New GD thread on this topic:
Why should the ‘uncontacted’ tribes remain so?
That’s truly sad.
Why the Hell would anybody want to actively reach out & contact these people? Hasn’t history already done a perfectly fine job of dictating that impressing “civilization” on native societies only has negative outcomes? Another poster already said it, but Westerners aren’t waiting in the wings to hand out blankets, food, & modern medicine to these uncontacted tribes; on the contrary, if they are forced into our society, they’ll only be met with harsh poverty and the complete destruction of their livelihoods.
I mean, Hell, I live in the US and last I checked, Native Americans here are still struggling with modern life in spite of having been forcefully integrated into Western society over the past six centuries. Yes, they’re doing better now than they were, say, fifty years ago, but they’re still nowhere near the average standard of living for other ethnicities in this country.
Why, at this point in history, would anybody want to restart that process of integration on an uncontacted tribe? It’s awfully presumptuous & arrogant to think that these natives are desperately in need of Western civilization; they’ve been getting along just fine for centuries & they’ll presumably continue to survive if left untouched.
If they want to continue to live in their neolithic societies, that’s they’re right, just as it should be up to them to make contact with the Western world if they choose to do so. The thing is, allow that first contact to be up to them instead of out of some misplaced “duty” of the outside world to “civilize” them.
A missionary went to a remote tropical island where the natives lived simple lives.
Missionary: “You should come to America and live a civilized life.”
Native: “Why?”
Missionary: “Because there you could get an education.”
Native: “Why would I want an education?”
Missionary: “So you can get a good job.”
Native: “Why do I need a good job?”
Missionary: “So you can make a lot of money.”
Native: “What do I need with a lot of money?”
Missionary: “So that two weeks a year you can take a vacation.”
Native: “Where would I go on vacation?”
Missionary: “I don’t know, someplace exotic, like a remote tropical island.”