hookay, what i am gonna say next has got nothing to do with academic arrogance nor has it got any semblance to a blatant display of intellectual prowess. none whatsoever. but i feel the need to get it off my chest and purge it all out of my extremely disappointed faculty of reasoning in sheer desperation. if i don't do this (of what is to come next), i must cede to the fact that my years and years of passion for the history discipline will just crumble as if a sledgehammer of ignorance had struck with its unapologetic will upon it.
it's almost 1am on a tuesday morning right now, and you peeps out there must be thinking i must be bordering on the pathological or even a clinical condition to embark on what i will be saying next. but i bloody need to do this.
a msn chat with dora in the earlier part of the evening revealed our exasperation at the fact that ignorance and misinformation prevail all around us. not that it is a cardinal sin on its own if you truly have no idea where bandar seri begawan is; or if you believe that the grand ayatollah ali al-sistani of iraq is truly my living maternal grandfather who toppled the shah of iran and laid siege to the american embassy in tehran for 3 consecutive years just because the reagan administration had refused to supply Gap apparels to the iranian population.
my point is, when someone genuinely tries to correct your (mis)perceptions on a particular event or information, please, for the love of God, at least have an open cerebral faculty to process the possibilities that these corrections might hold some relative 'truths' - instead of shunning out these newfound 'truths' completely.
to draw a juxtaposition of what's muddling up my head right now, i take the liberty to paste an excerpt from one dora's (The Camel Diaries) postings:
5. Do not embarass yourself by not knowing the original artist of the song you pick. For example:
ACCEPTABLE = "Tonight, I'm going to sing Moondance by Van Morrison."
NOT ACCEPTABLE = "Tonight, I'm going to sing Moondance by Michael Buble."
It is generally agreed upon that Michael Buble is to jazz what Il Divo is to classical opera. So, if I hear one more person say, "I'm going to sing Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Michael Buble", I shall beat my chest, rend my clothes and will forever only play The Greatest Hits of Queen on my ipod.
going back to my case, i had the most tiresome debate with a friend over the weekend, desperately trying to bring to his attention that the movie "300", its events was loosely based on recorded historical analects by the famous ancient greek historian, herodotus (who is also by and large regarded as the first true historian to lay the distinct line between 'factual account' and 'accounts of myths and legends', thus providing the very foundation to a theoretical and analytical framework of approach to the discipline of history).
but sometimes, swift ignorance and rejection can inexplicably confound the very act of reason one may try to put across. i succumbed to sheer and unfettered trepidation when the same friend dismissed my earnest explanation when he said, "no, it's not history lah, it's just a story created by frank miller, he did vendetta also mah, where got history one?"
i could almost hear the wailing calls coming from the ghosts of my past history professors, lecturers and tutors... poor is the teacher whose student fails to shed the same offering of enlightenment unto others.
for the record, here are some historical facts:
1. sparta did exist as a fiercely independent army-state although it did assume a very minimal adoption of the hellenistic traditions
2. leonidas was a historically recognised monarch/king from the agiad lineage who reigned in 5th century b.c.
3. leonidas did lead his army of 300 men against the persian campaign to exact overlordship over greece led by xerxes (successor to darius the great)
4. the thespians and the thebans joined leonidas and his 300 men against the hundreds of thousands that made up the persian garrison
5. the persian wars took place in 480 b.c.
6. leonidas did consult the oracle at delphi before embarking on his mission (a very typical act carried out by any greek monarch before embarking on a war mission)
7. from recorded historical account, the oracle did auger two possibilities (i) sparta will be subjugated and razed to the ground or (ii) sparta will be saved but its king will perish - leonidas opted for the second option and went to war - which is a very typical hellenistic outlook which defined the concept of sovereignty and exercising the will of the state
8. leonidas and his men perished at the battle of thermopylae but not without inflicting considerable damage to the strength of the persian army
9. the persian campaign continued resulting in their nominal conquests of the ionian states
10. aristides formed the delian league and liberated the ionian states - the persian campaign was seriously weakened, resulting in the peace of callias where persia eventually agreed to signing a peace treaty with athens
but if you seriously and earnestly think it's all comic and fiction, i guess asterix was written from something 100% pulled out of rené goscinny's imaginative arse then. none of these actually existed cos it's only comics - visigoths, rome, gaius julius ceasar, gauls, corsica, cleopatra, druids, egypt, ptolemy, iberians, normans, vikings, the sphinx...and the list goes on.
whew... i think i can to bed now.
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