Colonial Sadness

[Henry M]

Sorry you're "a little tired." I'm a little disgusted. 

I'm a rather fortunate person. Earn enough to pay my VISA debt. My 
peasant grandparents were lucky that they still had their language and 
songs and foods, and weren't capitalism/advertising targets. Just 
a progrom here and there. It starts to get sadder when a family on welfare 
feels attraction to, and pressure to buy, expensive junk, e.g. fancy 
sneakers and big macs. It would have been even sadder if my poor 
grandparents, who still retained familiar customs, were brainwashed 
to spend what little money that had on junk that had nothing to do 
with their present surroundings or past. 

That "Noble Savage" rhetoric is a lotta bulldada. If you don't 
believe that there is an intrinsic value in the preservation of 
aboriginal customs, or woulda been if Capitalist Conquistadors hadn't 
already supplanted most of them, then why preserve endangered 
species, why preserve heirloom vegetable seeds?

Nope! Nothing noble about Them savages! Here's a Barbie and some 
powdered milk for ya, little girl. Aaargh!

> From:          <LBernier at tribune.com>
> Date:          Thu, 12 Dec 1996 13:30:56 -0600
> Subject:       Re: Colonial Sadness
> To:            pynchon-l at waste.org

>      Please, Henry, "defense of colonialism?"  NOT!  I just get tired of 
>      the attitude that native peoples (defined as everyone outside of the 
>      predominantly white European "modern" culture) are somehow lessened if 
>      they, well, play with toy motor cars in their igloos, or mud huts, or 
>      UN housing or whatever.  It's an attitude which treads a little too 
>      close to the "noble savage" and I find it offensive.
>      
>      The problem with American capitalism isn't, IMO, that they force it 
>      down the throats of under-developed countries - it's that they use the 
>      labor force of those under-developed countries to make the goods at a 
>      fraction of what it would cost in the US, in order to ratchet up the 
>      profits, and NONE of those profits get reinvested in the country of 
>      origin.  
>      
>      Jean.
>      
> 
> ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
> Subject: Colonial Sadness
> Author:  gravity at nicom.com (Henry M) at Internet_tco
> Date:    12/11/96 10:00 PM
> 
> 
> It's called contrast. A useless factory-made toy. Frozen snow. 
> I haven't heard such thoughtless defense of colonialism in years. 
> "If they want it, it must be good for'em." It may be inevitable, and 
> I would never dream of keeping such blessings as guns and big macs 
> outta the hands of anyone that has been taunted with them, but to 
> feel no regret...
>      
> On 11 Dec 96 at 8:48, LBernier at tribune.com wrote:
>      
> > From:          <LBernier at tribune.com>
> > Date:          Wed, 11 Dec 1996 08:48:17 -0600 
> > Subject:       Re[2]: the Voice of Steely
> > To:            pynchon-l at waste.org
>      
> >      Craig opines
> > 
> >      > Reminds me of a photograph way back in a 1970s _National > 
> >      Geographic_, showing an Inuit hunkered down in his igloo for 
> >      the > night, playing with a battery-operated motor-racing
> >      track. One of > the strangest and saddest photos I have seen. 
> > 
> > 
> >      Why was this sad, Craig? - would you rather see the Inuit
> >      eating chewing on some dried seal meat while his fat pregnant 
> >      barefoot wife sits next to him repairing his mugluks with a
> >      bone needle and polar bear sinews?  Damn those third worlders 
> >      (although Alaska was part of the US last time I checked - or 
> >      was this a Canadian Inuit?) who just won't stay quaint and
> >      backwards!
> > 
> >      Jean.
> > 
> > 
> > ______________________________ Reply Separator
> > _________________________________ Subject: Re: the Voice of Steely 
> > Author:  "Craig Clark" <CLARK at SHEPFS2.UND.AC.ZA> at Internet_tco
> > Date:    12/11/96 8:56 AM
> > 
> > 
> > David Casseres <casseres at apple.com> writes: 
> > 
> > > One of the most heartbreaking examples I've read about is the 
> > > passage in Paul Theroux's _Happy Isles of Oceania_ about Cook 
> > > Islanders, who once had a particularly appealing version of
> > > Polynesian culture, vegging out on the sofa and watching imported 
> > > porno videos....
> > 
> > 
> > "Living inside the system is like driving across 
> >  the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent 
> >  on suicide."
> >    - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow" 
> > 
>      
> Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
> Moderation in moderation. -- Husky Mariner
>      
> http://www.nicom.com/~gravity
>      
> 
> 

Keep cool, but care. - TRP
Easier done than said. - HDM
Moderation in moderation - Husky Mariner

http://www.nicom.com/~gravity