

Change Columbus Day to Exploration Day - calvin
http://kottke.org/12/10/change-columbus-day-to-exploration-day

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frozenport
Early explorers did things that wouldn't fit into our view of acceptable
behavior. You are hoping to replace Columbus with multiple Columbuses each
with the same track record as the one you hope to replace.

Personally, I like Columbus day, I like the discussion, and the critical
thinking it brings.

Its important to note that many celebrated foundations of our civilization
would be despicable in modern standards. For example, the Romans were the
original fascists despite the cultural hegemony they imposed upon Europe.

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calibraxis
He was despicable by the standards of the day, too. It's not like morality is
a modern invention, as apologists claim. ("Oh, thou shalt NOT kill?")

Columbus was such a terrorist, he and his brothers were chained, shipped back
to Spain and imprisoned for his crimes as governor. Even after the monarchy
overruled the Court of Spain, he was stripped of his governorship.
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Governorsh...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Governorship_and_arrest))

Las Casas wrote, _"Yet into this sheepfold, into this land of meek outcasts
there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts,
wolves, tigers, or lions that had been starved for many days. And Spaniards
have behaved in no other way during the past forty years, down to the present
time, for they are still acting like ravening beasts, killing, terrorizing,
afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with
the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of
before, and to such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous
(having a population that I estimated to be more than three million), has now
a population of barely two hundred persons."_

Of course, none of this made for great propaganda. So in Adam Smith's _Wealth
of Nations_, the story of Columbus changed to, _"and in all the other parts of
the new world which he ever visited, nothing but a country quite covered with
wood, uncultivated, and inhabited only by some tribes of naked and miserable
savages."_

If there's anything for us to do in the modern day, it's to be more aware of
the atrocities we commit, which we glibly accept as the "standard of the day",
even though many fight against them. (For example, against war, massive
imprisonment and wage slavery).

Personally, I think it should be "Genocide Day". Not every holiday should be
upbeat. A time of reflection and introspection.

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sharkweek
This will never happen for a variety of reasons -- but I have always lobbied
to remove Columbus Day as a holiday and replace it with Election Day,
hopefully encouraging a larger number of people to vote.

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archangel_one
Is this really a big problem in the States? It just seems a little strange
that you appear to take your elections very seriously, and have these huge
campaigns etc, but then voter turnout is still considered low?

One solution that occurs to me, simply because this is what used to happen in
New Zealand and seemed to work okay, is to hold the election on a Saturday.

~~~
waterlesscloud
We have vote-by-mail all over the place now, so there's not much excuse beyond
laziness.

In my opinion, if you can't be bothered to put in the minimal effort required
now, I'd prefer you didn't vote anyway. I find it difficult to believe you'd
be making anything resembling an informed decision.

~~~
sharkweek
The irony always being that voting for president has arguably less _DIRECT_
impact on our lives than voting for local government, but people get far more
worked up over the big stuff

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Detrus
But Columbus is an legend precisely because he didn't just explore, he created
a beachhead which is more important historically than plain exploration.

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msgilligan
I think it's a fantastic idea for a variety of reasons: 1) It's a great
political compromise. 2) It makes the day a celebration of the best part of
our past. 3) It makes the day aspirational by encouraging exploration in the
future.

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flexie
Sure. If you apply our standards, though, you might want to decry many of your
founding fathers as well: Washington, Madison, Jefferson ("All men are created
equal"), John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin - they all held slaves at some point.

So, should you rename the capital, the state, and all the avenues and parks
that are named after these people?

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arctictony
Did Washington cut off the noses and ears of those natives that tried to stop
him raping their wives as punishment. Did Jefferson cut off the hands of those
natives who did not mine enough gold that month in forced labour camps while
also creating the encomienda system? Did Franklin reduce the population of
Haiti from ~3m to 12,000 in just 20 years? Does John Hancock hold the record
for transporting more slaves into slavery than any other person in history?

I think Columbus set himself well apart from the founding fathers on any
number of scores and even in his own time and with his own supporters (Queen
Isabella of Spain for instance) they thought he had gone too far

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jsnk
I don't really care about the actual issue, but the objections raised to
Columbus Day are absurd to me.

Why is euro-centrism bad? I am not of European descent, but historically
speaking, contributions made by Europeans are undeniably tremendous. I don't
think there's anything controversial about acknowledging that Europeans had a
pretty remarkable run in recent centuries. Does euro-centrism have a bad name
because of colonialism?

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cglee
Anything-centrism is "bad" in that it clouds one's ability to be objective. It
also impedes empathy.

It's sort of tied to identity. If you do not cling to a specific identity,
then it frees you to empathize with a wide range of people. If you say "I am
white/asian/tall/rich", then it forms an in-group vs out-group mentality, and
obstructs empathy.

For example, does it strike you odd that any land should be deemed
"discovered" when there are already inhabiting humans there?

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drama247365
He was a brave Italian explorer. And on this website, Christopher Columbus is
a hero. End of story.

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ktizo
He was a lucky and murderous idiot who thought he had landed in India.

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drama247365
I guess there are no Soprano's fans on HN.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOn8DXb0inM>

