Herodotus, credited as the Father of History, A contemporary of Thucydides, Socrates, and Euripides.

Tutankhamun.

Today we regret that following his reign (which involved the residue of Akhenaton’s then unpopular monotheistic innovations), Egyptians destroyed monuments dedicated to hi, his father and his mother, in an attempt to erase their history.

We lament that as we are in the midst of doing the same.

Book burnings and destruction of historical monuments and memorials as well as orchestrated mob events to preclude the exercise of free speech, all orchestrated and hailed with the indispensable assistance of a captive media, are not hallmarks of democratic or libertarian societies.  They are hallmarks of autocracies, fascist or otherwise; of intolerance and polarization.  Of the worst periods in human history, periods that presaged the arrival of dark ages.

That such activities are now purportedly undertaken in order to fight the very concepts they illustrate demonstrates just how prescient George Orwell was.  And how precarious our verisimilitude of democracy and liberty is.

Something to think about.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia although he has primarily lived in the United States of America (of which he is a citizen).  Until recently he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales.  He has academic degrees in political science (the Citadel), law (St. John’s University), international legal studies (New York University) and translation studies (the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies).  He can be contacted at wacalvo3@autonoma.edu.co or guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at http://www.guillermocalvo.com.