Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/06/that-time-george-washington-or.html
…
16 Likes
This Declaration of Independence?
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
I have noticed that the best way to know if someone is a savage is when they apply that term to others.
25 Likes
And people told me that I wouldn’t learn anything by playing video games
I do try to read about the actual history when playing games in a historical setting though.
17 Likes
A president born with a silver spoon up his ass being a terrible human being? If you hadn’t told me it was Washington i’d spend the whole day naming all of them. Still this was an event i was not aware of and sadly its one that doesn’t surprise me, pretty much all the founding fathers have been cleansed and lionized into ineffable messiahs.
20 Likes
More accurately he had a chip on his shoulder. AFAIK, Washington was not born with a silver spoon. In fact I think that was one of his hang ups. He was jealous of the British and wanted to be a powerful British soldier, but wasn’t ever really allowed into the club. There was an instance where battle plans he had made while (oddly enough) fighting with indigenous Americans, against the French. Though successful his British commander took the credit.
All that said, We really should just stop with the hero worship. No one is perfect, we are all fallible and creating monuments that make humans “appear as gods” is only bound to lead to discontent, anger and animosity from anyone wronged by said “hero”. It will never forever fall on the “right side of history”.
Perhaps a non-binary reality is just to complex for
most people, but I think the idea is essential to frame our perspective as we make our next “evolutionary” steps.
14 Likes
Recently the Tulsa massacre was deforgotten.
Here in Canada, that time we invaded Russia is never mentioned - it would conflict with the “Russian aggression” propaganda campaign.
6 Likes
As a non-American, I found this recent Renegade Cut video on the subject of the “Founding Fathers” eye-opening.
2 Likes
Question: Is it better to use “Haudenosaunee” than “Iroquois”? Is it offensive to use “Iroquois” or more like using “German” to refer to what the Germans call “Deutsch”? I had never heard “Haudenosaunee Confederation” to refer to the Six Nations until this article and I don’t see very many other sources using it. They all just use “Haudenosaunee” by itself or “Iroquois Confederation”.
5 Likes
More on Hanadahguyus from a show I worked on in the '90’s.
2 Likes
Washington was born and raised a subject of the Crown, was a landowner and human being ‘owner,’ and came from a family that had been granted arms at some not-removed distance. So, maybe not so scrappy?
2 Likes
I think it is a stretch to say he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were both wealthy politicians. While his great-great grandfather died poor, he was proctor at Oxford during his life. He may have vastly expanded his family wealth during his lifetime, but George Washington was pretty clearly a child of privilege.
4 Likes
Washington definitely had a bone to pick with the British army and government. In England he was literally publicly condemned as the man who started what we now call the French and Indian War, because of his actions at Fort Necessity. An officer in the colonial militia, he desperately wanted a commission in the regular army, and was denied. For many years after he was bitter and determined to prove that he was just as good as any “lobsterback” officer.
Washington was most certainly far from perfect. But in how he served this country, he started as a wannabe who dreamed of being the big cheese, and grew into the real thing. There is a lot of reason to admire and respect him. Yes, he was a slaveowner. Yes, he harbored and acted on a lot of the racial prejudices that were endemic in his era. Like all real humans he was a mixed bag. There is this: without him, the people who today are arguing over tearing down statues and rooting out systemic racism would be speaking with a Cockney accent and still paying taxes to London.
3 Likes
Ah, the Great Man theory strikes again. How very … derivative.
Best I go put these few groats I managed to scrape tagever in an envelope and post 'em off to dear old Lizzie. Ah well, mustn’t grumble, eh guv? Bless.
3 Likes
As a six-nations Mohawk, “Iroquois” is what I grew up with and what’s still used on the Six Nations reservation today with my family. However, the word Iroquois was given to the people by the europeans, whereas Haudenosaunee is the word used by native speakers (of which I am not).
I presume it is similar to the Eskimo/Innuit naming convention, in that the latter is considered non-derogatory but still in active use by many folks today.
13 Likes
No worries for me to re-name the Washington Monument - I grew up in D.C. and long ago re-named it to the; Ancient Egyptian Mega-Phallus
I agree. Obviously we wouldn’t be here discussing the finer details of “freedom” without him. I just posit that maybe we should admire what flawed humans can accomplish rather than “deifying” them because of some antiquated idea that “good can only come from perfect”.
Are you aware enough of the language to break down the etymology of the word [if it has one]? I’m interested from a linguistics perspective.
Washington is also one the wealthiest presidents the US had for the longest time. Wasn’t until Kennedy that a wealthier person became president.
Peak net worth: $587 million
1st president (1789-1797)The nation’s first president inherited most of his wealth. George Washington inherited his lucrative plantation, Mount Vernon, from his half-brother. He also earned good money as a general and then as president. Washington’s presidential salary in 1789 was $25,000, which was 2% of the total U.S. budget.
2 Likes
I agree that we owe a lot to Washington, and America obtaining their freedom along with the French Revolution inspired the rest of the world to seek their own freedom eventually. I’m certainly not in the camp that the US’ founding figures need to be erased, but its useful to put out in the open everything that they were flaws and all. Lionizing them to be perfect historical figures makes them less relatable, some ideal of perfection we can never reach again, and it also makes their mistakes somehow worth it as long as the outcome is good. I don’t believe in that and making them more human gives everyone a chance to see that we can all do just as much good and that we can even do better than they did as long as we learn the mistakes of the past.
1 Like
Given the influence that these same tribes had on the drafting of the US constitution, it’s doubly ironic that the young nation would turn so sharply on its benefactors…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Law_of_Peace#:~:text=They%20contend%20that%20the%20federal,and%20the%20separation%20of%20powers.&text=The%20extent%20of%20the%20influence,is%20disputed%20by%20other%20scholars.
2 Likes
