In my previous post I acknowledged that pretty much everything I\u2019ve ever read about historic Indians amounts to little more than lies. Knowing this, you might wonder how it is I felt qualified to write a book about historic Indians when I just admitted I can\u2019t possibly know the truth about historic Indians. Well, at times like these, I always think back to what dear old dad used to say. Dad always said, \u201cThe most important thing to keep in mind when dealing with alien cultures is the Prime Directive.\u201d<\/p>\n
You remember my dad from an earlier post\u2014J.T. Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise. And I assume you remember the Prime Directive. If not, here it is: Advanced civilizations are prohibited from interfering with the natural trajectory of more primitive civilizations.<\/em> This doctrine acknowledges the awesome responsibility that falls upon more advanced civilizations, & I\u2019m sure most 21st century humans embrace the Prime Directive as the most sacred moral standard of our time.<\/p>\n If only it were true.<\/em> Wouldn\u2019t that be wonderful?<\/p>\n Because the Prime Directive is, of course, fiction, another one of those little lies we tell ourselves. This particular lie was born in the mind of an incredibly creative man after looking back on centuries of human history in which \u201cmore advanced\u201d civilizations pretty much ate up & excreted out every \u201cprimitive\u201d society they came across. Given all that mindless destruction, it\u2019s no wonder modern culture has eagerly embraced this doctrine\u2014a fictional doctrine, but a doctrine nevertheless\u2014because it envisions a future in which such actions would be considered morally reprehensible.<\/p>\n But, um, that brings us to a rather sticky problem. Sure, we all know the Prime Directive is nothing but a sweet lie to soothe the guilt-ridden soul, but the real problem with it is not that it\u2019s a complete fiction–the real problem is that it\u2019s based on outrageous & insidious racism.<\/p>\n Alright, fine! I admit it! My dad was a terrible racist! But before I publicly expose my revered father in this awful light, I\u2019d better take a break & try to remember exactly what any of this has to do with The Spirit Keeper.<\/em> I\u2019ll be right back . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my previous post I acknowledged that pretty much everything I\u2019ve ever read about historic Indians amounts to little more than lies. Knowing this, you might wonder how it is I felt qualified to write a book about historic Indians when I just admitted I can\u2019t possibly know the truth about historic Indians. Well, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kblaugheed.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}