Earlier this morning I was considering what the Native Americans did wrong. Though they did so much right, they weren't ready for interacting with a group of people who would stop at nothing to take their land away from them, and who had the belief in a supernatural being that wanted them to have it. The typical "injun" war was a punitive mission that generally succeeded in one side or the other learning a lesson; the white man, however, refused to learn. The more lessons the natives tried to teach us, the more forces we gathered to fight them, kill them, destroy them and their "inferior" culture.
As much as I value the input and ideas of some of my fellow occupiers, I feel that the principle of nonviolence can only go so far, and that a people that wishes to survive can never entirely purge the concept and the practice of violent attack against a ruthless enemy. Even if the whole world could be convinced to lay down arms and work out differences in civil ways, invaders from other parts of the universe may not be so inclined.
last updated 2012-02-13 01:45:01. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com