Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Rerevising Revisionist History

It is not unusual that a statement loses its original meaning over time. One great example of this change over the ages is a famous assertion by Rene Descarte in 17th Century France. The phrase, 'Cogito ergo sum', is correctly translated, 'I think, therefore, I am'. But, had you been around France within that era of the Enlightenment, you would know that this phrase is really just a common abbreviation of Cartesian philosophy.

The original statement was, 'Cogito ergo sum politicus conservare.' Accurately translated from the Latin, this yields, 'I think, therefore, I am a political conservative.'

I normally don't like to share this information in public. Usually, when I do, there are several Leftists present that claim that Descarte is just another example of a Northern European White male (W.A.S.P. was popular 30 years ago) attempting to justify and validate the dominance of Northern European White males over women and minorities.

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