On Continuity and Change
Conquest is something which is universal to most societies, the only difference between the conquests of the societies being scale, e.g., a hypothetical primal society conquering a lion’s pride and taking over the area in which the lion’s pride resided would be a relatively small conquest, the second conquest of the Americas, and the peoples who inhabited them would be a relatively great conquest. Here, the concept of conquest provides great insight into the ideas of continuity and change throughout history; change, in this context, could aptly be described as those things which, owing to their relatively great scale, disrupt that which is viewed as fixed, e.g., the second conquest of the Americas is a conquest, just like the conquest of a lion’s pride is a conquest, but due to the relatively great scale of the second conquest of the Americas, it is something which disrupts that which is viewed as fixed.
Columbus’s arrival to the Americas and the subsequent second conquest of the Americas was an epoch-making event in that it ushered in a novus ordo seclorum, trans: a new order of the ages, an order in which Pangaea would be awakened from her slumber. But, before Pangaea would be awakened, ecological horror would be wrought upon the indigenous peoples of America by way of the Columbian Exchange, which is to say: ~90% of the indigenous population (~60 million) would die (~55 million) from disease which was brought from Europe between 1492 and 1600, leaving them with a population of ~5 million.
This is an example of a great change on the one hand: an entire society of people is almost completely destroyed, and replaced by a new society, the new society possesses a culture which is worlds apart from the culture possessed by the original society. The new society then becomes the heart of globalism, which is to say: a center for global industry, trade, and monoculture; it awakens Pangaea.
On the other hand, this is an example of great continuity: despite the two societies possessing cultures which are worlds apart, they also possess similarities which are only a hairbreadth apart, which is to say: despite their many differences, the two societies are able to mingle and get along — able to literally be a hairbreadth apart in the case of me and some of my great indigenous American friends — over time, and only after great tragedy, but nonetheless. I believe this speaks to what I believe to be one of humanity’s greatest strengths, that strength being: we are human and we recognize the humanity in other humans. In the end, our love, not our repulsion, is perennial.
