Post with the Most on Tom Paine's Ghost!

The competition is brewing up some interesting conversation. In contemplating her entry Kristianne of The Woolly Mamas writes in response to the Astronomist...

"I think exploring the analogous potential of cosmic re-ionization and the cultural renaissance is a brilliant idea. However, I would deduce that they are analogous because the periods of time they both succeeded have been mistakenly understood to be "dark" and empty and void of "knowing." I think it would be more interesting to argue that the smeary, rewritten, consciously contrived version of mediaeval history that has sunk deep in our collective cultural understanding is much like the time on Earth that preceded the first appearance of stars and galaxies, that both were periods of profound holism, unsensationally brimming with the foundations of all matter and knowledge--a richly saturated but star-less sky supplanted by glistening heavenly bodies in perfect geometry, and likewise fame-less monks who healed the cancerous and lame, premier decipherers of universal truths credited to later "light"-dwellers Copernicus and other great men of fame who's discoveries survived the careful revision and distortion attempts of the (re)written-record-makers."

~ I see what you are saying Kristianne. Useful knowledge has certainly emerged from unlikely places and often gone with no assigned credit. In the end you say (re)written-record-makers have made attempts to distort truths. I heartily agree with your assessment and see that as the beauty of living at this moment in history, where all literate people are the authors of history. Literacy has never been more essential for survival and your argument provides the reason. If only those in power write the record books they will be inevitably biased on the side of the superpower.  Our sustained ability to freely and openly communicate is the cytoskeleton of democracy.

Thank you for your wisdom and insight!