from the raiding Latins. Another proof of this is that the beginning of the fall of Andalusia to “Christian” Europeans from France, which occurred in 1066, was only possible because the Muslim rulers were so peaceably inclined that they lacked any serious military force to resist the invasion. Any culture that arrives by violent conquest in a new land certainly has a powerful military force to back it up. There was no such force in Andalusia beyond a minor defensive force. The marauders therefore, were French and Latin “Christians” – not Islamic Moors.
LikeLike
March 2, 2021 at 5:13 pm
What do we learn from all of this? We learn that a renaissance comes from a spirit of freedom, unity amidst diversity, confidence and dignity balanced with humility, and from tolerance, along with a thirst for knowledge, which does not displace or reject spirituality, but compliments it. And we learn from the spirit of convivienthia, which was the motto and the ethos and the norm of Moorish Spain, that people can indeed live in harmony and in peace, even with their rich diversity, and in fact, that the society and the culture are strengthened, and blossom, as a result of that unity in diversity, brotherhood, sisterhood, cosmopolitan tolerance, and peace. That is what we need now. And that, we can have, if we choose it.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 2:27 pm
Holy wars, crusades, polarization, division, fear, mistrust, hate and war: that was the Christian response to the Islamic Moorish immigration into Europe from North Africa and the Arab world. Considering the 300 years of tolerance, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitian peace that hald sway in Moorish Iberia, where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in harmony for three centuries, the Christian response from the rest of Europe could have been, well, more Christian. But the Christian church had aligned with the Roman Empire early on. That corrupted the church to a high degree, with people drawn to become bishops and popes, not out of piety or compassion, but power lust and greed.
The Roman Emperors Constantine and Justinian proved their hubris, natural to emperors, and their authoritarianism, elitism, arrogance, presumption, and smug imperious intolerance, all of which are natural to emperors, and deemed themselves God’s editors, and then, God’s judge, jury and executioner to all who disagreed with them. The corrupting influence on Christianity and the church by these two figures cannot be over-emphasized.
These two figures set the mould for European Christianity to become narrow-minded, insular, self-righteous, bigoted, fearful, mistrusting, dogmatic, sectarian, authoritarian, intolerant, overzealous, fanatical, militant, crusading, war-like, filled with hubris, false pride and conceit, and positively anti-Christian in attitude and behaviour.
The crusades, holy wars, religious wars, conquests, fanatacism and religious persecution of “heretics” were already, in effect, set in motion and seeded by Constantine and Justinian, and by the church’s fusion of itself, wedding of itself, to a worldly, blood-drenched, conquest-obsessed, deeply authoritarian, arrogant, slave-based empire.
When the Islamic Moors arrived and lived in peace with Christians and Jews for 300 years in the Iberian Peninsula, “Christian” Europe, which was still largely pagan, and still waging religious war against “heretic” pagans, responded with its habitual bigotry, arrogance, fear and hate. And remember, conquest is always about real estate, economics, booty and land – religion is an excuse for theft, murder, and a land grab, and seldom the real, underlying motive.
After the French “Christian” invasion of Moorish Spain in 1066, the peaceful Moors and peaceful multicultural peoples of Iberia called for help from North Africa. The First Crusade was launched in 1095, and the polarization of Islam and Christianity began in earnest, needlessly. The help that arrived from North Africa came from new converts to Islam, eager to prove their holiness by being as pure as possible in their minds, had adopted a violent, militant, intolerant, brutal, fundamentalist misinterpretation of Islam. These were the blood-thirsty hordes of legend, that are confused with the original, peaceful and civilized Moors, who had lived in peace with their neighbours in Southern Europe for 300 years.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 3:10 pm
Recent archeological evidence has begun to radically change the standard official narrative that has held sway for 900 years. In the midst of a global awakening of humanity that is underway and gaining momentum, a new renaissance is not only possible, but is already now beginning to emerge. Let us fan the flames, not of violence, bigotry, authoritarianism, arrogance, hubris and hate, but of freedom, and rebirth.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 4:21 pm
Arguably, Europe and the Western world never really left or broke free from the Dark Ages, and the darkly minded culture and world view that was founded upon and steeped in fear, mistrust, parochialism, dogmatism, authoritarianism and hate.
