Re: Native American land rights

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>2. Capitalist culture is very seductive.  Almost every incident of contact
>subtly lures people to give up their ways.  The only exception I know
>occured when some islanders gave Captain Cook back his metal axes because
>they did not know how to make the tools themselves.  What fraction of
>Native Americans are willing to reject the casinos?  Maybe we have already
>destroyed so many indigeneous cultures that they have already incorated
>the worst of what the West has to offer.  Wasn't Russell Means running for
>the libertarian presidential nomination?

"Seductive" is a very loaded word here - it implies something devious is
going on. Had you used "attractive" instead, the rest of the paragraph
might have been impossible. What's the point? That capitalist culture has
lots of attractions that people should resist? If so, why? From what
vantage point can you criticize people for "giv[ing] up their ways" to its
"lures"? Maybe there are real positive attractions for most/many people
that it would be impossible, and maybe even wrong, to resist. Is it
possible to separate the "lures" - the positive aspects of capitalist
modernization - from exploitation, polarization, and the destruction of
nature?

Doug