11 July 2002, 811 words
Of the multitude of lies peddled by ethnocentrists, a standard one is that their ancestors' societies were far more civilised than the most advanced societies in the world today.
Such assertions reveal an interesting paradox. In claiming that their ancestral civilisations were superior to modern societies, the ethnocentrists invariably criticise the moral and social mores of the developed world. Yet their claims of ancestral superiority, more often than not, are based on the supposed technological and scientific achievements of these ancient civilisations.
Many of these claims are entirely absurd. You will see articles from Hindu fanatic Devant Parsuram Maharaj arguing that there were flying machines and laser weapons in India thousands of years ago; and you will hear Afro-American academics brought down by the Emancipation Support Committee asserting that ancient Africans knew quantum physics and gravitational theory. Less extravagant, but historically inaccurate, are claims that writing originated in the Indus valley or that Greek philosophy was stolen from the ancient Egyptians.
The argument of advanced ancient technology is simply a reflection of the delusional mindset of those with racial agendas. But what about their criticisms of modern Western civilisation? Those who stand for traditional values argue that people in modern Western societies are basically unhappy, violent, selfish, materialistic, bigoted, lacking in purpose, disrespectful of women and the environment, have unstable families, and so on. The implication is that the people of ancient civilisations were generally worthier and wiser than modern human beings.
But this belief is just as delusional as the belief that ancient civilisations had nuclear power. Take ancient Egypt, which in this Emancipation month will have many lies told about it. Far from being civilised in any non-technological sense, Egyptian society - which wasn't Black, by the way - was a totalitarian state built on slavery. Afrocentrists argue that slavery in Africa wasn't anything like slavery in the modern world (i.e. the Atlantic slave trade) but this is pure wishful thinking.
Diodorus of Sicily, who lived in the first century BC, gives the following description of the treatment of slaves in the gold mines of Nubia. "...they are a great multitude and are all bound in chains - work at their task unceasingly both by day and throughout the entire night, enjoying no respite...no opportunity is afforded to any of them to care for his body and they have no garment to cover their shame...no leniency of any kind is given to any man who is sick, or maimed, or aged, or in the case of a woman for her weakness, but all without exception are compelled by blows to persevere in their labours, until through ill-treatment, they die in the midst of their tortures."
Indeed, there was not one ancient civilisation, including Hindu India with its caste system, which was not built on the broken backs of slaves. Historian David S. Landes, in his book The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, notes "...peasant throngs tempted Asian rulers to undertake ostentatious projects based on forced labour...these projects typically used armed overseers and entailed spectacularly high death rates. On the losses that went with construction of the Grand Canal and the Great Wall of China - we are talking millions of dead."
We can therefore dismiss the supposed moral superiority of these ancient civilisations. But what about tribal societies? Another common belief is that these simple societies have all sorts of virtues - little or no violence, selflessness, non-materialism, respect for the environment - which modern people have lost.
This, too, is absolute rubbish. In respect to respect for Nature, North American mammals were hunted to extinction at the end of the last ice age by newcomers ("Native Americans") to the continent. On the southern side, Mayan civilisation probably collapsed because of warfare, urbanisation and overpopulation.
As for violence, historian Lawrence Keeley, author of War before Civilization, writes, "The facts recovered by ethnographers and archeologists indicate unequivocally that primitive and prehistoric warfare was just as terrible and effective as the historic and civilized version...Peaceful pre-state societies were very rare; warfare between them was very frequent and most adult men in such groups saw combat repeatedly."
Contrast this with modern Western societies, where most men don't even get into fistfights, and where there are actual laws to protect the environment, and where women and children have more rights and privileges than in any traditional society. Thanks largely to the West, poverty world-wide has fallen more in the last 50 years than in the past five hundred, child death rates have been more than halved, malnutrition is down by one-third, and the number of children out of primary school has dropped from more than half to less than one-quarter.
These are the facts. But, of course, the facts will never convince those people who get comfort and careers out of telling lies about ancient wisdom.
Copyright ©2002 Kevin Baldeosingh