November 5, 2024

3 thoughts on “Nobel ‘Piece’ Prizes: Iranian Cleric, Prof. Eric Cheyfitz, Prof. Jolene Rickard

  1. With all due respect, I think it’s kind of a stretch to go to the extent that you do regarding Cheyfitz’s comments. It’s kind of like saying that a historian teaching about the evils of the nazi party should instead let people read what Hitler wrote and decide for themselves. Obviously Christopher Columbus wasn’t Hitler, but the policies he implemented in Latin America were incredibly malicious in the way they attempted to exterminate the native population. I doubt that Cheyfitz’s intention as a professor is to indoctrinate students into his way of thinking, especially considering the quote given in your article doesn’t seem to have any bias other than a bias toward factuality. To a great amount of historians, the policies that Christopher Columbus implemented amount to genocide.

    However, I’m not saying that Columbus day should not be celebrated, for without that history we would not be where we are today. But to learn from that history is important and, in defense of Cheyfitz (whose views I feel you exploited in your article), it seems that all he wants to do is ensure that his students learn what is to be learned from his class.

  2. Welcome back, JPMITB – thanks for the comment.

    I would suggest to read the article (or re-read) in the Sun and look at the rest of Cheyfitz’s comments:
    ——————————————————————————————————
    “Spaniards documented these practices like Congress today documents atrocities as if it’s natural,” Cheyfitz said.

    Cheyfitz provided a series of statistics to illuminate some of these current “atrocities”: the top 1 percent of Americans have 35 percent of accumulated wealth; 36.5 million to 37 million people live in poverty; the United States boasts the highest incarceration rates in the world; the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in regard to international health; and the U.S. owns 70 percent of the arms trade, making it the biggest seller of weapons of mass destruction.
    ——————————————————————————————————-

    It’s quite evident that Cheyfitz has a very skewed interpretation of what America is and the impact of Columbus and European explorers had on the country. He obviously holds very polarizing views, makes statements publicly such as those above, and says he teaches his class with an objective. Although I suppose it is minutely possible, I highly doubt there is not at very least a hint of attempted indoctrination in his classroom.

    If you read Columbus’s diary, you will find that there is a wealth of information: some that indeed enumerates gratuitous Spanish violence, and some that exposes the existing brutality and barbarity of native tribes. Not that this in a sense justifies the Europeans, but it is certainly a fact that is too often conveniently missing.

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