This is what I would have liked to contribute to Thursday's class:
When talking about Columbus and his "chosen ignorance," I agree that he did that. He chose to ignore anything that went against his view. He came to the Americas with a view of what he was going to see, anticipating everything, and this mindset made him disregard anything that challenged it. He could have discovered America, but he didn't discover the Americans. He disregarded anything they gave/told him and instead turned towards himself to learn something he didn't even know or have an idea of - which shows his ignorance. When he heard the native people speak, he saw it either as gibberish, or would try to find a language within their words - even though he knew multiple languages! This is one of the craziest parts and literally shows his chosen ignorance.
If we were to come across a new group of people that we knew nothing about, I don't think we would have approached them the same way that Columbus did. He was completely ignorant to the new people (even though he made speculations), yet we know in this day and age that there are people we have very little knowledge of. I think we would treat them with an open mind. The difference between us and Columbus is that we have grown up with an open mind to accept many different people and to respect their differences, unlike Columbus who was congratulating the queen for kicking out the jews at one point.
In the end, I believe that Columbus had deliberate ignorance of the Americans and that we would treat new people with at least more respect than Columbus did.
- Eli
No comments:
Post a Comment