by José de la Isla Hispanic Link News Service
HOUSTON – Some ancient history might help us get a perspective on a contemporary situation. Here goes:
Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe went into a long dormant period. With it went an intellectual tradition that had begun with the ancient Greeks and had persisted into Roman times, from roughly 44 B.C. until about 476 A.D. Previously, scientific and engineering and social knowledge had been the basis for understanding all sorts of change and progress. Now, a millennium of very slow or no development followed, called the Dark Ages.
For instance, Aristarchus of Samos (310 BC Ð ca. 230 BC) had already formulated eighteen hundred years before Copernicus (1473-1543) that the earth was a round planet moving within a complex system. But a disbelieving public and policy centers could not absorb those scientific possibilities. Magical thinking was more important.
After a thousand years, the Dark Ages ended when superstitious thinking and legends had to give way to systematic thinking and discovery, called the Enlightenment, which also brought us the modern concept of science and knowledge. History became a progression of events instead of stringing myths together. But old habits are hard to break, even when they are staring you in the face.
For instance, in 1751, nearly three centuries after the Dark Ages had ended, French philosopher Denis Diderot published the Encyclopedia as a monument to the age of reason, wisdom and knowledge. In it, “America,” whose exploration had begun two and a half centuries before, occupied a quarter of a page. Not until years later was a Supplement printed containing 19 pages about the continent.
This shows how the obvious can be overlooked when people are obsessed with their closed-mindedness. Today, we have, by many who never cared before, the phenomenon of having discovered Latinos and are trying to go from a quarter page to 19 pages. The reason is obvious.
The motivation for the sudden attention given Latinos is the realization that Hispanic voters increased by two million from the 2004 to the 2008 presidential election. The number of non-Hispanic white voters was not statistically different from 2004. The sudden enlightenment, for instance, like the Feb. 16 launch of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, is less about conservative values but self-interest and marketing outreach.
Washington Times blogger Thomas Peters reported as much in his interview with spokesperson Alfonso Aguilar who said his group would focus on educating conservatives about Hispanic values (as if Hispanics are not mostly already integrated into society) and about immigration (which in power centers means defining Latinos as “outsiders”). Aguilar acknowledged to Peters “many conservatives may not come out in support of reform immediately but that as the Hispanic vote continues to increase, they will see the demographic necessity to back reform.”
But the transparent statement shows it is not about enlightenment but a gimmick. It is not about “principles” but marketing.
Wayne Besen, founder of a non-profit group that debunks anti-gay misrepresentations and myths, says that the Latino Conservative Principles organizer Robert P. George has a “primary talent, it seems, is to trick the unschooled and easily fooled,” in this case other conservatives. That kind of hocus-pocus takes us back to the Dark Ages, when sophistry, fake religion, magic, anti-progress schemes, encouraged many Sorcerers’ apprentices.
You can see in its post-modern form, how a wart of frog, deceptive intentions and ignorance of Latino civic history don’t add up to good principals. It might work for fundraising purposes but it looks like a trick bag to enroll Latinos into somebody else’s political agenda.
In other words, like the Dark Ages, there seems to be a movement afoot by those who don’t know to tell others in a quarter page all about the half millennium of Hispanic values and reducing it all to tiring political wedge issues, cherry-picked platitudes andÑschizam!!!—Now you see the principles, now you don’t.