The Renaissance, first in Spain, then Germany, then Italy and the rest of Europe, sought to break humanity free. And to a high degree it did. But then came the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and a century of religious wars, and we were effectively taken right back into the dark ages, once again, by that familiar Satanic blend of prejudice, arrogance, dogmatism, sectarianism, authoritarianism, and hate.
The Enlightenment again tried to rescue Europe from its narrow-mindedness, ignorance and backwardness, and again, succeeded to a high degree. But then the idea of rational certitude crept in, and we moved from liberatory democratic revolutions, again, back into hubris, elitism, dogmatism, conquest and brutality – and though we have made much progress since, we still have not yet cast off these features, which have been the defining and predominant traits of European “civilization” and its heirs. Our noblest figures, from Dickens to Thoreau, Chomsky and Blake, would agree.
It is time we let the spirit of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment live. We have kept them on a very short leash, locked, by and large in the dungeon, bound and chained by our overarching prejudice, hubris, power lust and greed. It is time to let them free, to flower more fully, and more completely. As Thomas Paine said, “It is within our power to begin the world over again.” What are we waiting for? It is high time for rebirth. Let the new Renaissance begin, and let our troubled world be healed, and be free.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 4:35 pm
Thomas Paine, Mark Twain, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., I should add, would undoubtedly agree to this portrait, as well, and they have offered us concrete guidance on how to remedy our problems and positively transform our world. It would be wise to listen.
In every age, ordinary people simply tried to survive, and to live in peace. They were not entirely innocent victims, but by and large, as in all empires, the corruption is primarily at the top. If we are to live in harmony and in peace, we must renounce and firmly reject the unholy trinity of empire, authoritarianism, and the hubris and hate which flow inevitably from them. This is the central challenge. Are we up to it? I say yes. The people are ready. The awakening and the new renaissance have begun. Let the spirit of freedom, unity, and peace, reign now.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 5:05 pm
The European elite, the landed aristocracy, who were in essence tribal war lords, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, formed a romantic and nostalgic love affair with the dearly departed empire. The elite loved wealth, power, and their own egos, above all else, as all elites tend to do; so naturally, they worshipped and venerated the Roman Empire. That empire set the mould for Europe: conquest, brutality, slavery, elitism, and hubris, were the hallmarks of the Roman Empire, as with all empires, in one form or another. And furthermore, the European elites’ worship and adoration for the Roman Empire also meant that they took the views and the historical narrative of the Roman Empire as valid, and made it their own. And thus, it became ours, as well. 1,500 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, we are still mired in that same mould of empire, and still locked in the dungeon of the mind which is entailed by our adoption of the largely fictional historical narrative which was told by the Roman Empire.
History is written by the conquerors. But it is now high time that the people reclaimed their history, and sought the truth. And that is just what is happening now. Historians and archeologists, the bold ones at least, the courageous ones, are re-examinging our long-held historical presumptions, and are asking, in essence, among other questions, whether it is wise to take the word of a conquering empire as the unvarnished truth. Clearly, it is not.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 9:17 pm
As I said, science tends less to be about indoctrination and more about education, though that is changing. That is generally speakng a degree worth having. In other departments or fields, you need a fierce independence of mind, or what you get is much more indoctrination than education. As for formal vs informal, some of the best scholars have been self-educated. Joseph Campbell is one. He is unmatched as a scholar f world religions and mythology. His education was solo, from a cabin in the woods, steeped in reading. So yes, either can work.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 10:42 pm
The Dark Ages (500-1100 AD) weren’t dark everywhere, as historians and archeologists are rediscovering now. In Ireland, Moorish Spain and the Islamic Middle East, it was a golden age. And that is where the Renaissance came from.
LikeLike
March 3, 2021 at 10:44 pm
Even my beloved Florence was a late bloomer.
LikeLike
March 4, 2021 at 3:48 pm
As with the arrival of the Islamic Moors in Spain in 711, also with the arrival of the Aglo-Saxons in 5th century Britain: the centuries-old standard narrative has been violent invasion, but recent archeological evidence shows they were not invasions, but largely peaceful migrations. Question everything.
