April-ish Post

I thought that I'd add some more of my thoughts on Amitava Kumar's poem "History", because it actually relates to my experience with reading Atomic Aztex. I wish that I came to more specific conclusion, but these are important questions for those of us involved in activism of any kind to think about.

Clearly, violence plays a huge role in whether a culture is wide-spread or repressed. Since the governments of European and American nations decided that owning more land and controlling more resources was worth massacres and the hatred of several generations of native peoples, colonization increased dramatically, and as a result, many of these colonized cultures are permeated with what many call 'whiteness'. Imperialism decided how culture was going to develop, how "history is taught in schools" according to Kumar's poem; but Atomic Aztex invites us to imagine a world in which the Aztecs of South America defeated the Spanish conquistadores and set about conquering Europe. Notice that the imperialism hasn't changed; only the group doing the colonizing has.

What I'm wondering is: do either or both of these works offer a hypothesis as to why humans feel the need to ensure that their culture becomes dominant? Is is narcissism, simply because it's theirs? Or do they percieve that their way of life is somehow more effective? The new history of Atomic Aztex is just different, not necessarily better. Christianity, in this revised world, is a minority religion thought inferior by those in power, who are polytheistic. How much does this really contribute to reducing conflict, bringing people together, making trade fair or envisioning a better world, though? It doesn't. Superiority/inferiority complexes create tension, and tension begins this battle for dominance that colonization of 'colored' nations by 'white' nations represents in our global history.

Kumar's poem seems to be suggesting that we can slowly begin to combat inequality by ensuring that both sides are heard, that a more complete history is taught in schools. This emphasis on the power of education; people usually become racist because they are taught such beliefs by their parents. Racism will end when it is no longer taught, but there's a Catch-22; people have to stop believing in it to stop teaching it. The poem also suggests that a lot of this drive for colonization is economic by illustrating a "conflict of interests" between a peasant and a king, which of course is executed through violence. However it leaves us there, with the questions and no suggested answers; it points out a reality that appears unsolvable.

Atomic Aztex supplies a possible resolution by illustrating how important religion and the power of belief are. If all of humanity, regardless of religious doctrine, believed a few simple things (such as that all humans are equal as a species, color is not relevant, merit is; violence solves nothing) then the epidemic of superior/inferior and colonization might be avoided. It subverts not only history and the very idea of what a "novel" is, but also somehow evokes the question: how are human hearts and minds really influenced? and why is difference such a thing to be afraid of?