Download to read offline
Uploaded byAlan Freeman
Hubris: Origins of the Columbus Myth
1) The document analyzes the Columbus myth as an origin story that justifies the dominance of powers from the global North since 1492. 2) It argues that while their dominance is declining, these powers refuse to understand that their wealth came from acquiring the wealth of others through imperialism and slavery, not from any inherent superiority. 3) The Columbus myth disguises this by portraying Columbus as discovering America and creating a model of progress, rather than enslaving and wiping out indigenous populations for profit. The myth sustains the dominant worldview.
More Related Content
Similar to Hubris: Origins of the Columbus Myth
Hubris: Origins of the Columbus Myth
- 1. Hubris A materialist analysis ofthe Columbus myth
- 2. The problem simply stated Thepowers which have dominated the world since 1492 are in decline, and their dominance is under threat Yet they refuse to understand the reasons Why?
- 3. The answer simply stated Theydo not understand the source of their dominance They believe it is due to their superior capacity to produce wealth Actually due to their capacity to acquire the wealth of others But disguised by the economic system that maintains it – capitalist imperialism This disguise takes the form of a myth system Columbianism
- 4. 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 1951 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 Annual Growth Four-YearMoving Average The Great Long Northern Decline Average growth rate of the global North (USA, Europe, Japan, settler colonies) All Northern countries since 1974 The longest decline in the history of capitalism Entirely endogenous (internally generated) Not caused by the rise of China but blamed on China Because otherwise, it would be blamed on the economic system of the dominant countries And their ruling classes
- 5. The Columbus mythsimply stated
- 6. But… Columbus did notdiscover America • He landed in the Bahamas and colonised Cuba He did not create a new model of human progress • He enslaved the Taino population to make him rich • He created modern genocide and wiped them out • He governed so badly that Spain recalled him The Columbus story is not a factual claim but a myth • A belief system that sustains a dominant class • If we grasp this belief system, we clear the way to a materialist, scientific understanding • Not because the myth is ‘wrong’ • But because it explains the thought-structure of the world’s dominant classes • That is, it expose the limits of modern social science • And tells us how to transcend these limits
- 7. A materialist concept ofmyth Robert Graves, author of Greek Myths: • Persons represent peoples • Events represent conquests The material content of a myth is an actual historical event. It is therefore wrong to dismiss a myth as a merely false statement We have to understand the national and class struggle that the myth represents
- 8. Columbus as a mythicalfigure Columbianism is an origin myth A hero myth A liberation myth A father myth A world myth A revelation myth A discovery myth A destiny myth A superiority myth
- 9. Peculiarities of theColumbus myth Did not actually emerge until the Late 19th Century •Promoted by Italian immigrants denounced as ‘Dagoes’ •Columbus as ‘Italian contribution to American Civilization’ •Columbus Day announced in 1930s and did not get presidential approval until Trump A pseudo-rational religion • Masquerades as a product of the enlightenment • America has ‘taken over where Europe left off’ • God is replaced by the market • The Bible is replaced by Economics • Columbus personifies the doctrine of the US civilizing mission Masquerades as a doctrine of liberation •Poses as ‘liberator’ •But provides the justification for war and intervention •Reinvented Victorian liberalism as its moral system •With all the failures of that doctrine •Rooted in the notion of the freedom to own •Esoteric secret: deifies private property and the Northern monopolies of trade, finance and technology
- 10. 1492: a pottedhistory Began as a trade venture • Islamic traders dominated routes to the East • Columbus sought a new route to India • But stumbled on the American bi-continent Became the source of finance for European capitalism and the birthplace of capitalist slavery The principal source of raw materials and the products of cheap labour, mainly enslaved or indentured We have to understand this as capitalist ‘forced’ labour, because it produced commodities, hence value This was the foundation of the colonial system – and the industrial revolution • Silver and Gold • Cotton • Coffee, Tobacco, Sugar, … then tea, rubber, wood, minerals, oil. Low-cost materials, financed by precious metals, produced under slave conditions: Marx’s ‘rosy dawn of capitalism’ Potosi: by 1620 fourth largest city in Christendom 8 million indigenous and African people died there
- 11. Capitalism has gonethrough huge changes, but •The global North consists of the same group of nations as in 1917 •And retains its monopoly of high-tech, trade and finance The true source of its wealth is the labour of others •But to admit this threatens its political survival demands •It therefore disguises the source of its wealth as a theory of superior civilization Hence • Racism • Trade wars • Regime change • Militarism • Cold War against China How Columbianism replaced Eurocentrism The working class entered the world stage •Russian and Chinese revolutions made interimperialist war too risky •Domestic compromise imposed ‘welfare state’ US stepped forward as ‘world leader’ •Imposed dollar as world currency •Created NATO •Built buffer states in Germany, Japan and South Korea Hence • The Columbus Myth • Symbolises US Ascendancy • Symbolises Northern dominance
- 12. Hubris • A crimein Athenian law under the constitution of Solon • Punished by Nemesis Athenian term denoting ‘excessive pride and arrogance’ • Inability of the oppressor to maintain conditions for social reproduction • The revolt of the oppressed Outcome of a class compromise imposed by the combination of: • doomed by its inner nature • ends in tragedy (Oresteian trilogy, Oedipus, etc) Nevertheless, an unstable compromise • First step: a truly scientific understanding of society Our task: to outrun Nemesis and lay the basis for a peaceful and just new society