#12 Class Participation Post (ym)

     The quote we discussed in class on Thursday was:
"Columbus has discovered the Americas, but not the Americans" (49).
As our group has shared to class, I think Todorov means that Columbus was able to discover the land, its nature, and the existence of human beings (Indians). However, he is arguing that Columbus did not discover the new identities and cultures, because he had this selective perception towards the people who lived on the land.

     Then, during the open discussion, the term "selective perception" has shifted to "ignorance" or Columbus ignoring these Indians. I was thinking to myself throughout the discussion if Columbus was acting as chosen ignorance or conscious ignorance. However, when PTJ commented to focus more on the "ignorance" part of the key term "chose ignorance", I have finally realized that Columbus is not even ignoring these human beings. This is because "ignorance" means not to recognize the value of existence of these people, but rather he did not "accept" their existence or their new identities and cultures. Also, in terms of how Columbus was "single-minded" throughout his journey, I think this was because he stick to the principle of not accepting certain things that he did not want to expect.

     Also, mentioning about Ethnocentrism, I definitely agree that Columbus had this principle because he has emphasized about how human beings should be white and be pursuing Christianity throughout the first chapter of this book. I also want to touch on Egocentrism because Todorov does bring this term. When I first read this part, I could agree to what he wanted to tell the readers. However, when I looked up the definition of Egocentrism, it meant something different. The definition of Egocentrism is: "the inability to differentiate between yourself and others", which is different from what Todorov wanted to tell the readers in this context. Because he did differentiate between the white christians and the Indians.

     Lastly, I want to answer to Alexandra's question of what happens if we encounter a new land today with different kinds of organisms. I partially agree with her point that we will be doing the same thing that Columbus did to the Indians; which is forcing them our language and culture in order to communicate. However, on the other hand, I feel we would act differently than how Columbus acted because of the development of modern technologies.