So who was Christopher Columbus? In the ongoing mythology of “Justification for Conquest” Columbus is an explorer and “Discoverer” of the “New World.” This is what is taught in elementary schools in the United States even today. But as Ward Churchill says in the film: “The Canary Effect,” “How do you 'discover' a place that is already occupied by a huge population?” this is true in all respects. When Columbus landed in the West Indies there was a population, cities, towns, agriculture; all the aspects of a thriving civilization. Churchill likens it to: “...what if I came to your house, I'd never been there before, and I knock on your door, you answer it and I tell you that I now lay claim to your house, your neighborhood and all your goods?” For me this is it in a nutshell. In Columbus' mind, if they did not speak one of the European languages, then they were not a people. Their towns did not exist even when they were right in front of Columbus' eyes. This kind of logic is only possible in the minds of psychopaths. When one reads Chapter Six in Stannard's text: “American Holocaust.” it's becomes clear that Christopher Columbus is a psychopath.
Like all psychopaths, Columbus had a manifesto. The: “Imago Mundi” According to Stannard, the”Imago Mundi” Written in the mid-1400's by Catholic Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. It was a combination of horoscope, astrology and commentary on the mechanisms of the universe filled with incorrect science; Columbus used this text as his key to predicting the “End of the World.” Columbus' cosmology of course favored “Christians” and as proven by the atrocities committed by the invaders; did not count non-Christians as fully human.
Stannard says that Columbus thought, “...he had discovered-with the Lord's guidance, or course-King Solomon's mines, and it was this gold that would launch the crusade that would bring on the end of the world.” The Text says that, “...,some modern observers have claimed, Columbus was demented, or at least had been at sea too long.” After quoting his description of the Earth as being shaped like a “woman's teat...” But an earlier quote shows his sanity: “But I am completely persuaded in my own mind that the Terrestrial Paradise in the place I have described.” Absolutely. I was a terrestrial paradise to those who were the caretakers of the paradise. For 15th century Europeans the biblical paradise was a garden. But where Columbus was demented and psychopathic was how he was able to justify his taking of another person's property. In Europe at the time of Columbus property rights, at least those of the rich; were law. It's not surprising that Columbus sounds like a bank robber, or a terrorist. He is talking about committing crime and taking life to support his cause. And his cause comes out of his preoccupation with the unseen.
Christopher Columbus claimed all his actions for Christ. But here is another place where Columbus was a psychopath. His religion teaches tolerance, forgiveness, non-aggressive behavior. So just like the question of property that was right in front of his eyes; so were the Christian texts prohibiting what he was doing daily. That is violate and steal from innocent people. He was able to compartmentalize all his concepts and “realities,” All this so he could continue to enrich himself and ascribe it to a higher purpose. So he is definitely a psychopath, but he is also one of many known as “Crusaders.” Those who gave themselves nobility by invading the middle east and taking the property of others. The Indigenous people of the Americas were not able to mount a defense of their realm as did the Muslims. Obviously the Arabs did not have the problem with European diseases after centuries of Mediterranean trade, and the peoples of the middle east where on par with the weaponry and type of warfare practiced by the Europeans. In my opinion they were better suited to deal with psychopaths like Columbus.
I would like to end with Christopher Columbus' psychopath nature. He obviously had apocalyptic ideas. He was able to bring about destruction of a world that had existed in sustainability for countless millennium. He was able to convince himself that the horrors he was bringing upon innocent people, was for their own good. He kept a manifesto of secret knowledge that only he understood. But he was not alone. He was but one the thousands of Europeans who were willing to commit any crime against their own consciences to get money. One the big reasons for this kind of national/continental psychosis has to be the capitalist system of western monarchies. The poor suffered and lived a hard life deprived of resources; while the few at the top lived in opulence. So once the members of that unjust society found a people with no fences, no culture of murder and taking of resources; they were all agreed it was justified. It was justified the same way Christopher Columbus justified it. Non-European Christians where not “.. even descended from Adam and Eve, but from separate and inferior progenitors.” according to the philosopher Paracelsus in Stannard. So not only was Christopher Columbus a psychopath, but he came from a whole continent of psychopaths. Who were all made that way through greed and oppression.
