What we are taught in school is what is considered “safe” or “acceptable” for the masses
by Brent Peterson
In the news of “The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America” going on display at the Library of Congress it appears that Reuters is rather amazed by the map. Others also seem amazed that there is such accurate detail of regions not yet explored by Europeans in 1507 on the map. How a German monk named Martin Waldseemuller made these maps is simply a mystery according to the mainstream media.
I suppose that is better than calling the map a forgery as is often done with anything that violates the history we are taught in school. Usually it is far easier to declare something that doesn’t match to be untrue rather than to do the investigation and find out what is really lacking is one’s knowledge of the subject. It is not much different than what we see in the election campaign with regards to Ron Paul on subjects the other candidates haven’t done their homework on. Ron Paul is cast as a “kook” or what he talks about as “imaginary” simply because the critics don’t know or understand it. What we are taught in school is what is considered “safe” or “acceptable” for the masses. It is not information that will encourage critical thinking, but lessons that will reinforce that the world is what one is told it is. If they say that Europeans thought the world to be flat until Columbus sailed off to the islands around Cuba, that’s the way it was. That’s the acceptable history; a history that we are to believe is a slow progression from following game animals and picking berries to the technology we have today.
Advances in technology and knowledge are not that simple in the real world. It is all rather fragile. It takes effort to preserve it and advance it. If there are no rewards for that effort, advancement stops and what exists begins to decay. Not only that, there are always people who actively try to restrict knowledge to the few. Knowledge that is limited in who knows it is the most easily lost. Knowledge has to be spread far and wide to have the best chance at survival.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/peterson-brent1.html