Reply #56: Been out for a bit

[Tsiyu]

Just walked in to your delightful post.

I understand your limitations as a student of history. What you don't know is so vast, the little you do know you hold on to like a security blanket.

To say that because some macro fauna died out eons before (which they did in Europe as well) that natives "killed off their horses" is quite the scientific stretch.

And Pilgrims. I'll just leave you right there in your world.

The same arguments you make dehumanizing Native Americans have been categorized - by some notable social scientists and historians - as the same dehumanizing attitudes Repukes hold toward Iraqis.

The "Indian Wars" - the "pure Caucasian" fighting the "savages" - have never really stopped for us as a people, have they?

So tell me, is Iraq better off now that we've "civilized" them, too?

This isn't a discussion about going back to tribal life as it was practiced Pre-Conquest. This is about examining where we are going as a society in the future if we do not change our course. Can you honestly tell me that we can continue on this same course for very much longer without catastrophe?

if you think so, then I can't help you. But if, like most thinking humans in 2010, you believe we have to examine other models of community in order to find our place, then why not look back to what made those societies in the past sustainable.

The natives thought whitey was smelly and filthy. Why? because the Europeans rarely bathed in those days, while Native Americans bathed every day in some cases.

Later, when Indian kids were forced into boarding schools, they were forbidden to bathe.

Now who knew more? In this case, the Native knew that for whatever reason, bathing kept him healthier and happier. Whites were clueless about hygiene.

This is just one instance where they had it right, Europeans had it wrong. There are many others.

We need to downsize our production to what we need, to those things that do not further degrade our environment. We need to care about the weak, the young, the aged.

You love the Corporations. They feed you, no doubt, at the expense of the rest of us.

So, thanks for playing but I don't think your ignorance is doing this discussion much good.