Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 11:48:09 -0500
From: Nan Hildreth <Nan.Hildreth@Mcione.com>
Subject: P: help me learn about about imperialism
To: ppn@csf.colorado.edu
Message-id: <3.0.1.32.19980605114809.0069b658@mail65.MCIONE.com>
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I need a hand here.  The list I brainstorm and email with avoid this topic,
deny it.  I'm helping them look at it.   But I don't know my topic.  

I bought Noam Chomsky's The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (1994).
Entranced, I read when I should have slept.

Chomsky says we are being conquered like the Third World.  "There's no
doubt that imperial rule was a disaster.  Take India. When the British
first moved into Bengal, it was one of the richest places in the world.
The first British merchant warriors described it as a paradise. That area
is now Bangaldesh and Calcutta - the very symbols of despair and
hopelessness."  (p 54) 

"Japan fended it [European conquest a century ago] off almost entirely.
That's why Japan is the one area of the Third World that developed. ... To
strengthen the point, you need only look at the parts of Europe that were
colonialized.  Those parts - like Ireland - are much like the Third World."
(p 60) 

I didn't realize that imperialism sucked the blood and life out of people.
Why?  Their culture being sat on smashes everything fine about it that's
developed over many, many generations?    ?Being systematically robbed
takes the heart out of them?  Loss of control and power over their lives?
Lots more shit rolling downhill?  And then the wonders of the conquerers
coupled with their arrogance, their belief that they have the One Right Way
to Live makes them question themselves?  ?Domination leads to corruption of
their traditional leaders?  Which robs their culture of its integrity and
balance?  Of it's justice?   

Do the dominators hate the subsistence farmers for their independence?  The
wage earners in the city are more subservient?  Do they hate us for the
same reason? 

One Right Way to Live is Daniel Quinn talk (great stuff, his bestseller
Ishmael has a gorilla describing human culture, good for a new student,
clear, short and profound).   It means that the top dogs have justified
themselves by saying they are the only People.  10,000 years ago it was
farmers.  Later it was Eqyptians, Romans, Christians, scientists.  The
other cultures have no value.  They are no better than animals. 

Do I sound on target?  


Nan Hildreth  Nan.Hildreth@MciOne.com

In the acclaimed Footprint of Nations Report, 
Wackenagel and Rees show us that we are the country 
with the largest ecological footprint.   Not India 
with three times our population.  Singapore, Hong Kong, 
the Netherlands, and Belgium equal or exceed us in excessive 
per person footprint above resources.  But ours is 
the highest TOTAL footprint in excess of resources.  
That is, the excess per person times the number of people.  
 We are 23% of the global impact although we are less than 5% of the
globe's people.
http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/english/footprint/ranking.htm