Ah so because I live in Wisconsin and not Europe that means I'm profiting? Is that really your argument?
Yes. You live in a structure. That structure is built upon land. Land is valuable. The land that your home is built upon belonged to someone before we killed them and took it. You live on stolen land. The place where you work is built on stolen land. The stores where you shop are built on stolen land. Your entire life occurs on stolen land. So
yes, you are ****ing
profiting from the
theft of that land.
So you're argument is that it's OK to honor tyrants as long as a nation somehow benefited from the tyrant?
Yep. As a matter of fact, I'd say there wasn't a single tyrant or war criminal that someone didn't think of as a national hero and, more importantly,
vice versa.
Maybe Israel should have Adolf Hitler Day. After all, the state probably wouldn't exist if not for him. :roll:
I think the Jews should feel free to do whatever the Hell they like with their own country. I seriously doubt you're going to find many that believe Hitler did them any favors.
Besides, Colombus didn't kill millions of his own people. He killed millions of
aliens. I don't expect Indians to celebrate Colombus Day.
I realize that. Let's be clear, I am not trying to be revisionist. At the same time, we cannot hold modern nations to the standards of the past. Just because prior colonial powers now have the luxury of being conscientious doesn't mean they are employing an ends-justifies-the-means mentality. The true test surely must be that they don't commit the same acts again, and by that standard there are still a host of nations who engage in the same behaviours, of which yours is one; and yes, Canada is another. I wasn't trying to sidestep that.
That's just the thing, though. They have the luxury of being conscientious
because they committed those acts. They have that luxury because they are wealthy, and they are wealthy because they robbed South America, Africa, and Asia blind for centuries. They can claim to have all of the moral superiority in the world because they're "not doing it anymore", but the fact of the matter is that they did it for centuries, got rich and fat off the lifeblood of indigenous peoples, and then abandoned their colonies when it became
inconvenient to maintain them-- leaving them in the current sorry state that they now enjoy, and that those rich colonial powers so dearly enjoy clucking their tongues and throwing table scraps at to assuage their tender liberal consciences. I'm sorry if their expressions of regret do not strike me as particularly sincere while they are still enjoying the power their stolen wealth has given them.
And I didn't use Canada as an example to tweak your nose because you're Canadian. I used Canada as an example because they're among the most fair-minded governments on the planet. You should know that there is no rebuke in my words, because I
do not condemn the behaviors our governments engage in.
Who is this collective "our" that you are talking about? I never told my government that it was okay to rape and pillage; I never had a hand in the power plays that have gone on even during my life time and the ones unfolding now; I can't control the manufacturing sector that exploits foreign workers aside from not buying their cheap crap (which I already don't); it is not my fault that my so-called representative government is a pack of thieving, lying, neo-imperialists.
My "our" in this case does not refer to our nation, but to our
species. I am referring to the whole of the First World outsourcing its cheap, dirty, and dangerous labor to the Third World-- where they
know that they are supporting slavery and exploitation-- and the endless brutal civil wars and ethnic cleansing campaigns in Eastern Europe, Southern Asia, and almost all of Africa. We haven't ended any of these practices; we have only distanced ourselves from them so that we don't get our pristine white gloves dirty. Our species has made
tremendous advancements in the past two centuries, and I would be the last person to seek to diminish those, but the basic primate impulses that drive Man's inhumanity to Man remain untouched. As far as that is concerned, the only thing that has changed is the theater and the lines of battle; we have always been at war with Eastasia.
I have zero power to do anything about it. I can only accept your "our" insofar as being an indictment against government and those who support such actions. I am not guilty by virtue of being Canadian anymore than you are guilty for simply being American; but that does not excuse the "it's always been this way and it's human nature" mentality. You are human and therefore you can choose just like anyone else, and you are choosing to side with the status quo.
You are Canadian and thus you are
Canada. We all bear responsibility for the actions of our people. And yes, I can choose what I want for our people, like you have. But I think you are hurting yourself by pursuing something that is both unachievable and undesirable, and I think that the more our people embrace your goals, the more they will be damaged by them. I am not choosing the status quo; I am choosing advancement along more fruitful lines, along lines that will preserve our power and our wealth for as long as possible, and along lines that will leave us prepared for recovery when our time runs out. I am choosing what is
possible.
