dohboi wrote:The Native Americans that I work with every day who are mostly hooked on alcohol that their genetics didn't prepare them to handle, or on other junk, living squalid lives...
Yes, its amazing the poor choices that some people make, isn't it.
On the other hand, I'm lucky enough to have worked with lots of very bright and centered native Americans and Eskimos here at the University. Some native people are very successful at academic pursuits and are leaders in their own communities. Don't imagine that the unfortunate souls you are working with tell the whole story about the capabilities and intelligence and success of native peoples.
dohboi wrote:De Tocqueville wrote about the US in the early 1800s, and his footnotes are full of true stories of Westerners who lived among Native Americans for a while and decided to 'go native.' If Western culture was so obviously superior in every way to especially these 'most savage' of cultures by comparison, there shouldn't have been any such stories.
Thats where you are headed down the wrong path. Your suggestion that western culture is "superior in every way" to Native American cultures is just wrong. The actual story is quite a bit more complicated and nuanced then that.
I'd try to explain it to you, but then you aren't comprehending what I've already said so lets just agree to disagree on this one.
Cheers!