On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
The only time my parents showed disdain for me was when I came home from high school and explained to them that Christopher Columbus was mostly just a raping killer and hadn't really done anything that impressive any way.
I love them for openly mocking me that day.
So a happy Columbus Day to my parents and everyone else who ever found themselves in the New World!
And if you think you're having a rough day, read this account of one minor incident from his Fourth Voyage to the New World:
For nine days I was as one lost, without hope of life. Eyes never beheld the sea so angry, so high, so covered with foam. The wind not only prevented our progress, but offered no opportunity to run behind any headland for shelter; hence we were forced to keep out in this bloody ocean, seething like a pot on a hot fire. Never did the sky look more terrible; for one whole day and night it blazed like a furnace, and the lightning broke with such violence that each time I wondered if it had carried off my spars and sails; the flashes came with such fury and frightfulness that we all thought that the ship would be blasted. All this time the water never ceased to fall from the sky; I do not say it rained, for it was like another deluge. The men were so worn out that they longed for death to end their dreadful suffering.
But my high school teachers probably survived much worse things.
- Comment (33)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (3)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
Apr '12
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
The tail end of Gen-X was about 1982. Hey, kid! Get off my lawn!
May '11
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
I thought it was 1978. I've always been told that I missed the cut-off. Born in 1981. Not that I have any great desire to be considered Gen-X.
Apr '12
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
My folks didn't mock us, unless we came up with something silly on our own, but they did teach us to pick anything we were taught to bits. "What are they not mentioning?" "If that's true, what about (thing already known from a solid source)?"
I think the "Columbus was evil" thing was so poorly done, and in the same model as the "Indians were peaceful, perfect nature loving noble savages" BS (hint, doesn't work if your godfather's dad was killed in an Indian raid and you grew up around folks who had lived in Indian settlements, etc) that we didn't even mention it to our folks.
When the story is always the same, it gets a lot easier to recognize the BS.
Nov '11
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
Ryan M
I thought it was 1978. I've always been told that I missed the cut-off. Born in 1981. Not that I have any great desire to be considered Gen-X. · 1 hour ago
No, you're a Gen-Xer. The cut off is 1982 and after. At that your point a Millennial, being born in 1982, they graduated high school in 2000, thus the name.
But nope, you're a Gen-Xer.
Jun '10
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
You mean they don't celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in your neck of the woods?
Dec '10
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
More details on what they did to mock you, Molly, if you please.
Sep '10
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
Foxman: The thing about Columbus is he was wrong. He did not prove that the world was round. He only proved that there was land west of Africa/Europe.
No educated person in 1492 thought that the world was flat. The Greeks had figured that out ~ 1800 years earlier. The question was: How far was it to Asia if you sailed west from Europe? Columbus’s men were ready to mutiny before they got to the Americas and they were not a third of the way to Asia. · 6 hours ago
I was thinking about the irony of this a while back, that it was great for Columbus that he discovered the New World because he would have died trying to get to the east indies that way.
Jul '10
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
And to Mollie's high school teachers, Columbus says,"Yer welcome."
Sep '12
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
I got the day off, but only because I took the day off - not out of deference to Columbus, but because I need to burn vacation time before the first of the year. The last time I got Columbus Day off, I was contracted to the US Navy.
Sep '12
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
kylez
Foxman: The thing about Columbus is he was wrong. He did not prove that the world was round. He only proved that there was land west of Africa/Europe.
No educated person in 1492 thought that the world was flat. The Greeks had figured that out ~ 1800 years earlier. The question was: How far was it to Asia if you sailed west from Europe? Columbus’s men were ready to mutiny before they got to the Americas and they were not a third of the way to Asia. · 6 hours ago
I was thinking about the irony of this a while back, that it was great for Columbus that he discovered the New World because he would have died trying to get to the east indies that way. · 2 hours ago
For a striking account of what he would have faced had America not gotten in his way, listen to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History episode: Globalization Unto Death.
http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive/Show-32---Globalization-Unto-Death/%20discovery-exploration-Columbus
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
I can't remember anything terribly specific. Except that I cried as I tried to explain to them that discovering the New World and going on all those voyages was really no big deal. And that God hates harsh treatment of people, Christopher Columbus' true legacy. They acted like my arguments were juvenile. And they kept laughing.
Sep '12
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
The millions of kids whose parents never challenge regurgitated public education leftism will take far longer to mature.
Jun '12
Re: On The Benefits Of Mocking Your Own Children
Some of them never will.
See Obama, Barack; Pelosi, Nancy; Reid, Harry.