12-16-2005, 01:07 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->i never realised i'd be getting the sort of answers i got in her next two posts WRT my germanii-alemanii post.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Sorry, I'd read what you wrote on germannii-alemanii, but didn't know you'd wanted a response to it. In case you don't mind a late reply:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->the celts are colonisers too.
...though the celts were less barbarian than the germanics they certainly were no civilizations. just had a druidic tradition. and though they werent the ruthless colonials the germanic anglosaxons, dutch and the flemish belgians were, they certainly were not good samaritans. one only has to look at france's colonial crimes and the number of irish people in usa, living off the lands of the red indians.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The colonisers were all Christians and had been Christian for centuries by that time. It doesn't matter that their ancestors were Celtic (or Germanic) at all. Christianity robs people of their identities. Just look at the Indian Christians in our North-East, they are barely recognisable in their behaviour as descendants of their ancestors.
The religion and culture of the Celts had become extinct due to Christianity. So the colonisations you spoke of - those of France and those of the Irish in the US - were by Christians, who had long ago ceased to be Celts in all but ethnicity. As I said, it's ideology that directs and drives behaviour, not ethnicity.* Just like Hindus and Hindu culture can't be blamed for the actions of Muslim and Christian Indians, it's not logical to blame 'the Celts' for the colonial crimes of their ethnic descendants who aren't Celtic culturally or religion-wise.
Similarly, during the centuries of colonisation, the colonisers from North-West Europe were all Christian. The nearly extinct Germanic religion of their ancestors (alive only in pockets of Iceland) had nothing to do with their actions. Christianity, on the other hand, did.
*Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says that "The faith of a man follows his nature, Arjuna. Man is made of faith: as his faith is so he is."
My personal interpretation: The first bit explains that the the beliefs of an individual are determined by his unique nature. The second implies that a person's behaviour is governed by those beliefs. We must choose to believe what is good and right, so we will be guided to do what is good and right.
Well, take care, Ben Ami.
Satyarthi,
thanks <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->the celts are colonisers too.
...though the celts were less barbarian than the germanics they certainly were no civilizations. just had a druidic tradition. and though they werent the ruthless colonials the germanic anglosaxons, dutch and the flemish belgians were, they certainly were not good samaritans. one only has to look at france's colonial crimes and the number of irish people in usa, living off the lands of the red indians.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The colonisers were all Christians and had been Christian for centuries by that time. It doesn't matter that their ancestors were Celtic (or Germanic) at all. Christianity robs people of their identities. Just look at the Indian Christians in our North-East, they are barely recognisable in their behaviour as descendants of their ancestors.
The religion and culture of the Celts had become extinct due to Christianity. So the colonisations you spoke of - those of France and those of the Irish in the US - were by Christians, who had long ago ceased to be Celts in all but ethnicity. As I said, it's ideology that directs and drives behaviour, not ethnicity.* Just like Hindus and Hindu culture can't be blamed for the actions of Muslim and Christian Indians, it's not logical to blame 'the Celts' for the colonial crimes of their ethnic descendants who aren't Celtic culturally or religion-wise.
Similarly, during the centuries of colonisation, the colonisers from North-West Europe were all Christian. The nearly extinct Germanic religion of their ancestors (alive only in pockets of Iceland) had nothing to do with their actions. Christianity, on the other hand, did.
*Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says that "The faith of a man follows his nature, Arjuna. Man is made of faith: as his faith is so he is."
My personal interpretation: The first bit explains that the the beliefs of an individual are determined by his unique nature. The second implies that a person's behaviour is governed by those beliefs. We must choose to believe what is good and right, so we will be guided to do what is good and right.
Well, take care, Ben Ami.
Satyarthi,
thanks <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->