This is great. I think celebrating our adventurers and the entire high trust society that permitted and supported these voyages is a great endeavor. I took a shot at Columbus last year but I bet you can do better. One thing I learned when writing this up is that Columbus a) discovered the Panama canal and had the vision for it b) he charted the wind and water currents of the Atlantic and of the Caribbean as well as mapping out the tides and currents in the Caribbean in addition to the coast. I also learned that a huge motivating factor for sea exploration was the Ottoman sack of Constantinople which closed the land based trade routes with the east. (https://periheliuslux.substack.com/p/celebrate-columbus-day)
One bone to pick on Odysseus. This is very important to us today. Odysseus tricked the cyclops into not being rescued by a fellow cyclops by telling the the cyclops his name was Nobody. When his buddy passed, the cyclops couldn't be rescued and thus Odysseus and his crew eaten, because when asked, "Who is there?", the cyclops replied, "Nobody."
This is the fatal mistake of Odysseus' conceit. Once escaped and with his crew on the ocean in anger and a moment of vanity he screamed at the Cyclops, I am Odysseus and taunted him. Thus the Cyclops complained to his father Poseidon and it was only because of Odysseus vanity and fool hardiness in his escape that Poseidon knew who harmed his son and thus who to torment on the seas. If Odysseus had not taunted in a hot-headed moment and just quietly made his escape he would have had a much easier journey home.
This is wisdom that will serve us at some victory or set of victories in the future. Great post. Thank you for doing this. I would love a whole series on our great navigators.
Thank you! One more thing and one more angle in why our Age of Oceanic Exploration is such a trove of morale building and source of rekindling our pride is this.
Last year at work, some shitlib on Slack said something about decolonizing time zones when I posted something with the time zone of GMT. So, of course, I looked up the history of GMT. It turns out that an Englishman in Greenwich, a brilliant scientist, was looking to get the most accurate and efficient shipping routes. It was a competitive endeavor amongst the European powers. So, he computed the mass of the earth and gave absolute precision to the latitude and longitude system.
So, European oceanic exploration, is inextricably bound to our exploits in space. This history is a vast trove highlighting the brilliance and daring and soul of our folk. Give us more and explain it from more angles. We need our sons and daughters to read these and take great pride and to remember what we have done before, we can do again.
Thanks once again for allowing me to write!
This is great. I think celebrating our adventurers and the entire high trust society that permitted and supported these voyages is a great endeavor. I took a shot at Columbus last year but I bet you can do better. One thing I learned when writing this up is that Columbus a) discovered the Panama canal and had the vision for it b) he charted the wind and water currents of the Atlantic and of the Caribbean as well as mapping out the tides and currents in the Caribbean in addition to the coast. I also learned that a huge motivating factor for sea exploration was the Ottoman sack of Constantinople which closed the land based trade routes with the east. (https://periheliuslux.substack.com/p/celebrate-columbus-day)
One bone to pick on Odysseus. This is very important to us today. Odysseus tricked the cyclops into not being rescued by a fellow cyclops by telling the the cyclops his name was Nobody. When his buddy passed, the cyclops couldn't be rescued and thus Odysseus and his crew eaten, because when asked, "Who is there?", the cyclops replied, "Nobody."
This is the fatal mistake of Odysseus' conceit. Once escaped and with his crew on the ocean in anger and a moment of vanity he screamed at the Cyclops, I am Odysseus and taunted him. Thus the Cyclops complained to his father Poseidon and it was only because of Odysseus vanity and fool hardiness in his escape that Poseidon knew who harmed his son and thus who to torment on the seas. If Odysseus had not taunted in a hot-headed moment and just quietly made his escape he would have had a much easier journey home.
This is wisdom that will serve us at some victory or set of victories in the future. Great post. Thank you for doing this. I would love a whole series on our great navigators.
Thanks man!
Thank you! One more thing and one more angle in why our Age of Oceanic Exploration is such a trove of morale building and source of rekindling our pride is this.
Last year at work, some shitlib on Slack said something about decolonizing time zones when I posted something with the time zone of GMT. So, of course, I looked up the history of GMT. It turns out that an Englishman in Greenwich, a brilliant scientist, was looking to get the most accurate and efficient shipping routes. It was a competitive endeavor amongst the European powers. So, he computed the mass of the earth and gave absolute precision to the latitude and longitude system.
So, European oceanic exploration, is inextricably bound to our exploits in space. This history is a vast trove highlighting the brilliance and daring and soul of our folk. Give us more and explain it from more angles. We need our sons and daughters to read these and take great pride and to remember what we have done before, we can do again.
I enjoyed reading this!
This used to be part and parcel of college 100 level Texas history classes. I doubt it is anymore.
I actually learned about this in my western American history class ironically but it was upper 300s lol