The consequences of Western "civilization"

[dailykosjeff.livejournal.com]

"On a small island 750 miles off the coast of India, one woman's death marked the end of an ancient civilization.
"Her death is not just the death of one person, it is the death of a whole tribe and up to 65,000 years of history," said Miriam Ross of Survival International, which campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal people. "It is also a warning sign that the same fate could befall other tribes in other parts of the world."
"At one point, the British forcibly resettled the Great Andamanese to a single island in order to "civilize" them. The tribe was moved into an "Andaman home" during which time 150 children were born. None of them lived beyond the age of 2."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/bo-vanish-death-civilization/story?id=9757454

Racism, colonialism, chauvinism: these are all the unavoidable symptoms of the Western 'civilization' that conservatives hold so dear and seek to spread through the world, only now through the more deceptively benign path of globalization. If the advocates of neoliberal policies have their way, soon the remnants of indigenous cultures will be buried under McDonald's and Wal-Mart.

Susan Sontag said it best: "Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history."

Comments

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

One thing conservatives and liberals have in common: Oh, how they love to try and browbeat each other(and anyone else who disagrees)with their emotion-based moral codes. Got anything to add to this post besides white guilt?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

One small problem with this thesis-30 million Asians died from the soldiers of the God-Emperor of Japan, not from whites. Half the Axis Powers were nonwhite non-Christians. And I'll tell you up front-Japanese colonialism was hardly nicer than the European model.

Now, yes, rich whites did a lot of nasty shit, but let's be forthright, shall we? The only reason Hitler and Stalin are villains in the first place while Mao and Pol Pot and Idi Amin Dada are nobodies is that Hitler and Stalin victimized people as white as they were.

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

Also, did you look at the link he posted? It says some things about the British but it also points out that several indigenous tribes are at the mercy of the Indian government. In fact, it seems that the Indian government was all too eager to finish what the Brits started.

Ironically enough, it also says something negative about a beloved liberal trope...government assistance:

"But critics say that government assistance of any kind risks creating dependency that invariably leads to the dilution or even disappearance of the traditional way of life."

Page 2 of the article (http://abcnews.go.com/International/bo-vanish-death-civilization/story?id=9757454&page=2)

It's sort of like looking at a steve_potocin entry but from a liberal POV instead of a conservative one.

Am I too early in declaring this post as fail?

[dailykosjeff.livejournal.com]

Japanese imperialism, beginning during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century, was very much a response and result of Western imperialism. The Japanese saw what the Western countries were doing and were afraid they'd be left behind or become victims themselves.

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of something that comes up frequently, when I'm in Jamestown. Usually it's started by visitors from California, or one of the People's Republics up northeast of here. Someone will talk about how the eeee-ville English showed up, and promptly started slaughtering the poor peaceful Natives, who were just minding their own business and living in harmony with Nature.

It freaks them out when I point out that most Algonquian tribes were semi-nomadic, because their slash-and-burn agriculture forced them to move villages every decade or so. Also, right before the English showed up, Powhatan had ordered his warriors to exterminate the Chesapiock tribe, because they were "in the way", as he said to John Smith. In short, the English didn't show up and spontaneously start whupping up on the Natives for no reason. They simply joined in a game of homicidal funsies that was already being played when they got here. The English just happened to be better at recreational homicide than anybody in the neighborhood at the time.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Doesn't freak me out. The Beaver Wars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Wars) had gone on before the English and French encouraged the slaughters. Still, the ante went up several notches with weapons of steel (swords) and gunpowder.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

You could catch the Chagossians now (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopulation_of_Diego_Garcia) before they become extinct or assimilated. But it's probably already too late, and the USA is not going to give up their base.

I am Metis. The Metis people and culture was birthed in the 17th century. It still remains strong with little formality or organization. We won the right to call ourselves a nation more then 100yrs ago, yet there are no reserved lands or treaty rights for us. While we fall under the Indian Act, although we are not Aboriginal. We are not White either. While we Metis are in no danger of becoming extinct, just this past week, on Thursday, Metis are being kicked off a Reserve in Quebec. (http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/02/04/12737001.html) Get the Indian beat out of us by white man, and get the white beat out by Indians. I understand survival and I'm not sure see the point.

Extinction is nothing new, in zoo-ology or anthropology. Death is alway sad. Personal loss can be devastating. The last of a kind has profound impact. But we cannot preserve mortality anymore then we can preserve all cultures. To preserve truely free native culture would have to be at the expense of modern culture. And you know how we like our highways. I think it is best to grieve and move on.

(I am anticipating comment from Underlankers, mentioning the Creole or Jim Crow or Nazi's.)

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

That is fascinating (I looked it up).

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

[puf-almighty.livejournal.com]

I find that heavy whipping cream and baking soda helps my rage to cohere.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

The toilet and electrical consumption will destroy this world.

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

I know. Have you seen the toilets at the gas station down the way? I fear that if I breathe the air in one, I'll need a tetanus shot.

