What faction did you play first?

[The Persian Cataphract]

With all due to respect, getting angry over these issues only serves to dilute your own arguments TPC by making it a simple case of one pride and arrogance vs. another. You are certainly capable of either brushing those comments off or responding to them in a calm and detached manner. There are plenty of bloviators online and you can't bother to educate them all. I don't think Aemilius Paulus is an academic anyway.

I think that one of the major problems here is that many professors try to press their ideology upon their students. Anyone who doesn't comply is exiled from the academic community, resulting in a strong dogma in many corners. I cannot tell you how many grade reductions I received because of a refusal to comply with the "superiority of the west" nonsense espoused by, for instance, Victor Davis Hanson’s The Western Way of War and Carnage and Culture. I learned the hard way that losing my temper did me no good. Debating those persons in a civilized manner is far more effective, especially when the evidence is on your side as it is here.

All that said, the lack of educational freedom in Iran is even worse. One of my roommates fled Iran so that he did not have to join the army. He was only just learning of the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanid empires because his former government forbid the teaching of pre-Islamic history. By forcing teachers to profess that everything before Islam was a dark and evil age, the dogmas of Iranian historiography are far more effective in suppressing the study of ancient Persian history than any feeble attempts by westerners.

You misunderstood the nature of my post. I realize that my previous entry had a very crude phrasing to it, but on the other hand it serves to prove that just because I am capable of composing an essay-like refutation, it does not mean I can't lose some steam composing a message which clearly conveys my distaste, without the crud or the convoluted bullshit. Allow me to disagree for a moment with your rationale; I have debated Islamic apologists for years and quite frankly, trying to argue with individuals who are very firmly indoctrinated in their set of beliefs, in a language beyond their comprehension emphasizes absolute futility. A historian who seemingly fails to convey his message to the unbeknown, it does not matter if he has written an impressive catalogue or accumulated some of the most recent scholarship, he will realize the wasteful shame of even bothering.

I don't get angry on the Internet; I do however get disgruntled at certain writings, and the fact is that this way, I can clean out the crud, and instead of giving some lengthy lecture where I enumerate some of the greatest achievements of the ancient Persianate cultures to the worldly heritage itself, I'm just simply putting a halt to the man's crusade in "breaking the silence of political correctness". What political correctness? Has he seen some of Hollywood's "epic" blockbusters lately? That is my point. I don't need to wear a shit-eating grin, or a fancy facade and get into abstract terms when I can cleanly, and bluntly say "Okay, well you are full of it and you have next to no clue what you are talking about, and add to it, it would take too fucking long to copy-paste a few articles for your enlightenment.". It also goes to show just how much courtesy I accord to his "politically incorrect" opinion.

As for the bogus historiography propagated by the Islamic regime of Iran, trust me, you don't even want to go there as far as I'm concerned. All I know is that for each time the dogmas that still are allowed to permeate in "western" scholarship and to poke us in the eyes, the Islamophilic demagogues get another opportunity for a really serious sucker-punch. We are talking about professors and lecturers getting laid off, severed funding, and single individuals being ostracized by the regime in a number of ways, either through persecution, suspended payroll or in a worst case scenario, murder. Nothing gets done, and Iran is virtually an embodiment of historical wealth in archaeological terms. It's like you're stuck in the middle of an ocean and you're suddenly getting thirsty, realizing there is not even a drop to drink!

People are wondering why there is almost nothing written left by the ancient Iranians, but the moment you say "Maybe Islam had something to do with it", whoa, it turns into blasphemy and instead, what happens. They'll think that the ancient Iranians never wrote anything to begin with and start to think of them as illiterate savages. Oh yeah, they apparently bothered to do some lengthy inscriptions on a fucking rock in some remote place in the middle of nowhere, but they didn't know how to write on parchments? Right! That makes sense, of course!

No. I'll stand by my words as they were initially given. If nobody likes it, well, it's really not my problem. All I know is that regardless of the tone or attitude I write in, I asked legitimate, albeit rhetorical questions.

