Isn't it sad?

[bub]

The more I read history books, the more I am nostalgic:

=> First example: Polynesia

1000 years ago, there were migrations in those islands. Small groups of fishermen on canoes, discovering and colonisating most of the small island that lie in southern Pacific. In the smallest island, they stayed "primitive", hunting and eating fruits, while in largest/better island, such as the Hawaiian Islands, they developped great civilisation, with a complex society, arts, buildings...that is fascinating.

But one day, Occidental invaders came in and literally destroyed all those civilizations. Many islanders became slaves or died from the diseases we brought, and most of their brilliant cultures disappeared for ever.

The same happened in America: while in the South, most of the Mayas died (they had a superb civilization with a complex calendar and used kinds of hieroglyphs), in the North they were forced to abandon their land and their culture and were sent into reserves.

Same with Africa: a few centuries ago there were hundreds of small kingdoms, some were very developped, such as in Ethiopia. The colonisation destroyed all this centuries-old structure, and now it turned into nothing.

Those are just examples. All those cultures which are lost, destroyed, forgotten, turned into third-world countries...that's really sad.

I would have liked to be born a few centuries earlier, and explorate the world, when it was not dominated by the West yet.

Some things I would have liked to see:

Zheng He - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maya civilization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dutch East India Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mali Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[mikhail]

Just the way things go empires rise and fall.Dont forget democracy comes from ancient greece that fell for what a 1000 years.As the old saying goes all good things must come to an end its part of human nature.To actually find answers we turn to philosophy but its far to slow so we come back to are basic instincts.Its as simple as sports the stronger team wins it doesent matter who the nicest players are thats not the way we work.

 

[Tyler Durden]

stronger team wins

True, but the losing team isn't turned into slaves for the winning team and made to carry their bats around.

Modern Strength is made up of the forced and prolonged weakness of other nations. Not how intelligent, advanced, or civil they are. But how much potential crap they can buy compared to other nations.

 

[1069]

The more I read history books, the more I am nostalgic:

=> First example: Polynesia

1000 years ago, there were migrations in those islands. Small groups of fishermen on canoes, discovering and colonisating most of the small island that lie in southern Pacific. In the smallest island, they stayed "primitive", hunting and eating fruits, while in largest/better island, such as the Hawaiian Islands, they developped great civilisation, with a complex society, arts, buildings...that is fascinating.

But one day, Occidental invaders came in and literally destroyed all those civilizations. Many islanders became slaves or died from the diseases we brought, and most of their brilliant cultures disappeared for ever.

The same happened in America: while in the South, most of the Mayas died (they had a superb civilization with a complex calendar and used kinds of hieroglyphs), in the North they were forced to abandon their land and their culture and were sent into reserves.

Same with Africa: a few centuries ago there were hundreds of small kingdoms, some were very developped, such as in Ethiopia. The colonisation destroyed all this centuries-old structure, and now it turned into nothing.

Those are just examples. All those cultures which are lost, destroyed, forgotten, turned into third-world countries...that's really sad.

I would have liked to be born a few centuries earlier, and explorate the world, when it was not dominated by the West yet.

Some things I would have liked to see:

Zheng He - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maya civilization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dutch East India Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mali Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, I'm like you. I've always been interested in other cultures.
I consider myself a sort of amateur/armchair cultural anthropologist.
There are many other times and places that interest me, although I would not want to actually live in any prior era, not even temporarily.

 

[mikhail]

True, but the losing team isn't turned into slaves for the winning team and made to carry their bats around.

Modern Strength is made up of the forced and prolonged weakness of other nations. Not how intelligent, advanced, or civil they are. But how much potential crap they can buy compared to other nations.

true its sad but i dont think people will for at least foreseeable future become altruistic enough so everyone wins.

afterall we are the all singing all dancing crap of the world

 

[Tyler Durden]

afterall we are the all singing all dancing crap of the world

:mrgreen:

My nihilism is not in question here.

 

[Billo_Really]

Originally posted by Tyler Durdin:
My nihilism is not in question here.

Stuffing feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken!

Welcome to Debate Politics!

 

[1069]

Stuffing feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken!

... but does it make you a nihilist?

 

[Gunface]

It disturbs me, the way power is distributed throughout the world. There are a few countries with all the wealth, all the power, all the influence.. And then there's everyone else, who live in abject squalor and disease and poverty. There are a few countries in between, but for the most part, you're on one side or the other.

I especially dislike it because this uneven distribution of influence annihilates so much: health, culture, traditions... All this goes down the drain in a mad rush for money and wealth. People begin to forget the past, forget what has happened before them. We people in the powerful countries don't realise the harm we do to everyone else every single day. It's appalling, what we do.

This cultural annihilation has happened in the past, and people complain about how it happened... But it's also happening at this very moment.

 

[1069]

It disturbs me, the way power is distributed throughout the world. There are a few countries with all the wealth, all the power, all the influence.. And then there's everyone else, who live in abject squalor and disease and poverty. There are a few countries in between, but for the most part, you're on one side or the other.

I especially dislike it because this uneven distribution of influence annihilates so much: health, culture, traditions... All this goes down the drain in a mad rush for money and wealth. People begin to forget the past, forget what has happened before them. We people in the powerful countries don't realise the harm we do to everyone else every single day. It's appalling, what we do.

This cultural annihilation has happened in the past, and people complain about how it happened... But it's also happening at this very moment.

The following email, entitled "Privilege Check", was emailed to me by a friend; I don't know where it originated or what site she got it off of, so I can't link to it.

Privilege Check

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.

There would be
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere , both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States .

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

I thought what you just said was interesting, in light of this.

PS I'm not sure how accurate it is, either; that proportion of "Western Hemispherians" to Europeans doesn't really look correct, now that I think about it.
But still, it's an interesting idea.

 

[Gunface]

Time to pull out the Snopes =P
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Science (Aisle of Man)

It's not true at all, but it still gets the point across. Society is messed up, so much. Our religion teacher once did an exercise where she lined us up, and assigned us a "meal" randomly, based on the average wealth of the world. The majority got along the lines of a few strands of pasta and some water, while one person got a full five-course meal. Once, again, even if it's not accurate, it gets the message across very well.

 

[Morrow]

What is sad, and why?