A brief revisit to Genghis Khan:Hero or Savage?

I am sometimes asked why, if I am so interested in and knowledgeable about history, do I seldom write up stuff about it here?

There are many possible answers to that. One would be some of my best work is saved for possible inclusion in that noted pipe dream, Dreamcatchers. One would be my doubt that other people are as interested in said topic as I am.

 Yes, I might be fascinated by little factoids such as "Geronimo was a Baptist Sunday School teacher until his inability to stop betting on his shooting prowess got him removed from the position" and "Geronimo was among the first people to ride in a Cadillac and there is an extant photograph showing it" but that does not mean other people will be.

But most importantly, because you might run into something where I go too deep. For example, I once wrote a 10 page paper on Temujin that had 155 citations. You may know Temujin better by an alternate spelling;either  Chinggis Khan or even by the more popular yet moniker of  Genghis Khan, even though the latter two were a title, not a name.

Of course, his closest friends never used any of those. To them he was G-dog or G-diddy.* It was not uncommon for childhood friend and later deadly enemy Jamuka** to refer to him as "Khan Solo" or his preferred name, Twiki. When referred to by this name, Master G would often say," be-de-be-de-be-de "which of course was later corrupted by some lug named Sinatra to do-be-do-be-do before the heroic Buck Rogers had his robot return it to the correct form.

Somehow, someway G-khan got a really bad name. This was perhaps due to his habit of invading other countries, killing off their people and taking their wealth.

Of course, if we look behind the curtain, we see several things. First and foremost, the non-magician from The Wizard of Oz is still hiding there.*

 Second, the atrocities attributed to Temujin are sometimes true but more often exaggerated. He was actually advanced far beyond his time. He encouraged free expression of religion and free trade. He codified law i a document known as "the Great yasa". There was a powerful knowledge exchange that his empire encouraged. He also created a wide-ranging, highly effective postal system.***

One wonders if the idea "going postal" comes from the combination of the Mongolian Horde and their postal system.*

Okay, we have gone far enough. perhaps you learned a bit about Temujin or perhaps you got a few cheap laughs. Either way, now you know why I keep my history writing to myself. The "interesting parts" are quite dry to someone who doesn't care about history and the bad jokes are just too plentiful. 

* It is highly likely that this paragraph is 100% fictitious and intended solely to get a cheap laugh.

** Actually, Jamuka WAS his close friend and later rival so there are kernels of truth in it.

*** True.