[Che Roriniho]

Gentlemen, extinguish your flamethrowers. Take this to the tavern, and we may allow you to use a cigarette lighter.

[Celtic_Punk]

given the bluntness, stupidity and ignorance of that guys post, your attitude is not unfounded Persian Cataphract. It is ridiculous how much people discount the east on their contribution to western society. But do not forget that the West contributed alot to eastern society (which is probably why the east is blowing itself up right now... hmmm) Even look at the movie 300 (nobody go on about "oh its so historically incorrect!" WE KNOW) for instance, Xerxes is portrayed as a genderless peirced up weirdo (by whitecollar, rightwing standards). hes portayed as "the other" and thats the way western media portrays the rest of the Eastern world. sadly aslong as this continues, the east will be discounted in the hearts and minds of the west.

Then again, as long as the East has its oppressive governments (not that ALL eastern countries are oppressed, and all western countries are not at all oppressed) they will be discounted. shitty buzz i guess...

[TWFanatic]

I do not think that films such as 300 are by any means a result of political incorrectness, but simply out of an apathy toward historiography. It is pure capitalism--in most cases films are made first and foremost to make money, not to accurately represent the diversity of ancient cultures and encourage viewers to study more history. Likewise, EB does not accurately represent the complexity of each and every ancient culture to be politically correct, but to encourage players to study more history. Please correct me if my understanding of the EB ethos is off the mark.

That said, there are cases in which ideology is put before profits. Look at the swathe of recent anti-American films that bombed in the box office. The people who fund these films lose a tremendous amount of money yet continue to do it; clearly they care more about spreading anti-American propaganda than making profits. I believe these isolated attempts at socially-reengineering the populace to be an exception to the rule however. In general, Hollywood will do whatever yields the greatest profits--and at the moment, the populace doesn't give a rat's ass about the fair and accurate representation of ancient cultures.

[Foot]

Damn that liberal media bias! I wish they would stop socially re-engineering people. Criticising America is such blatant propaganda. Why can't they make films that focus on the greatness of the American Nation? I just wish the liberal media could put out a positive message. I mean, my word, what possible social and political progress has ever come from criticism of the established political class? None, thats what!

Foot

[TWFanatic]

Wow Foot, I'm disappointed in you. You have always been a beacon of light we could all look to as an example of perfect forum conduct in accordance rules and regulations.

If I may quote myself...

There are plenty of bloviators online and you can't bother to educate them all.

Those comments are entirely unrelated to the subject at hand (not to mention grossly distorted what I said, which was entirely relevant to my conversation with TPC). I will put my ego aside and follow the request of the EB team regarding forum behavior so that "the good will that was once a part of it [won't be] replaced by negativity and sarcasm" because I understand that "the team finds this worrisome" and that "it also hurts the team's image while fostering an unwelcome climate and discouraging discussion of topics specifically related to the mod." I also have heard that "the EB Team will seriously consider at least temporarily banning repeating offenders for spamming or confrontational language" and will "also feel at liberty to delete posts which we find to be SPAM or confrontational." Therefore, I will desist from posting in this thread henceforth as it appears to "foster the type of behavior that we want to prevent from happening this board."

Good day sir.

[Lysimachos]

Damn that liberal media bias! I wish they would stop socially re-engineering people. Criticising America is such blatant propaganda. Why can't they make films that focus on the greatness of the American Nation? I just wish the liberal media could put out a positive message. I mean, my word, what possible social and political progress has ever come from criticism of the established political class? None, thats what!

Foot

(I hope this post is not too pc )

[Foot]

I was only having a bit of fun. In particular I was criticising your use of the word "propaganda" in relation to "anti-American films". Unless I'm much mistaken, "criticism" does not equal "propaganda". However given that you thought it did equal "propaganda" I should have realised that you would have thought my criticism of your post was also "propaganda" and thus would have taken offence. Silly me.

Foot