LikeLike
March 4, 2021 at 5:06 pm
The evidence seems clear that when the Roman Empire fell, large parts of continental Europe did descend into a dark age, as one established order disintegrated and collapsed, brutal and violently oppressive and unjust as it was. Writing in many places stopped for two to three centuries, indicating that people were focused on subsistence and survival. Trade stopped, indicating that travel became too dangerous for it. That is a depiction of a dark age. But what historians and archeologists are realizing now is that not everywhere in Europe went into a dark age collapse. Some pockets, including Ireland, England, and Moorish Spain, adapted and actually thrived. This is important to know, because we are on the cusp of another empire collapsing – the neo-feudal, crypto-fascist, technocratic empire of the new, global corporate oligarchy; and we need knowledge and lessons from history to guide us through what is coming, and to hearten and inspire the people in what is likely to be a difficult time, as one era ends, and we transition to an entirely new and different period of human history on Earth.
LikeLike
March 12, 2021 at 2:34 am
How the British people absorbed incoming cultures, such as the Romans, while retaining their character, and then thrived, under an independent path, after the Romans left: BBC Timeline documentary
LikeLike
March 15, 2021 at 4:24 pm
Historical Bias – Case Study
An open letter to the generally good quality history videos produced by Kings & Generals, on YouTube:
Such a good presentation of history you give in these videos, from the few that I have seen; but historical bias is the norm, and it creeps into this series of videos, just as it pervades the entire Western mind, and the modern mind broadly, and most of the globe. 40 seconds in, the historical bias is already visible: “….how the pagan Vikings evolved into Christian kingdoms.” “Evolved”? How about devolved? Or how about a neutral term, such as “transformed”? The term “evolved” has implicit positive connotations, in both its scholarly and common usage; hence, you are saying, whether or not it was intentional, that paganism is intrinsically inferior to Christianity, and a move towards Christianity is therefore a form of spiritual and cultural progress. Is this not the 21st century? Are we still living in the 1900s? Or the 4th century?
If you did not mean to say that Christianity is intrinsically superior to paganism, then do not use the term “evolve” in this context. If you did mean to say that Christianity is naturally and obviously superior to paganism (which simply means any non-Christian spirituality), then you should just be honest about it, and make your bias, or your viewpoint, your ideology, explicit, and not couched in seemingly scholarly, objective, and neutral terms.
The terms, evolved, devolved, evolution, devolution, progress, regression, and also, educated, education, folklore, myth, civilized, civilization, pagan and heathen, (as with the terms, terrorist, and, freedom-fighter) are extremely loaded terms, both in terms of their ideological and ethnocentric baggage and connotations, and in terms of their emotional impact. If we use them at all, we should be clear in our own minds what, exactly we are trying to say, and we should make explicit precisely what we mean.
What comes later in history is not necessarily progress or evolution – for example, Nazi Germany was a regression and a devolution from the broad-minded, cosmopolitan, ecumenical, pluralist, open, and intellectually and culturally vibrant constitutional democracy and freedom that came before, into an essentially neo-feudal authoritarianism, and brutal, murderous fascism.
Obviously, history does not necessarily move in a straight line from ignorance to enlightenment, or from bondage to freedom, or from brutality to something we can genuinely call civilized. In fact, the linear view of inevitable progress is a modern ideological invention, and a smug and presumptuous, self-serving arrogance, hubris and conceit, and is simply a construct of the mind.
As Thoreau said, in his brilliant and piercing, yet overall gentle and humourous critique of modern “civilization”, Walden, his magnum opus, We have improved men’s houses, but not the men who live in them. In fact, his central message was that in becoming obsessed with materialism, we have robbed ourselves, and made ourselves in paupers.
We are outwardly rich, but inwardly poor. And of course, all of the sociological and psychological studies, the polls, and the global mental health pandemic, prove that he was absolutely right. We obsess over outer things, material things, trivial things, petty differences, childish rivalries and our frequently infantile sense of grandiosity, a virtual idolatry of entertainment, and the mere surface of life, while we ignore the life of the spirit, the life of the heart, and the life of the mind. Medieval peasants, in every way which matters most, were infinitely richer than we are now: richer in spirit, richer in inner life, richer in relationships, richer in community, and richer in connectedness to nature. We need not reject modern technology, nor do we need to become ascetics or primitivists, but if we wish to live well, or, given the exponentially growing environmental crisis, if we wish to live at all, then we must “simplify, simplify”, precisely as Thoreau advised and urged.
“If necessary, let us sacrifice one bridge over the river, go ’round a little there, and throw at least one span across the greater gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.” (A fairly precise quote, from memory.)
