From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Wed Dec 17 1997 - 17:49:17 MST
Wings of the Morning wrote:
>
> Brian D Williams wrote:
>
> > "A country that wants to
> > be unarmed and free
> > wants what never has
> > been, and never will be."
> >
> > Thomas Jefferson
>
> Native Americans. Aborigines. Oh wait. Sorry we already killed
> most of them with our guns. Oops, my bad. :)
The poem said nothing about guns. It said unarmed. THis means whatever
present state of weapons technology. COntrary to your naive and ignorant
ideas about native americans and aborigines, they were not peaceful
(only in the exception), nor were they unarmed. Despite an early numbers
superiority, they lost out to higher technology in terms of fighting
tactics and strategy, as well as simply industrial vs. hunter gatherer
societies, not because they weren't armed. Almost as soon as we got off
the boat, they were stealing, killing, or trading for our horses and
guns, and when they couldn't they were highly efficient at using what
was considered extremely primitive weapons technology to fight, kill,
and massacre people. Before we arrived on these shores, the different
indian nations were almost constantly at each other's throats due to
their cultural traditions of honor and counting coup. There is a limit
as to how many people can live on the land in a hunter gatherer society,
and that number is far far less than that possible in an agrarian
society. They were always fighting over resources that, to a
hunter'gatherer were in constant scarce supply.
The native americans also knew well the principle of "live free or die".
That is why they died in such numbers, because to them, living by our
ways was not freedom. Fighting and dying opposing the growth of our ways
was the only honorable thing for most to do.
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?
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