I was recently told by one True Believer / Defender of the Myth that he would never read any of my books ‘on principle’. I asked him if that was the ‘principle of not wanting to learn anything about the Boer War’, and he got very angry… which is pretty much the go-to response when they feel their treasured myths are being questioned.
It might amaze my entertaining gaggle of detractors to learn that, once upon a time, I also believed a lot of the myths which they still so dearly cherish… but then – unlike them – I started reading about the war, and doing research. It didn’t take long before it became obvious to me that the commonly-spouted version of the Boer War is rubbish.
Anyway, in a (no doubt forlorn) attempt to convince one or two True Believers to open their eyes and minds, and actually start thinking for themselves, I thought I’d offer a few motivational quotes:
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” ― Isaac Asimov
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin
“It does take great maturity to understand that the opinion we are arguing for is merely the hypothesis we favor, necessarily imperfect, probably transitory, which only very limited minds can declare to be a certainty or a truth.” ― Milan Kundera
“People who make up their minds about something never listen to advice – especially when it’s to the contrary.” ― Steven Erikson
“So many it seems, have made it their life’s goal to bask in the ignorance of their certainty.” ― John Chaplin
“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, is like administering medicine to the dead.” ― Thomas Paine
“The most fatal illusion is the settled point of view. Since life is growth and motion, a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one.” ― Brooks Atkinson
“The ego is what drives a self-serving individual who hates to admit they are wrong.” ― Suzy Kassem
“A mind set in its ways is wasted. Don’t do it.” ― Eric Schmidt
And we will finish off with one which is especially germane for all those clowns who jump on Quora and Facebook to passionately spout their rubbish… yet only succeed in displaying how little they’ve read about the war:
“One’s opinion should only be as strong as one’s knowledge on the matter.” ― Eric Hirzel
3 Comments
Here is another one for you ….;
Yet there is one very important fact that is ignored on a constant basis when listing all the perpetrators of the past. Apartheid’s name pops up as regular as a clock. Now my question is, what about colonialism? The Afrikaners suffered greatly under the British Empire not to mention the horrors of the Anglo Boer War from 1899 – 1902 where 34 000 innocent Afrikaner woman and children died like flees in concentration camps and they were transported like cattle in open train trucks. On top of that 28 000 black woman and children also died in separate concentration camps not by choice of the Afrikaners, but by British orders (That was way before apartheid). Up till now absolute no regrets or any apologies from the Brits or any Englishmen, simply a deafening silence.
The British Empire ruled from 1795 – 1947 and the Afrikaner from 1948 – 1993. Yet all the atrocities of the past are dumped collectively on the shoulders of apartheid. All the wrong doings of the past in South Africa is dumped as regular as clock work on apartheid’s shoulders. Why? Is it to complicated to discern between British and Afrikaner guilt or is it simply a question of historical convenience?
As Afrikaner I admit my part of the past. The very same should be done by the English. Everything is not apartheid’s mistake. Colonialism played a massive role in the shaping of the Afrikaner mindset, not giving them the right to implement apartheid. Yet what shaped the Brits to rule the world in the most horrendous way taking into account that they started slavery and also put an end to it. Their foot prints of injustice lay all over the world with many atrocities and horrors that are shaded in silence
https://dailyfriend.co.za/2021/07/02/prof-modiris-straw-man-defence-of-crt/
I would love to see references which support that the British Empire ‘started slavery’.
Has this moron never heard of Ancient Egypt? the Roman Empire?
Is he really unaware of the fact that the Great Trek(s) of the 1830s were largely caused by the ‘wicked’ British banning slavery in their Empire, thus prompting a few thousand die-hards to head off inland so they could continue their ‘God given right’ to retain slaves?
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