While we have made some genuine cultural progress, we have arguably lost as much or more than we have gained, in terms of spiritual life, social cohesion, a sense of community, mutual aid, a connection to an inner life, and a connection to nature. Some would argue, myself included, that great technological progress, a mountain of consumer goods, and multi-thousand channel continuous entertainment, can not possibly replace, or even compare to what we have lost.
I am not saying you are making this mistake. I am simply making an example of the pervasiveness of historical bias as the norm, both within academia and more broadly. I am simply pointing out the pervasive and almost universal hidden assumptions of linear inevitable progress, which smugly presumes that we who live in the 21st century must of course be the best, because we are the latest, and thus the most enlightened and advanced, and our lives and communities and our society must be the best in history, because it has come last. Such fantastical imaginations! Such delusions, so commonly taken to be unassailable truths! How far we have fallen – into the stupor of our own pretensions.
As to the terms pagan and heathen, they really should be stricken from our vocabulary, like the terms evolution and progress, unless and until we can speak more precisely about what exactly we mean, and do so without bringing in the baggage of 5,000 years of cultural bias and unconscious mythology, ideology and hubris.
The term “pagan” stems from the Latin, pagus, which simply refers to the countryside, or to people who dwell in the countryside (from the root of the word “peg”, since areas of rural land were demarcated by stones or pegs, the pagus). People of rural countryside areas were agricultural workers, farmers, or slaves, and were viewed as lower in both character and worth than the higher castes in the cities and towns. They were viewed as commoners or plebes, and very negatively so. “Pagan” was thus a derogatory term for a rural country dweller, who was presumed to be uncivilized because he or she did not live in Rome, or some other great imperial city. “Heathen” is a term that stems from hearth, and means essentially the same thing: a rural dweller. Both arose out of the pretense and supposition that urbanites know best, and are the only civilized people, while rural people were seen as ignorant, backward, and stupid. The prejudice and bias persists to this day. And on top of that historical bias, was overlain the ideology of Christian supremacy: that is, anyone who is not Christian, must of course, be ignorant, backward, stupid, and uncivilized. And again, the bias persists, to a high degree, to this day. Why not, therefore, simply use the term non-Christian, or pre-Christian, or traditional, instead of the terms pagan or heathen? Unless you are playing propaganda games, why use such loaded language? I assume your biases are unconscious, and you are not playing propaganda or PR games, therefore, there is no reason and no excuse for brandishing ethnocentric and anti-intellectual, parochial terms, such as pagan or heathen.
Overall, you seem to have a good set of history presentations, but the “civilization” we live in is profoundly deluded, and steeped in dark confusion, so it is not surprising that intellectual sloppiness and unexamined presumption creep into nearly everything. But if we want to be accurate, honest, or scholarly about it, then we must be alert for hidden assumptions at all times, and bring them into the light of day to be examined. Most of them don’t stand up to scrutiny, but wither and die in the light – as they should.
You didn’t seem to have a bias in favour of either side, regarding the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches (a schism that never needed to happen, like the Crusades and the Inquisition, and all of them were foolish and tragic). But you may have a bias in favour of Christianity over other forms of spirituality. That is fine, if that is your view, though I would suggested a more broad-minded and scholarly view of world religions; but again, you should not pretend to objectivity if you have a hidden, unstated bias. Just because bias is the norm, both in academia and in the broader society, does not mean that it is scholarly, intelligent, erudite, civilized, or something that we should automatically and passively accept – especially without question. Question more, assume less, I say. And question everything.
Thank you again for creating such entertaining and generally excellent history videos, which I very much enjoy. And please take my critique as constructive criticism, as it was intended, and not as any disrespect.
J. Todd Ring,
March 15, 2021
See my recent essay, Historical Bias Is The Norm, by J. Todd Ring, on WordPress.
LikeLike
March 22, 2021 at 12:46 pm
“Expert” and “expertise”, of course, are among other terms that are heavily loaded with cognitive, connotative and emotional bias. It would be better not to use them at all.
The people who were considered experts in science before the time of Copernicus, for example, were certain the Earth was the centre of the universe, and the cult of authority which the terms “expert”, “expertise” and “authority” insidiously inculcate in the mind of the listener or reader, further cemented that illusion, and other illusions and delusions that were and are far more dangerous.
