#307 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Thursday March 24)
Good morning,
VIRTUE SIGNALING INDIAN LANDS
Many of us have now been to meetings of nonprofits, PTAs, governmental entities and other well-meaning organizations that begin with an acknowledgement that the meeting is being conducted on the sacred lands of indigenous people. The intent is admirable. The practice is, I believe, more political theatre than actually beneficial. We learn nothing of these cultures in these brief nods to the treatment of Native Americans, plus I’m not even sure the recitation is based in any sort of logic. After all, there were some 300,000 Native Americans in Southern California when the Spaniards came. I doubt they occupied each and every acre upon which these organizations now stand. Nor do I think did their culture acknowledge “ownership” of lands, particularly those they did not inhabit or use.
To acknowledge that a culture once existed here is important, but the words somehow seem hollow. Performative actions may feel good and may even raise awareness. But I would be curious whether these same people are doing something about their words. Are they contributing to nonprofit organizations working in the Native American community or are supporting legislation to improve their situation?
THE PROOF OF INTENTIONAL INFECTION JUST ISN’T THERE
As someone who still has a difficult time getting his arms around how slavery ever was acceptable to any people in history (while acknowledging it was a matter of accepted fact through much of human history) and has an even harder time imagining that the inhabitants of an otherwise advanced and enlightened society like Germany could march people to their extermination, I also struggle with the notion that Europeans committed genocidal acts against the Native Americans. Without doubt the settlers usurped land, lied, violated treaties, murdered and committed any number of other crimes and there were notable genocidal acts to eradicate the Indians from their homes. But it also is true that many of these Native Americans committed acts of violence against the settlers.
But most disturbing of the actions of European settlers is the nearly accepted fact that they consciously infected blankets with smallpox, in order to kill off the Native American population. While it is true that smallpox (and other diseases) rapidly spread through the unprotected indigenous population, there is precious little data supporting the notion that any of it was intentional. To my knowledge, there is only a single example of this nefarious intent being considered as a matter of policy. To blame the Europeans for bringing diseases to the New World is no more appropriate than blaming the Chinese for the Black Death that spread across Europe, claiming 1/3 of the population in the 14th century (or, for that matter, blaming the Chinese for the COVID-19 pandemic in our own time). Sometimes the simplest explanation—that these things simply happened, without malice aforethought, is the correct explanation.
ARE COLONISTS BY DEFINITION BAD?
There is a controversy playing out in my home town of Anaheim, focused on the “Anaheim Colonists” of Anaheim High School. For those without roots in the home of Disneyland, the name is a bit misleading. While the school’s mascot clearly is a cartoon of a Puritan colonist, the original derivation of the name is from Anaheim being a German colony. Indeed, this “home by the river” boasts a “Mother Colony House” dedicated to the City’s German forebears.
While Anaheim High School was a rival of the mighty Loara Saxons (named for a warlike tribe of Germanic raiders of the British Isles), I think they should keep their name. I think we have collectively lost our minds over the use of the word “colonist.” Colonizing is not necessarily a dirty word; provided there is room for everyone and a desire to coexist. The problem in America is the displacement and treatment of people inhabiting the land—even when there was “enough land to go around.” Throughout history, tribes (and eventually countries) colonized lands that typically were under-populated and offered natural resources. It is not dispositive that any colonist by definition is evil or is seeking to murder the inhabitants. And while smallpox and other diseases made their way to the indigenous populations of America, their spread was overwhelmingly accidental.
To colonize is not, per se, a bad thing. So long as colonization does not displace the people who were there before, so long as natural resources are exploited together and not to the benefit of the “interloper,” colonization may actually in some instances be a positive good.
WHOSE HOUSE?
Several people have offered additional commentary on my noting that the spelling of the Rams fans mantra of “Who’s House?” is wrong. Brian Chang says that “Who’s House” is, of course, the TARDIS Police Box of Dr. Who. Bruce Patterson and Gary Bruton both noted that perhaps The Who has been scheduled for next year’s halftime show. This was just an early notice. Finally, Mitch Kreeger notes that SoFi stadium is not a house—but it essentially a domicile—and, therefore, is really a home. So “Whose Home?—Rams’ Home” would be the correct usage.
Have a good day,
Glenn
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