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Parallels between Columbus and Bush
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Posted on Oct 17 2004
After not one, but two whimsical tributes to the “wonders” and “vision” of Christopher Columbus in the space of a week in this paper, I’d like to make a statement that there wasn’t all that much noble about a man whose vision and bravery was more a testament to greed, ruthlessness and exploitation on a level unseen probably until the Bush Administration.
I quote from Howard Zinn’s great book A People’s History of the United States:
When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log: “They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane…. They would make fine servants…. With 50 we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
Columbus later wrote: “As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.” The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold?
Substitute oil for gold and it becomes clear that the United States hasn’t changed much in 500 plus years. Read the local papers here and you can see Columbus, without a current government paid staff slinging BS on his behalf on a daily basis, getting a pass on his savagery 500 years later, and how now a lying, war mongering, intellectual lightweight “elected” in a fashion more odious than the worst banana republic could ever dream of pulling off, and I can see how this cabal of big business entrenched for four more years in the pig pen, slick public relations executives who run the issueless cult of personality spectacle called the current political campaign and a neutered lapdog media can let it all happen again.
Jeffrey Turbitt
As Lito
