Ethical historians condemn the practice, known as “presentism,” of judging historical events, people or cultures, through the lens of today’s moral standards, political beliefs or social norms, rather than understanding them within their own timeframe.
This is an element of the strategy of the radical left to undermine our pride in America by magnifying our faults and downplaying our virtues and achievements. It’s roots are in higher education where leftist academics dominate faculties and indoctrinate students. It seeps down into public schools controlled by leftist teacher unions, is amplified by the dominant liberal media and echoed in entertainment channels and social media.
America didn’t invent slavery
America is singled out and damned for practicing slavery in our early years, although it was common worldwide for millennia long before the USA was born (and still disgracefully exists in other places). In 1787, after the Revolutionary War when our nation’s founders were crafting the Constitution, the southern colonies would not have joined the union if slavery were abolished. It took 78 years and a Civil War to right that wrong in 1865. The Brits like to brag they outlawed slavery in 1833 before we did. True, but England, founded in 925, took 900 years to get around to that.
Long before white Europeans came to these shores, American Indians enslaved other Indians they captured in battle. Blacks in Africa enslaved other blacks and sold them to slave traders who brought them to America. Ironically, centuries later the descendants of those slaves have the good fortune to live in America rather than in so many suffering countries of Africa today.
When America expanded westward, The Indian Wars were predictably won by the more populous and technologically advanced civilization overwhelming the more primitive one. I’m not celebrating that, just observing the inevitable outcome. War is a constant of human history with worldwide borders repeatedly changing by right of conquest. No one living today bares any responsibility nor guilt for what has happened in the distant past. The expiration date for “reparations” has long since passed. To borrow a biblical phrase, “let that nation who is without sin cast the first stone.”
I’m not suggesting we throw anything down the memory hole to rewrite history and conceal past transgressions. I’m saying we shouldn’t forever obsess on the bad stuff, and that we balance the scales by acknowledging the good stuff. In other words, that was then, this is now; let’s move on.
From colonizer to ally
In its criticism of western civilization in general, the radical left is also obsessed with the sin of “colonization.” This goes back thousands of years practiced by ancient civilizations like, the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Persians and Chinese.
More recently in the 1500s, modern European colonization surged applying its advanced seagoing technology to intercontinental colonization and ushering in the era of worldwide trade. Some colonial powers were exploitive and brutal, others better behaved. British rule over India, for example, was initially harsh but later softened to allow the “passive resistance” of Mahatma Ghandi and eventually granting independence. The political roots the Brits left behind led to India ultimately becoming the world’s most populous democracy.
America was actually a victim of colonization imposed by the British Empire. But after an admittedly rocky start and few wars, we ultimately became best friends and allies. This is another case of “that was then, this is now.” Outside of eleven uninhabited small islands sprinkled around the world, America’s colonizing is principally our five foreign “territories,” the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, whose people generally like the relationship and aren’t asking for independence. So, what’s the problem?
Like any nation America has had its faults. But any fair assessment that weighs our faults against our virtues far favors the virtues. One in particular immediately comes to mind. The overwhelming contribution of American military might and industrial war-fighting capacity that turned the tide in World War II leading our allies to victory and saving the free world from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. That, alone, neutralizes any and all of our sins.
As the victor, not only didn’t America colonize German and Japan, it helped rebuild both of those countries, reform its governments and stationed 300,000 American NATO troops (including me) in Germany during the Cold War to protect that nation and the rest of Europe from the Soviet Union. Isn’t it ironic that Germany and Japan are, today, among our most steadfast friends and allies. Yet another example of that was then, this is now.
Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.
