Re: Re: The Vulnerable Planet (was Re: suburbia)

[Tim Bousquet <chicoexaminer@xxxxxxxxx>]

> >BTW, it's a mistake to conflate the invasion of the
> New World by
> >European germs with the European distribution of
> germ-ridden
> >blankets to the native Americans, as Louis seems to
> do. Though the
> >Europeans did engage in conscious germ warfare, a
> lot of the plagues
> >were spread simply by contact.

I think we should reconsider this notion. Europeans
were certainly aware of infectious diseases and their
ability to wipe out a military enemy; castle seiges
often involved catupulting diseased animals over the
castle walls with the hope of infecting the beseiged.
Also, just about everywhere in the united States there
were instances of infectious diseases being purposely
spread among the indigenous people. A newspaper
article about 1854 makes reference to such a case here
in northern California. But even if none of the above
were true, let me ask you this: if everywhere you went
you noticed that half the people you came in contact
with died, wouldn't you feel that maybe you should
stop going places? Whether or not the spread of
disease was an _active_ measure, it certainly was a
_conscious_ one.

Ward Churchhill wrote pretty thoroughly about this in
A Little Matter of Genocide.

tim

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