In the late middleages, the kings of Europe faced a collective dilemma, they had worked hard to extort all the riches and money from their lands but they had no idea where to spend it. Of course, they could think about expanding their domain and perhaps attack their neighbour but none of them were strong enough to defeat the others. And at the centre of it all, there was always the pressure from the Pope who would preach about a ‘United Christendom.’
The King Ferdinand of Spain was one of the first to come up with a solution. He knew that there were lands overseas and decided to sponsor this eccentric navigator. He supported Columbus and his voyage over the Atlantic into what he believed would be India. Afterall, he had the coin available.
Columbus would learn yet that India was farther than he could have ever imagined but he did find land, the discovery of the Americas or the “New World” as it would be known, sparked an age of conquest and discovery.
Unbeknownst to him Columbus had also precipitated a mass migration into the “New World,” as all the major European powers scrambled to gain trade monopoly in these new lands. And thus he immortalised himself as an important figure in global history up till 2020 when some people felt that his past existence violated their rights.
In recent years, certain topics have become more and more controversial. And while the freedom of speech still does allow them to be talked about, the controversy and the societal backlash surrounding them make it clear that they are not subjects to be debated about.
These days the United States burns with the COVID-19 virus still running rampant through their medical industry and BLM rioters tearing their streets apart
The newest development in the Black Lives Matter movement is the debate to tear down all symbols which represent “slavery” and “oppression,”and while the President has taken to Twitter, vehemently criticising the movement, elsewhere the government has already bent to the pressure with the decision to take down the statue of Columbus in the California State House recently.
It really is quite understandable that the government seems to be challenged as both sides disagree on everything, oftentimes being offended by the symbols being used by the opposite party and yet all of them remain adamant supporters of the First Amendment, but evidently only selectively.
The most recent victim of the movement is Thomas Jefferson. The man who drafted America’s Declaration of Independence and served as their third president apparently doesnot represent “a fair and just America” because he was a slaver and thus the City Council of New York urges Mayor de-Blasio to tear his statue from the city hall.
The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi recently made it very clear that America would not stand for racism or tolerate any racist symbol but perhaps she forgets that the first 15 presidents of the United States were all slave owners, all of them probably racist as a consequence of growing up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But whatever America does they cannot change the fact that it was George Washington, a slaver, who led the Continental Army across the Delaware River in 1776.
History cannot be changed but it seems like it can be altered, violent riots fill the streets of America Demanding that statues of racist figure heads such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington be tore down and in many places, the people in charge are more than happy to oblige.
Professor Shelly Kagan from the Philosophy Department at Yale University commented on the whole ordeal, “People forget how fragile History really is, everything had to go exactly the way it did for us to be standing here today.”He further noted that tearing down Historical Monuments regardless by whom they were made or what they used to represent is wrong. “They are a reminder of change and an example of what not to do.”
America’s History is the reason why it stands as the sole superpower in today’s socio-economic climate. Making certain topics anathema and altering certain events so they better fit a political agenda is bound to have dire consequences.