VIP Class Notes (Tony) [W]

Vocabulary

he got fired up

he’s a gay

the world does not revolve around you, you are not the center of the universe

his concept of religion is a little skewed

eavesdropping – intentionally listening to a conversation that is not yours, or you are not involved in

eg: Were you eavesdropping? Why were you listening to our private conversation?

eg: Sorry, I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I couldn’t help overhearing you.

What is your chosen Pronoun? – referring to gender identity or gender fluid people

eg: Politically Correct speech can be confusing sometimes, you might have to ask which preferred pronoun they want to be called by.

orbit – curved path that objects move around, usually a central object in the middle.      2.   within area of control, like a powerful country

eg: The colonies within England’s orbit all eventually became free.

status quo – how things are now, and accepted

eg: It’s always hard to change the status quo.

Christopher Columbus is a great navigator and a hero from geography discovery’s perspective. From my perspective, no matter he was the first person who discovered the “New World” or not, he still deserves compliments due to his extraordinary courage and insight to take so many “unknown journeys”. However, I will not deny that he was a capitalist, a slaver and a murder at the same time basing on verified historical records.

Does above mentioned fact contradict with each other? My answer is no. We just judge him from different perspectives. Even though I agree that he was not a moral model in our society for sure, I will not give him negative comments so easily. It is not realistic to request a person to think and behave transcending the specific society and culture. Due to the limitation on the knowledge of an individual, the development of a society and the evolution of consciousness, our thoughts and behaviors are always connected with the current status of the society.

Of course, we have innovators, who may have and introduce new ideas or new concepts into the society. Such ideas or concepts might be proved to be progressive and accepted later by more and more people then finally become generally accepted concepts. But you cannot require all people, who make contributions in different areas to be innovators at the same time. Same for Columbus, if our compliment regarding his contribution on seafaring will be deduced, because his behaviors did not meet the current social standards, we might be too idealistic. How could you know that he would not follow our standards and be a moral model, if he lived in our society?

Christopher Columbus was a great navigator and a hero from a geographical discovery perspective. From my perspective, whether he was the first person who discovered the “New World” or not, he still deserves recognition due to his extraordinary courage and insight to take so many “unknown journeys”. However, I will not deny that he was a capitalist, a slaver and a murderer at the same time based on verified historical records.

Do the above mentioned facts contradict each other? My answer is no. We just judge him from different perspectives. Even though I agree that he was not a moral model in our society for sure, I will not make negative comments about him so easily. It is not realistic to request a person to think and behave transcending the specific society and culture. Due to the limitation of knowledge of an individual, the development of a society and the evolution of consciousness, our thoughts and behaviors are always connected with the current status quo of the society.

Of course, we have innovators, who may introduce new ideas or new concepts into the society. Such ideas or concepts might prove to be progressive and accepted later by more and more people. Then finally become the status quo. But you cannot require all people, who make contributions in different areas to be innovators at the same time. Same for Columbus, if our recognition regarding his contribution to seafaring will be minimized, because his behaviors did not meet the current social standards, we might be too idealistic. How could you know that he would not follow our standards and be a moral model, if he lived in our society?

Grammar

he’s a gay (adj.)