CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, July 12, 1999

Keep the Anasazi politically correct, or else!

For example, the Anasazi were an ancient people of the American southwest who disappeared mysteriously from the face of the earth. Many theories, none conclusive, have been advanced as to why this relatively advanced agricultural civilization vanished leaving behind only the ruins of their high-rise, cave-dwellings.

One of the local jokes in Colorado, where one of the largest Anasazi ruins is found, is that the Anasazi were doomed because they built their ruins too close to the highway.

Until just recently, the hitherto supposedly, peace-loving, corn-eating, oh-so-politically-correct Anasazis were probably on their way to being lionized in a Disney movie. You know the genre: all the wild animals sit around the camp fire in peace and harmony and sing to the natives who, of course, are the only humans fit to inhabit the earth because they are "at one" with nature.

But new research found in Christy Turner’s book: Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest, reveals the Anasazis tortured, mutilated and then ate their enemies. So far, no one has unearthed an Anasazi cookbook giving directions for the proper preparation of Homo Sapiens a la Anasazi. But if the Anasazi partook of victims carrying a prehistoric version of Ecoli bacteria, that might explain why they disappeared so suddenly. As they say: "You are who you eat."

The evidence suggests Anasazi cannibalism was not, like the Donner Party, something done only in an extreme situation where those who died of starvation and exposure were then eaten by those still surviving. Apparently, Anasazi cannibalism was an established practice based on a communal decision that killing and eating other humans was acceptable. Presumably, the Anasazi did not eat their friends and relatives. In all probability, they did as the Aztecs and the Mayans, who generally used their slaves or enemy POWs as objects of ritual murder.

When members of the PC Movement heard Professor Turner found evidence of Anasazi cannibalism, they criticized him for being insensitive to the negative political ramifications of his findings.

The PC Movement’s outrage with Professor Turner is a prime example of trying to intimidate those who come across the truth from sharing it with the rest of the world because the truth does not support their political objectives.

Objective reality or the truth is the bedrock of what we, in western civilization, call: the "scientific method." It began with Aristotle who taught us the scientific pursuit of knowledge must begin with "givens," immutable facts derived from careful observation and experience.

Aristotle taught we must start with actual facts if we are to be able to move forward and discover hidden truths. If one starts from a faulty premise or "given," then the search for the truth or objective reality is doomed.

The scientific method has served humankind well. It helped us conquer many dread diseases such as Polio and Smallpox, to treat other diseases and to go to the Moon and beyond.

Moreover, the scientific method has us served well politically and socially because it stands as a bulwark against superstition and myth which so often are twisted to demonize particular groups of people.

A civilization accustomed to subjecting its ideas or beliefs to the scientific method is less likely to act on the basis of superstition, myth or rumor. Remember, demonization is a key step toward genocide.

That is why the PC Movement is becoming so dangerous. George Orwell saw it coming. When those in power can declare by fiat something to be or not be whatever they choose, irrespective of the truth, then the rest of society is in big trouble.

William Hamilton is a nationally syndicated columnist and featured commentator for USA Today.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com