We know how distorted a fact can become, even when passed through the mouths of a generation of fairly well educated people; how much more, then, must truths be twisted into myths at the hands of savages and barbarians through the ages. Sometimes it seems to me that there might be a blind spot in our conception of history and prehistory a whole undiscovered continent of facts, lying beyond our horizon; a vast, forgotten reservoir of knowledge, of which our modern sciences are but seepings, trickles from the greater store. I do not, of course, even put this forward as a supposition, but merely as a thought.
- Robert E. Howard, letter to Clark Ashton Smith, March 1934
I don't know how or why these messages keep getting deleted, but it's starting to concern me. I'm presuming there's some moderator at Blogger that does this, or perhaps some automated system. Who knows. I'll have to look into it. Let it be known that I do not delete any of my comments, no matter how much I disagree or am offended by them.
Another deleted comment came in my inbox today, this time involving my discussion of
rampant Afrocentrism. So I've been accused of sexism, now it only follows I be accused of racism as well. I was afraid something like this would happen: fringe theories always bring the crazies, but there's an extra element to Afrocentrism that adds a level of racial discussion to proceedings, i.e. that this is a result of The Man keeping down the brothers by reducing the role of black people in history. No doubt there are possibly incidents of this happening, but I seriously doubt it's to the extent that
an entire nation of black people was "whitewashed." Such a thing would be impossible to cover up or ignore.
And, of course, one cannot make the argument against, say, Ancient Egypt as being black without being branded a racist by that particular section. I have little time for such arguments, since there's simply no arguing with them. Being a white chap, there's no way to convince someone who's convinced that I'm racist that I'm not. I can talk about my love of the many colourful cultures of Africa till the
ngombe come home, but all that is naught to the mind of the crazed.
I can sympathize. I too have suffered from fixation on the negative aspects of something, such as the less savoury comments in
... And Their Memory Was A Bitter Tree, and the other otherwise glowing introductions to books on or relating to Howard. However, I also endeavour to point out the good elements in such cases, where present. Unfortunately, the latest "Message Deleted" case doesn't appear to have that courtesy.
