Depending on the culture you grew up in it will affect how you regard the disabled. In ancient Egypt you could reach the highest office in the land- in one case was the dwarf Seneb, there were also laws not to abuse the disabled and less fortunate. In ancient Greece however the founders of democracy, if you were no use to the state you were exposed at birth- an interesting attitude given that their most famous bard Homer (if he existed) was reputed to be blind. It is an interesting contrast of attitudes within an absolute monarchy and a democracy!
Christianity after the fall of these cultures helped to soften attitudes to a certain extend towards the disabled and the monks founded hospitals for the mentally ill deaf and blind and to a certain extent are responsible for our modern healthcare system today, however with the advent of protestantism, these institutions closed and if you had a mental disability your soul had either gone to god or in the case of Martin Luther you had none at all. Though to be fair to Martin Luther many say he did not say what he said he did....
As the nineteenth century dawned a more enlightened view started to emerge Victor Hugo's TheHunchback of Notre Dame asked the question of what made a good man his appearances or his actions. Schools for the blind and deaf started to emerge once it had been proven they could read and write, and therefore could contribute to society, these education programmes helped to produce my hero Helen Keller, however this depended on the disability.
Helen Keller warrants more attention than a name in a paragraph she was the first blind and deaf woman to graduate with a bachelor arts degree and counted amongst her friends Mark Twain and Alexander Graham Bell. She wrote on topics such as faith blindness prevention and birth control andatomic energy. She was a pacifist and a socialist for which she came under some criticism. She was an ambassador for disabled people worldwide and is an internationally recognized figure.
In the 1930's with the advent of eugenics the sterilization of the disabled begun and even the advocating of the killing of disabled people by humane methods but nevertheless killing all the same. After World War two when these views were taken to the extreme and disabled people were either euthanized or used as target practice by the Nazis, programmes to integrate disabled people into the community at last started.
However since the economic downturn I have observed a nasty attitude has started to emerge and I saw what I hadn't seen before but from my studies was a very ancient attitude that the inability to contribute leads to resentment in times of hardship, however what is interesting is that with the advent of social media, disabled people are getting their side of the story out and are starting to fightback.
Michelle Forbes.
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Christianity after the fall of these cultures helped to soften attitudes to a certain extend towards the disabled and the monks founded hospitals for the mentally ill deaf and blind and to a certain extent are responsible for our modern healthcare system today, however with the advent of protestantism, these institutions closed and if you had a mental disability your soul had either gone to god or in the case of Martin Luther you had none at all. Though to be fair to Martin Luther many say he did not say what he said he did....
As the nineteenth century dawned a more enlightened view started to emerge Victor Hugo's TheHunchback of Notre Dame asked the question of what made a good man his appearances or his actions. Schools for the blind and deaf started to emerge once it had been proven they could read and write, and therefore could contribute to society, these education programmes helped to produce my hero Helen Keller, however this depended on the disability.
Helen Keller warrants more attention than a name in a paragraph she was the first blind and deaf woman to graduate with a bachelor arts degree and counted amongst her friends Mark Twain and Alexander Graham Bell. She wrote on topics such as faith blindness prevention and birth control andatomic energy. She was a pacifist and a socialist for which she came under some criticism. She was an ambassador for disabled people worldwide and is an internationally recognized figure.
In the 1930's with the advent of eugenics the sterilization of the disabled begun and even the advocating of the killing of disabled people by humane methods but nevertheless killing all the same. After World War two when these views were taken to the extreme and disabled people were either euthanized or used as target practice by the Nazis, programmes to integrate disabled people into the community at last started.
However since the economic downturn I have observed a nasty attitude has started to emerge and I saw what I hadn't seen before but from my studies was a very ancient attitude that the inability to contribute leads to resentment in times of hardship, however what is interesting is that with the advent of social media, disabled people are getting their side of the story out and are starting to fightback.
Michelle Forbes.
1 / 1
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A picture of the dwarf Seneb, as you can see with his loving wife and children, showing a positive attitude to disability in Ancient Egypt