askchapo

There's a certain elementary school education that just encodes this shit on your brain. Everything is Euro-centric. Only the most lily white aristocrats get any kind of credit for progress. Phillip of Macedonia, King Louis XIV of France, and Winston Churchill are transformative historical figures while Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad, King Sejong the Great, and Ho Chi Minh barely merit a mention.

Is it any wonder why American students step out of their high school graduation ceremonies believing Cleveland, Ohio is the pivot around which the rest of the world turns?

One of the reasons a book like Howard Zinn's "People's History" sends so many college freshmen spinning sideways, despite it being barely a nudge off the center of the western oriented curriculum, stems from the degree to which public schools blind their students to any variance in historical perspective. These kids come out fragile as porcelain, and absolutely primed to shatter, given the teenage inclination toward rebellion and the ample evidence of their indoctrination.

When I hear someone say "Western Civilization", my knee-jerk response is to bring up something wildly outside their wheelhouse. Historical figures, events, and even whole civilizations they've never heard of. "Have you ever heard of the Phoenician alphabet? Because you're using it, kid. Your entire language is rooted in North Africa."