critical review ke 3

Howard Zinn More Priority to Ideology than Morrison

Introduction

Howard Zinn was a historian and wrote the legendary book, entitled “A People’s History of the United States”.  Zinn book certainly is the courage to reveal the dark side of the history of the new continent.  Samuel Elliot Marison also told about history of Columbus.  Samuel Elliot Marison not the slightest lie about Columbus cruelty.  He even called the sailors have committed genocide in Indian Arawaks. But Zinn said about the fact that exalts the greatness of the sailors that decision to be telling a heroism and negligence on the emphasis the fact that the mass killings happened in Arawaks Indians is not a technical requirement mapmaker style, but purely ideological choice. Zinn says, an ideological choice to justify what has happened.  Why Howard Zinn look an ideology is a history?

Summary

Ideology is mind set of Howard Zinn to look the history of Columbus.  Howard Zinn though that ideology can be connection by history, because a history is a part of ideologies.  Ideology can be embedded because of literacy.  Literacy is never neutral, like the thing with history.  History is always changed from time to time.  In the past, present, future always changed.  History explained by a text.  With a text, all people can explore their ideas, experience, and knowledge.  We are the being of social. Literacy is a technological by learned, is not always easy to learn, not always offered to all people, and shaped in different ways in different contexts and situations.   Zinn is actually nothing more than a boxer from a different ring. If Morison wrote of glasses winner, Zinn was the mouthpiece of the losers.  Ziin explain about continent of America from Arawaks Indian glasses. 

Main Body (Critique)

Peeling a little about ideology by Teun A.Van Dijk:

a.       Ideologies are cognitive

b.      Ideologies are social

c.       Ideologies are socio cognitive

d.      Ideologies are not “true” or “false”

e.       Ideologies may have various degrees of complexity

f.       Ideologies have contextually variable manife stations

g.      Ideologies are general and abstract

Ideology is the basic framework of social cognition with members of the group with a selection of relevant social and cultural of value​​ and organized by the ideological schema that represents the definition of the group. In addition to social functions, ideology has the function of cognitive organization of social representations. Thus indirectly related to the practical monitoring social groups, and therefore also a member of text can speak.

Howard Zinn looks the text as an ideology.  In discourse semantic and ideology by Teun A.Van Dijk explained about ideology.  Ideologies are cognitive, focus looking for an idea, mind, confidence, judging and values.   Likewise with Howard Zinn lookimg for the history as an ideology is always thinking and search brilliant idea.  Ideology will produce a meaning potential or referred to semogenesis. 

Semogenesis, creating of meaning, promoted by Halliday&Matthiessen (1999) as “guidance” to the people can created a new meaning.  Semogenesis is a term Halliday&Matthiessen (1999:17) created to referring with creation of meaning.  Meaning continues to be created, transmitted, extended, and modified (1999:18) the process operates in each dimension or time frame. 

Ziin look the ideology with the manner of a history.  History is something is really different and always changed every time.  Zinn wrote, if history is to be creative to anticipate a possible feature without denying the past, it should, I believe.  Emphasize new possiblitities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when even if in brief flashes, people showed their abiity to resist, to join together, occasionally to win.  I am supposing or perhaps only hoping, that our future maybe found in the past’s fugitive moments of compassion rathe than in its solid centuries of warfore.  That being as blunt as I can, is my approach to the history of the United States.  The reader may as well know that before going on.

History is a part of literacy.  Why sentence appear like this?  Because history is a require a particular literacy strategy.   Chaedar Al Wasilah say, literacy is never neutral.  Mikko Lehtonen say, Literacy is a social activity by character.  It is same the something with history.  History never neutral and always changed every time like the sentence in above.  In literacy is a part of history.  And history derived from a text.  Lehtonen say, text is an artefact.  The meaning is material form text reflects the current state of nature.  History is explained about experience, the event of now, and in the future.  Same thing with Howard Zinn explained about inventor of America continent. 

History called that America continent the first found by Chistoper Columbus.  It become common knowledge that all the sons of men on earth.  But, various literature and proofs of physical form inscriptions, manuscripts and other news mentions, Columbus was not the inventor of the Americas.  He is explained about Chistoper Columbus, that Columbus never arrived in America continent.  Because 70 year before Columbus arrived in America, he thought mainland china, that is muslim from China, named is Ceng Ho (Zheng He) arrived in America.  Even centuries before Ceng Ho, Muslim sailors from Spain and West Africa have made the villages in the America and peacefully assimilated with the local population there.  Not Columbus the inventor of America, the inventor of America is Muslims.  They were married by population, Indian people, thus becoming part of American genius and local. 

The real reason Columbus go to sailing.  Because Columbus raping the daughter of one of the Spanish nobleman who was aged 13 years.  Columbus arrived in India, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.  The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold? He had persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance an expedition to the lands, the wealth, he expected would be on the other side of the Atlantic-the Indies and Asia, gold and spices. For, like other informed people of his time, he knew the world was round and he could sail west in order to get to the Far East.  Columbus came in India the purpose is the gold and slave.   On Haiti, they found that the sailors left behind at Fort Navidad had been killed in a battle with the Indians, after they had roamed the island in gangs looking for gold, taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor.  It is the crime behavior. 

In his popular book Christopher Columbus, Mariner, written in 1954, he tells about the enslavement and the killing: "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."  Morison sums up his view of Columbus:   He had his faults and his defects, but they were largely the defects of the qualities that made him great-his indomitable will, his superb faith in God and in his own mission as the Christ-bearer to lands beyond the seas, his stubborn persistence despite neglect, poverty and discouragement. But there was no flaw, no dark side to the most outstanding and essential of all his qualities-his seamanship.

One can lie outright about the past. Or one can omit facts which might lead to unacceptable conclusions. Morison does neither. He refuses to lie about Columbus. He does not omit the story of mass murder; indeed he describes it with the harshest word one can use: genocide.  Zinn wrote different versions of history; history from the point of view of those lost, aka the loser. Be it tells the story of the discovery of America from the perspective of the Indians Arawaks, of the Civil War as experienced by the Irish in New York, about the first World War seen from the Socialist party, and of the conquest of the Philippines by black soldiers on Luzon.

Conclusion

Howard Zinn not told about the fact of Columbus, because Zinn view Columbus with the glasses as a looser.  Whereas, Morison not lied about the cruel of Columbus that the real reason Columbus go to sailing.  Because Columbus raping the daughter of one of the Spanish nobleman who was aged 13 years.  Howard Zinn looks the history of Columbus with ideology.  History derived from text.  Comprehend a text including literacy.  Literacy will change mind-set the people and Ideology will produce meaning potential or semogenesis.  Finally, Howard Zinn and Morison have the different mind-set about Columbus.

References:

Dijk, A.van Teun, “Discourse Semantics and Ideology”: University of Amsterdam, [online], (http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Discourse%2520semantics%2520and%2520ideology.pdf accessed on 12 March 2014 at 15.30)

Tench, Paul, “Process of Semogenesis in English Intonation”: Cardiff University, Wales, Uk, [online], http://redirect.cf.ac.uk/encap/contactsandpeople/academic/tench/pdf/processes_of_semogenesi... accessed on 12 March 201 at 16.00)

Lehtonen, Mikko, “The Culture of Analysis of Texts”. New Delhi: SAGE Publications

Alwasilah, A.Chaedar, “Pokoknya Rekayasa Literasi”. Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia: kiblat

http://jakartabeat.net/kolom/konten/howard-zinn-dan-sejarah-orang-orang-kalah accessed on 13 March at 14.15