What lessons have we learned from Covid-19 about learned and unlearned helplessness of being conquered?
Reading a blog titled: I Am Victim, and a novel titled The Lost City of Monkeys, answered a long-standing question I always had about how a few shiploads of Spanish soldiers conquered millions of Indians living in the Americas.
The Purpose of This Post
Is to relate an ancient Bible verse to our contemporary times and our world experience with COVID -19.
King Solomon
I know that, whatever God does, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God does it, that men should fear before him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14)
What’s My Point?
There are numerous lessons in life we have learned from Covid-19 related to fear and helplessness, some a result from wise or foolish decisions of modern globalism economics
For example, we learned that because N95 masks had limited production machinery and facilities located 8000 miles away, even though we knew how Covid19 was transmitted, millions were infected and some lost their lives.
The Spanish conquerors s did not win the Americas with weapons or cunning, they brought with them smallpox which result in millions of deaths, along with fear and helplessness by the American Indians.
In other words, King Solomon observed 3000 years ago that regardless of how wise we humans are or believe we are in control, we are “and (if) God does it, that men should fear before him :
In My Opinion
The Blog titled, I Am Victim, explains experiments on dogs to learn if humans control to some limited extent their own helplessness situation is life.
However, history records how both wicked and righteous can be conquered by both humans and disease.
We see pictures of people not wearing masks by their own choice even though there is a pandemic and even if they don’t care about beconing infected, their actions may result in someone who does care about himself or a loved one.
In my opinion, a faith believer has a less feelings of helplessness in life if he or she chooses to understand the Bible teachings of wisdom and love and the seasons in life are a gift and blessing.
And during their limited time they keep in mind this saying which I believe relates to the Bible proverb teachings and precepts of most religions…
The Lord helps those who help themselves.
If Interested
Read the Source Links Below
You Decide
Is Ecclesiastes 3:14 a wise or foolish verse to understand about the seasons in life?
If after reading I am victim, would you agree with the writers conclusion?
“Instead of looking for excuses to dominate each other, we can learn to protect each others God-given rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. And we can thank our Creator for the opportunity.”
Regards and goodwill blogging.
Source Links
Citizen Tom – I Am A Victim
Novel – Lost City Monkey God Story
Bible Hub Ecclesiastes 3:4 Gils Commentary
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/ecclesiastes/3.htm
Wikipedia – God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helps_those_who_help_themselves
Previous Post – Boomer Remover
https://rudymartinka.com/2020/05/29/post-four-the-boomer-remover-king-solomon-blog/
Rudy u Martinka 
@Scatterwisdom
Thank you for the honor of a link.
I have read about the conquests of the Spanish in Mexico and South America, and it is amazing so few conquered so many. The Aztecs were a warlike people, and still they fell without much fuss. Had not thought too much about smallpox and the other diseases. The history books don’t have much to say about the diseases the Indians were contending with when the conquistadors attacked them, but European diseases would have been running rampant among the Indians.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tom.
This is the second novel I read on the subject that there were millions of natives living in the Americas when Columbus arrived in 1492.
A far different version than what we were taught in schools decades ago. The novel goes into a lot of detail how the Europeans spread a host of diseases to the inhabitants who had no built up immunizes.
A return thanks for your blog that llnked the study of ‘learned helplessness’ which in my opinion is part of the problem plaguing the Americas in our contemporary times.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
LikeLike
@Scatterwisdom
I have read a few nonfiction books about the subject. Still, the insight about the effect of disease on the conquest of the American Indians is relatively new. We don’t actually know how many Indians were in the Americas before Columbus, but academics have to publish or perish. So they guess. It is apparent, however, that the Indians had little resistance to the diseases the Europeans brought with them.
When I was a boy, my father was stationed at Goose AFB in Labrador, Canada. There were Indians living near the base. Since these Indians had had very little exposure to Europeans, we had to stay away from them. At the time, I was old enough to sort of understand the situation (seventh grade), but I was still amazed. After this COVID-19 pandemic, it is easier to empathize with those Indians. Still, there is no real comparison. Only God knows how many died after the Europeans arrived.
Smallpox was not the only danger. Even the flu would have been a problem. Lots of the diseases we can get now our ancestors first acquired from they animals they tamed. The Indians had nothing to rival all the different types of animals the Europeans lived with, and they had to deal with all these different types of infections all at once. Whereas, the Europeans had dealt with the numerous different types of infections one at a time over millennia.
So, why do we know so little about the epidemics among the Indians? They started dying by the hundreds of thousands in 1493 almost immediately after the discovery of the New World and before any effort to conquer it. They started dying before there were any Europeans
The survivors likely had little understanding of what had happened to them. The Europeans did not speak the language of the Indians, and they had no idea what contact with them had done to the Indians.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tom,
The novel agrees with your statements. It mentions the second voyages of Columbus when he brought over domestic animals from Europe to spread even more types of deadly diseases.
FFifty years later, most ot the native populations deaths from the diseases certainly aided the conquests of the Americas.
Whether the Spanish knew or not or even cared, the disease spread it certainly made it mush easier to conquer.
The novel explains ion the Philippines who were resilent to the diseases, the Spanish were not as successful in their conquests.
Regards and goodwill blogging
LikeLike
@Scatterwisdom
Your statement about the novel appears to suggest Columbus deliberately spread disease. Maybe not, but I would like to make something clear anyway.
Novels are a mix of fiction, truth, and propaganda. Even nonfiction books include speculation and propaganda.
1. We must not forget Columbus thought he had reached India. Back then navigators had almost no way of measuring how far east or west they had traveled. Columbus had no reason to believe he was dealing with a population that had been isolated from the rest of humanity for thousands of years.
2. The germ theory of disease was not developed until well after Columbus. So, it is quite unlikely that Columbus would have brought animals to the New World except as trade items. The Europeans did not then know about germs. In fact, their doctors for the most part did about as much harm as good.
The people who spread theories about germ warfare against the American Indians have a hatred they need to deal with. The Indians were definitely not innocents, and the Europeans were not devils. We are all part of the same fallen, often ignorant, humanity. We are sheep, that is, sort of dumb. Even when we sin deliberately, we still engage in willful ignorance. Too often we believe what we want to believe instead of the simple truth.
For the most part Columbus had no idea what he was doing, but he was daring enough to try to do what no one else had done before. We are just lucky the Indians did not have a few diseases that killed off half the population of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The link (https://www.businessinsider.com/diseases-columbus-brought-to-americas-2015-10) contains a list of some the diseases that traders from Europe, not necessarily conquerors and colonists, brought to the New World. Traders have nothing to gain by killing off their customers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really good post Scattered and I too had not thought too much about disease being such a powerful weapon in times of war or conquest. But of course it is.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Tricia,
Thanks for the kudos, Sadly, I read that more men in wars in history in some wars died from diseases than battles.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Tricia
In warfare, disease is usually a consequence of confusion. Here is just about the only example I know of where the effort to spread disease was deliberate (https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/9/01-0536_article).
This wikipedia article goes into more detail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_biological_warfare), and it provides additional examples, including an effort to contaminate some American Indians with smallpox in 1763.
What the Wikipedia article makes apparent is that deliberate biological warfare has usually had more to with psyops than actually killing anyone. If you are coating your spear tip or sword blade with manure, for example, that will definitely make it more difficult to treat a wound, but it doesn’t solve the immediate problem. That guy in front of you is trying to kill you.
LikeLiked by 2 people