Reality Check.

Author: ilegal
Date: 11-27-00 10:32

Gary:
History is always distorted. I am not sure what sources you draw information from. As primitive as the Aztecs were their cities were more spectacular at its time than any city in Europe. Look what Bernal Diaz del Castillo an actual Spanish explorer said when he witneesed the magnificent Tenochtitlan:

All about us we saw cities and villages built in the water, their great towers and buildings of masonry rising out of it… When I beheld the scenes around me I thought within myself, this was the garden of the world. And of all the wonders I beheld that day, nothing now remains. All is overthrown and lost."

– Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of Cortes' men in The Conquest of New Spain. History can only be fair and just and based on factual information. There is no place for personal opinions or wrongly arbitrary opinions from scholars not based on facts.

-Slavey is not something any culture can be proud of, Interestingly enough it was a greek phylosopher " Aristotle," who validated this idea for Europeans. So much for "individuality and human rights" and the basis of democracy the Greek have given us. We should all be ashamed for who our teachers have been.

-Individuality is such an abused term in the United States, everything ends up in court. Look at the Election's for presidency chair for 2000. Such a joke, this democracy term is in America. African Amricans were not given the right to vote 'til the 60's when Martin Luther King fought for that right. Can I ask when women were given the rigt to vote in the USA. Let's be real.

- The monarchy of Spain, England, an Japan. It still as primitive in the 21st Century as it was for the Aztecs. Look who implements in our lifetime. Advanced, fist world nations. LONG LIVE THE KING!!

The Mesoamerican cultures, can be compare to the most advanced cultures in History like the Greeks: because they were very advanced astronomers, engineers, architects, mathematicians, and writers. I believe the Aztec calendar is writing. I don't know where you go the idea that the Aztecs did not have a form of writing. In addition, if you were to go to Palenque, Tikal, Copan, tenochtitlan. There are buildings that have all the history engraved in stone. We have number of archeologist deciphering the history directly from the building's writing.

In addition, the concept of zero was introduced by the mesoamerican cultures. All the advanced algebra and mathemathics broke in principle and not longer practical with the introduction of zero. This was the "Eurpoean and Greek" math. I guess the Europeans were not as advanced as you think they were. In engineering, mathematics, and physics we use special math to deal with the concept of zero. A mathematician can develop a whole infrastructure of math working with the actual principle of zero. Let's remember that as our physical world shrinks to micro levels, physiscs has to develop and use all the samre framewrok of zero "in terms of approaching a limit to zero (-infinity, +Infinity) to be able to make sense of the "micro physical atomic forces and energy."

After all, what would our modern culture be withouth binary math. Computers operate on this principle which is "0" and "1". On and off switching. I guess we do owe Mesoamerican cultures a great deal. Let's recognize that, honor it, and respect it.

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