Today’s Topic Is About History
Watch today’s recommended TED at: https://www.ted.com/talks/farish_ahmad_noor_why_is_colonialism_still_romanticized?language=zh-cn#t-725178
The speaker is a history professor, specialized on post-colonial subjects of south-east Asia. There are still huge conflicts about whether impacts of colonies are overall advantageous or disadvantageous. The professor, as well as I, thinks that we cannot embellish colonies as something benevolent or nice. The major parts of colonies are still dark and ruthless. In my opinion, colonial behavior is driven by profits and therefore, what colonizers did was not for residents in colonies but for their own benefits. When benefits of colonizers and residents came into conflict, in most of the times, residents had nothing to do but surrender. It is undeniable that some settlers in colonies did something nice and kind, like helping sick local people, etc., but colonization is evil and bloody in general.
All of these things have had an important impact on history. Colonization still has huge impacts on south-east Asia nowadays, like how local people represent themselves, what they think about their past and history, and how they interact with people from countries which colonized them in the past.
Jump out of the box and have independent thinking. This is important for not only professors, but also each individual in the society. Independent thinking helps to distinguish reasonable views between just rumors and to form one’s own historical views and world views. Of course, to be an independent thinker needs some reading and thinking, it doesn’t require people to become experts in related fields, just be cautious about everyone’s ideas, even if he/she is the most informative guy, and compare different ideas on the same issues. More acceptance of new ideas (not necessarily the correct ideas) and critical thinking help the society to get rid of stereotypes and move forward in history.
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