Blog Post for Week of September 23

I found our discussions on the film Conquest of Paradise to be very enlightening. Back in the day, when my sister was in this sequence, she would come home and discuss what she had learned or thought about in class. One of the novel ideas I heard from her was the concept of Columbus not being an all-around, great guy like I was used to thinking. Throughout my elementary and high school career I had typically been taught that Columbus was a nice dude, so what she was saying to match my mental description of him. Part of me always wondered how, if Columbus was not so great after all, the main line of thought taught in school was that he was a hero. Our discussion on this film, however, demonstrated how. The thoughts of most people are skewed or swayed based on media in any form, including films. This film portrays Columbus as a visionary hero, coinciding with my previous way of thinking. I realized that films like this are what perpetuates theories, dare I say myths, about history, and in this case Columbus specifically. It made me think about how films, books, and much more can be used to stifle the truth and hide what may have really gone on. That's why I found this film discussion so interesting, as it helped me realize the influence media has on our society and way of thinking.

Comments

  1. Emma RoseSeptember 23, 2021 at 12:34 PM

    I completely agree with your idea that media has a strong influence in the way we think. This movie was made to reshape history to fit what is taught in American textbooks. I think that it is immoral to continue to perpetuate false historical information, rather than acknowledge the past and learn from it. This US society has a strange trend to not acknowledge past injustices in education or media. It is always either covered up or unacknowledged. It has created a complex in many citizens to believe that our country can do no wrong.

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  2. Ben KaczmarSeptember 24, 2021 at 9:42 AM

    I think that it's really neat that you had a sibling in the sequence before. A lot of the viewpoints that you heard about in the past probably make more sense now. Media really does play an impactful role in how we understand history, including in previous centuries. Most of this is a result of people hiding something or protecting their self-image. Something that is hard to think about is the thought that this trend of media adaptation will continue in the future for pretty much as long as humans exist. People will naturally want to protect themselves and hide things that reflect poorly on themselves.

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  3. Professor StarkSeptember 26, 2021 at 9:08 AM

    Thank you, Joe, for the post. I like what you wrote about Columbus being a visionary hero but wondered what you meant by this. How else might media influence our way of thinking?

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