09-07-2014, 03:36 PM
I'm no apologist for Western civilization. I'm well aware of the damage done both to the environment and native cultures around the world by the European/American imperialist/colonialist mentality. In fact, I served in the Marine Corps Infantry in Vietnam in 1968-69 and have seen up close and personal just how much environmental and cultural damage modern cultures can inflict on those less powerful. But does anyone think for a minute that the power hungry Alii of old would not have behaved the same way if they had only had the technology.
Yes, the Americans made an illegal land grab of the Hawaiian islands and the Hawaiians got a raw deal. But they were getting a raw deal from their own rulers long before the Europeans and Americans ever got to the islands. They were subject to an absurd Kapu system that favored their royalty, human sacrifice was integral to their religion, and conscription into unnecessary wars among the various chieftans was constant--even when there was more than enough land and resources for all the people to live in peace. In fact their entire lives were subject to the whims of whatever chief happened to be in power--and they were not all beneficent rulers.
Not only that, but monarchies have never proven themselves to be a very just form of governance. Dynastic systems tend to produce self-centered, spoiled, and over-privileged brats that are out of touch with the needs of their people and who, consequently, end up becoming the least qualified to be rulers. Electoral democracy may have its faults but it beats a monarchical system hands down. I understand and support the desire of the Hawaiian people to stay in touch with their cultural roots and applaud their efforts to do so. But I would advise them not to turn a blind eye to the side of their culture that was not at all egalitarian or just and was rife (as were all pre-literate cultures) with superstitious nonsense. And let's be clear, most of the Hawaiians alive today cannot trace their ancestry back to the Alii who no doubt enjoyed the benefits of living off the labors of many, many commoners. Would any one of today's Hawaiians really wish to go back to living under a feudal system in which they were just one of the commoners who had no say in how they were ruled.
It may not be fair or just, but the Hawaiian islands were ripe for the picking, and they would have eventually been grabbed by one powerful nation or another--that's the naked truth of geo-political history. The Hawaiians were just plain lucky that it was the Americans, instead of the Russians or the British or the Japanese, that finally imposed themselves on the islands. Disease and cultural/political subjugation were coming to the islands; and if history is any lesson, the Americans were not the worst thing that could have happened.
I've spent a good part of my life living in other cultures and married outside of my own several times. I appreciate cultural diversity and am saddened that the dominant Western culture refuses to learn anything at all from the older cultures as it bulldozes its way across the world's cultural landscape. But there is also an upside to the global culture: we live longer now than at any time in history, we have a better health system (it was not native herbal systems that eliminated smallpox, cholera, and many other plagues), and we have a more healthy, varied diet. We are not so subject to droughts and famines and when natural disasters hit we get assistance from other places that have been unaffected.
I don't subscribe to the myth that primitive cultures had a much better way of life than we do today, but I do think we would be wise to take some lessons from them. Respect for the natural environment would be highest on my list of what the modern world could learn from the older cultures. But no one should be in denial of how much superstition plays in the old ways and how it can blind us from the truth of how things really are.
I don't think any of us benefit from "lenses"--Western or Native. For all those who love the truth, it's time to throw away the lenses that distort reality and only serve to make us think that we are so much different from each other. We all have the same basic needs and wants. We all need clean air and water, good food, shelter, companionship, entertainment, a way to make a living, people to love, people to be loved by--the list goes on. Only when we take off those aforementioned lenses, can we understand how alike we really are; and only when we understand how alike we really are, can we appreciate our differences.
Yes, the Americans made an illegal land grab of the Hawaiian islands and the Hawaiians got a raw deal. But they were getting a raw deal from their own rulers long before the Europeans and Americans ever got to the islands. They were subject to an absurd Kapu system that favored their royalty, human sacrifice was integral to their religion, and conscription into unnecessary wars among the various chieftans was constant--even when there was more than enough land and resources for all the people to live in peace. In fact their entire lives were subject to the whims of whatever chief happened to be in power--and they were not all beneficent rulers.
Not only that, but monarchies have never proven themselves to be a very just form of governance. Dynastic systems tend to produce self-centered, spoiled, and over-privileged brats that are out of touch with the needs of their people and who, consequently, end up becoming the least qualified to be rulers. Electoral democracy may have its faults but it beats a monarchical system hands down. I understand and support the desire of the Hawaiian people to stay in touch with their cultural roots and applaud their efforts to do so. But I would advise them not to turn a blind eye to the side of their culture that was not at all egalitarian or just and was rife (as were all pre-literate cultures) with superstitious nonsense. And let's be clear, most of the Hawaiians alive today cannot trace their ancestry back to the Alii who no doubt enjoyed the benefits of living off the labors of many, many commoners. Would any one of today's Hawaiians really wish to go back to living under a feudal system in which they were just one of the commoners who had no say in how they were ruled.
It may not be fair or just, but the Hawaiian islands were ripe for the picking, and they would have eventually been grabbed by one powerful nation or another--that's the naked truth of geo-political history. The Hawaiians were just plain lucky that it was the Americans, instead of the Russians or the British or the Japanese, that finally imposed themselves on the islands. Disease and cultural/political subjugation were coming to the islands; and if history is any lesson, the Americans were not the worst thing that could have happened.
I've spent a good part of my life living in other cultures and married outside of my own several times. I appreciate cultural diversity and am saddened that the dominant Western culture refuses to learn anything at all from the older cultures as it bulldozes its way across the world's cultural landscape. But there is also an upside to the global culture: we live longer now than at any time in history, we have a better health system (it was not native herbal systems that eliminated smallpox, cholera, and many other plagues), and we have a more healthy, varied diet. We are not so subject to droughts and famines and when natural disasters hit we get assistance from other places that have been unaffected.
I don't subscribe to the myth that primitive cultures had a much better way of life than we do today, but I do think we would be wise to take some lessons from them. Respect for the natural environment would be highest on my list of what the modern world could learn from the older cultures. But no one should be in denial of how much superstition plays in the old ways and how it can blind us from the truth of how things really are.
I don't think any of us benefit from "lenses"--Western or Native. For all those who love the truth, it's time to throw away the lenses that distort reality and only serve to make us think that we are so much different from each other. We all have the same basic needs and wants. We all need clean air and water, good food, shelter, companionship, entertainment, a way to make a living, people to love, people to be loved by--the list goes on. Only when we take off those aforementioned lenses, can we understand how alike we really are; and only when we understand how alike we really are, can we appreciate our differences.