The “experts” who were the scholars, academics, political elite, business elite, aristocracy, monarchies and clergy, all said and fervently believed, for hundreds of years, that slavery is normal, natural, and perfectly ethical and acceptable, and that slaughtering, enslaving, banishing or stealing lands and possessions from “savages”, “heathens”, “pagans”, or indigenous peoples of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, was not only perfectly moral, but was God’s will.
The term “expert”, thus, leads us into an unconscious and unthinking deference to authority, whereby our minds, critical thought, conscience and compassion, are frequently and routinely checked at the door, and forgotten.
There are, therefore, few words that are as diabolical in their unintended consequences, as a result of the hidden bias, and cult of authority, or cult of obedience, that it represents, and inculcates, perpetuates and spawns, as the term, “expert”. No thinking person, I would therefore argue, should ever use it.
You can say, well-read, erudite, well-informed, highly aware, and there, at least, you are making known your view of that person explicitly, as being at least to some degree subjective and open to question, and deserving investigation. But when you use the term “expert”, for most people, all thinking stops immediately, and they simply accept as an unquestionable fact, whatever the supposed “expert” says is true – even when he or she is lying, distorting the truth, or more often, simply mistaken, in small, or more frequently, in gross and severe ways – and so, we all follow the pied piper, either into propaganda, which is pervasive, or into self-deceit, denial of reality, and illusion, which are more common still.
Drop the loaded language of these biased terms, I would argue. Speak with power, passion and persuasion, when it is called for, but do it with precision and with honesty. There are at least several terms which should be generally avoided, for exactly these well-defined reasons.
LikeLike
March 22, 2021 at 1:12 pm
Of course, the term conspiracy theory is another such term that is so heavily loaded with emotional, cognitive and connotative bias, as to preclude any rational or critical thought in the minds of most people. It is akin to being accused of being a Communist during the McCarthy hearings, or being accused of being a witch during the Inquisition. All that is required is for the accusation to be hurled, and the mob responds with an impulse to run away with hands over their ears as fast as they can, if they don’t decide to immediately attack, and burn the heretic at the stake, as a zealous and fanatical minority always do. No thoughtful person should therefore use the term. Maybe I am repeating myself here, since I am writing this note weeks after the original essay, but it bears repeating. “Conspiracy theorist” is now a term akin to being accused of being a terrorist, or a Communist, or a witch. Only the deceitful and the dangerously ignorant can possibly use such a term.
See my previous essays on science, and on conspiracy theory, for further elaboration.
LikeLike
March 22, 2021 at 1:15 pm
Simply use the term theory, which is neutral, instead of the loaded term, conspiracy theory; then people can actually look to the evidence and logic of the theory to evaluate for themselves whether it is wholly or partially true, or not. That is the empirical approach, and hence also the scholarly, intelligent, and scientific approach. Because the term conspiracy theory undermines any use of logic, reason or recourse to evidence, it is categorically anti-empirical, anti-intellectual, and anti-science.
LikeLike
March 22, 2021 at 2:07 pm
Another interesting note: Cordoba, the greatest city of Europe while most of Europe was still under the thrall of the Dark Ages, had running water, sewers, fountains, 70 libraries, public baths, beautiful architecture, churches, synagogues and mosques, and street lights, in the 8th century. The City of London in 1605, during the Gun Powder Plot, still had no street lights. But all that has been swept aside, because the actual historical facts did not fit the desired official narrative. When the facts conflict with the official narrative, it is not the narrative that is changed to fit the facts, but the facts must be altered to fit the narrative. And so it begins again today, but not simply with a re-writing of history, which is dangerous enough, but with the death of science, democracy, and freedom itself.
LikeLike
August 12, 2021 at 4:50 pm
The lesson here is extremely important: the narratives we take as fact, are often highly distorted versions of the truth. The narratives surrounding the Druids is a perfect example. Question the narrative – all narratives.
The podcast host (link below) stumbles over her words, but that doesn’t matter – she understands the crux of history better than most historians: in that, she understands that history is a set of competing narratives, most of which are heavily biased, and loaded with misinformation, half-truths, untruths, prejudice, self-serving distortions of the facts, and illusions.
The narratives of what we call science and “the news” are likewise based in narratives, most of which are heavily biased, due to vested interests, and are severe distortions of the actual facts.
Those who can question the narrative, can practice science, reasoning, scholarship, common sense, and basic sanity. Those who cannot, can’t.
LikeLike