Homogeneity, some more

[David Casseres]

So, I'm finally going to comment on an idiocy I committed a little while 
back, since no one else has:

I wrote
    
> 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....

"Particularly appealing" to whom?  Why, to me, and probably to most of 
you foax as well.  A bunch of highly literate English-speakers.  With an 
inclination to envy and admire certain cultures which, if we learn even a 
little bit about them, we couldn't stand to live in for more than a few 
weeks, tops.

Mind you, I still think it's sad that those Cook Islanders would rather 
watch whitefolks fuck on a TV screen than go fishing or canoeing.  But 
nobody's asked them for *their* feeling about it, not even Theroux -- 
though his book does convey his impression that they are sad people in 
these times.

Us modern Elect foax (relatively speaking), we need those preterite 
Others just as much as the ravening colonizers of Africa or America or 
the Pacific did or do....



Cheers,
David