Indigenous Nonsense
Posted by freedomforall 1 day, 22 hours ago to History
Excerpt:
"When the dust settles hundreds of years from now and people begin to assess the hows and whys of Western decline, the issue of colonialism will figure prominently.
...
The coffee-shop view of colonialism assumes that moral legitimacy flows automatically from historical priority. We are told that people who arrived first possess a uniquely valid claim to the land and that later arrivals are forever burdened by a kind of original sin. Arguments about ownership in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas frequently revolve around the endlessly repeated question of who was there first. To which I say, is this the real question?
Human history is not a story of static populations peacefully occupying fixed territories. Human history is a bloody mess. It is a story of migration, conquest, assimilation, intermarriage, commerce, shifting alliances, and conflict. Before one group was there, another was there. And before them, another. The idea of an original owner is neither logical nor provable.
...
The more important question is not who was here first. The more important question is who governs well. I submit that political legitimacy is derived from creating conditions in which human beings can flourish. Legitimacy is established through justice, the protection of liberty, the maintenance of order and safety, the safeguarding of property, the encouragement of opportunity, and the principle that rulers themselves are subject to law."
"When the dust settles hundreds of years from now and people begin to assess the hows and whys of Western decline, the issue of colonialism will figure prominently.
...
The coffee-shop view of colonialism assumes that moral legitimacy flows automatically from historical priority. We are told that people who arrived first possess a uniquely valid claim to the land and that later arrivals are forever burdened by a kind of original sin. Arguments about ownership in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas frequently revolve around the endlessly repeated question of who was there first. To which I say, is this the real question?
Human history is not a story of static populations peacefully occupying fixed territories. Human history is a bloody mess. It is a story of migration, conquest, assimilation, intermarriage, commerce, shifting alliances, and conflict. Before one group was there, another was there. And before them, another. The idea of an original owner is neither logical nor provable.
...
The more important question is not who was here first. The more important question is who governs well. I submit that political legitimacy is derived from creating conditions in which human beings can flourish. Legitimacy is established through justice, the protection of liberty, the maintenance of order and safety, the safeguarding of property, the encouragement of opportunity, and the principle that rulers themselves are subject to law."
Gota go to work but this post caught my eye.
Checking it out tonite, Freedom.
Thanks
Some comments:
Ranking colonial powers would surely put Britain, and the US, high on the list. A curious fact, or my opinion, near the bottom would be The Netherlands. Why?
Hong Kong. One of the great success stories, The British had the great good luck (or was it?) to find this odd chap, Cowperthwaite, for governor, who just let the population go ahead, which they did. Mind you, traditional Chinese cultural features of industriousness and low concern with political theory surely helped. Now, sadly, Hong Kong is subsumed into the morass of China.
India. Agree about cricket. Someone said that cricket when India and Pakistan teams play, reduces tension. That, or the opposite. Only cultures rich in carrying useless rituals over centuries could appreciate cricket.
The middle east. Andrews makes sensible comments.
Andrews says:
The more important question is not who was here first. The more important question is who governs well. I submit that political legitimacy is derived from creating conditions in which human beings can flourish. Legitimacy is established through justice, the protection of liberty, the maintenance of order and safety, the safeguarding of property, the encouragement of opportunity, and the principle that rulers themselves are subject to law.
There is American writer James Michener whose Hawaii I read with delight when I started serious reading. Mitchener in The Source puts much the same theme, that legitimacy of ownership and control is demonstrated, not by being there first, but by using the land, the people and resources, well.
(Re The Prodigal Son.).