“The UN Made a Serious Mistake”
In 1971 the Shah of Iran told the UN that Cyrus II was a global democrat. Of course, they believed him, and celebrated.
The aftermath of the hoax has been disastrous. Even German schoolbooks describe the ancient Persian king as a pioneer of humane policies. According to a forged translation on the Internet, Cyrus even supported a minimum wage and right to asylum.
The result of this sort of revision is the construction of a phony “liberal” lineage stretching back into ancient history. It’s meant to be evidence that whatever phase of liberalism we currently inhabit is a natural mindset that all right-thinking throughout history have been committed to, even if they sometimes had to be discrete about it. This is an old act; still, it’s striking that anyone could find it this easy to believe Cyrus II had issued a declaration of universal human rights.
Comments
Oh that Cyrus. I thought you meant Cyrus Vance. Another Presidential Medal of Freedom winner.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
The Masons oftentimes like to believe that their beliefs were universal and that all people agree that there is a rational basis for them except for the horrible European white man and the dark Catholic Church. Just look at Rousseau.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Cyrus II was a notable royal. He’s also known as Cyrus the Great, and played a key role in the establishment of the Persian Empire as well as a key role in the return of many Jews to what is now Israel. Which is to say, he is held in very high regard by two different demographics. In fact, some returned Jews were so impressed with his insight into their historical role that they came close to recognizing him as a quasi-religious creature. The Old Testament describes him as the “anointed one,” of which there are not many.
In fact, Wikipedia (not an unbiased source) gushes this about Cyrus II: “Beyond his nation, Cyrus left a lasting legacy on Jewish religion (through his Edict of Restoration), human rights, politics, and military strategy, as well as on both Eastern and Western civilization....Before leaving Babylon, Cyrus also issued the “Edict of Restoration” (Ezra 1:1-4), which freed the Jewish exiles by allowing them to return to their native land; this effectively ended the Babylonian captivity....The return of the exiles re-established the Jewish population in their homeland.”
Click to flag this comment as abusive
...Yeah… well… after that little Esther/Haman dust-up, I’m sure the Persians weren’t that sad to see them go.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Of course the contention that Cyrus II was a liberal is preposterous. But it would be tempting to have fun at a liberal’s expense by then asking them what became of Cyrus II and his Persians.
Liberalism destroys all that it infects.
Click to flag this comment as abusive
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give Taki's Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. Personal attacks, ethnic slurs, the riding of hobby horses and the beating of dead ones will be deleted as soon as they are detected by our small but alert staff. Repeat abusers of this policy will be barred from leaving comments. All comments reflect only the views of those posting them and not necessarily those of this website, its editors, or authors. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
Commenting is not available in this section entry.