[evildamsel.livejournal.com]

If we take any part of the Torah literally, my people were razing the Middle East to the ground and taking the heck over way before Western civilization was a glimmer in Rome's eye... So there. =P

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but they were/are considered white...well my brother in law is anyway.

[headhouse.livejournal.com]

Also M&Ms.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

I don't even understand why we're entertaining this pablum, except out of sheer boredom and procrastination.

I mean, look at his profile. The kid was born a year after I graduated! Come back in 20 years, and see if you're still parroting everything your liberal college professors are spoon feeding you. In the mean time, try to get some real life experience.

Look Jeff, you're cute and all. When I was your age I wanted to join Greenpeace, save the whales and sing "Kumbaya". We all go through embarrassing stages. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

except out of sheer boredom and procrastination.

Hey, why else do you think the internet was invented?

[sgiffy.livejournal.com]

Racism, colonialism, chauvinism: these are all the unavoidable symptoms of the Western 'civilization' that conservatives hold so dear and seek to spread through the world, only now through the more deceptively benign path of globalization.

People have been exterminating each other long before western civilization. Doesn't make it right, but these things are hardly unique to any one culture.

The whole concept of 'indigenous' is problematic and implies are delineation between every other culture and European ones. Its pretty rare that the peoples living in an area when western types showed up where the very first people to live there. They most likely conquered some other group and so on.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The whole concept of 'indigenous' is problematic and implies are delineation between every other culture and European ones. Its pretty rare that the peoples living in an area when western types showed up where the very first people to live there. They most likely conquered some other group and so on.

This. This is especially obvious in a place like India where the actual natives are shunted to one side while the first invaders claim indigenous status themselves. The ancestral Indians were Austro-Asiatic like the Munda peoples, which means the Dravidians and Indo-Aryans are both conquerors.

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

"Racism, colonialism, chauvinism: these are all the unavoidable symptoms of the Western 'civilization'..."

Wrong. These are all symptoms of an imperfect humanity, something one would realize if one focused the same level of scrutiny to pretty much any culture of any size.

And really, neither you nor Susan Sontag is in a position to make such grandiose proclamations as if they had made themselves the final judge of the sum balance of a culture's virtues and sins. I can safely say this because nobody on Earth is so qualified.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Shh....do not interrupt this man's delusion. He needs to avoid considering the reality that people like Qin Shi Huang could be totalitarian without any degree of Western influence.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is indeed terrible (http://airiefairie.livejournal.com/133702.html).

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Allow me to rephrase myself; your post is fucking idiotic, specifically because of the moronic conclusion which you make.

If you need me to explain why, then it would take a better man than I (perhaps someone non-white?) to do so

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

You know, I have a sock puppet LJ of undeclared gender or ethnicity, and s/he gets a LOT more respect than I do, as a white woman.

Now, who is oppressing who again?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Re: The white race is the cancer of human history.


We need to stop talking about races.
There's one human race.
We do have different skin color.
Skin color does not determine behavior.
We should not be skin colorists.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

This.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

As a middle-age white male born in the United States, I would at this point like to apologize for this woman's death, the death of her culture and everything else bad that's ever happened anywhere in the entire Universe. That supernova out past Betelgeuse in 3402 BCE? Yeah, totally me. Sorry sorry sorry.

I'm sure the evil Christians motivated these men:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Re: I'm sure the evil Christians motivated these men:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

That last one was supposed to be a picture of Pharaoh Merneptah.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Good riddance, I say.

[404.livejournal.com]

Nice to know that the evil white European man invented racism and genocide.

[usekh.livejournal.com]

The Hopi word for Navajo translates roughly as 'Skull-breaker' due to the long history of violence and massacres between the two.

Whilst I agree with preserving as much of human culture as we can, there is no 'white race' 'brown race' etc. We are all the same race. And sadly humanity sucks just as much no matter what the colour of our skin. Europeans have just had the biggest weapons lately.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Not to mention Sontag overlooked something rather blatant: not all whites are like each other. A lesbian Jew in either of the two big totalitarian societies of the 20th Century would have been either worked to death or given a bullet to the brain. Obviously the Union is no Soviet Union or Hitler Germany.

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

So which civilization would we be better to emulate? It seems to me, we've been killing one another and taking each other's stuff since we came out of the trees.

[tinceiri.livejournal.com]

as everyone else here has already said, you're a fucking joke and a hypocrite. your president and his congress can't even stand-up to private insurance companies with a promise of a strong public health care plan, and he's no better than the imperialists that you've decided to criticize. weak.

why the fuck did we vote for this empty suit again?

[tinceiri.livejournal.com]

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_2_MOLT/idUSTRE55M56I20090623

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he strongly believed a government-run health insurance plan "made sense" as part of broad healthcare overhaul, but that he had not drawn a line in the sand on the issue.

"We are still early in this process so we have not drawn lines in the sand," Obama told a news conference.

He said a government-run plan would be a useful tool to "discipline" private insurers, but said private insurers should be able to find ways to compete in the market.

"If what the insurance companies are saying is true that they are doing their best to serve their customers....they should be able to compete," he said.

lololol yeah he's not a self-serving capitalist scumbag or an imperialist at all