Paradise Lost or Never Found?

 

My wife and I just got back from a two-and-a-half week vacation in Hawaii – you know, the one place in the world that really was paradise before evil white colonists came. Except that it wasn’t. Yes, white people brought lots of invasive plants and animals to the islands. But so, it turns out, did the Polynesians who originally settled Hawaii. They brought food animals – rats and pigs – along with various plants. (On the other hand, birds also carried seeds to the islands as did inanimate forces like the wind and the ocean.)

Well, okay. But surely the evil white colonists brought discrimination, right? Well, no. Discrimination was there long before the colonists showed up. It turns out that traditional Hawaiian culture was based on a system of three castes: rulers, commoners, and slaves.

Hawaiians were also subject to a strict code of conduct known as kapu, which included countless taboos enforced by the threat of capital punishment. For example, a commoner or slave could be executed for touching a chief or for fishing in waters reserved for royalty.

Well, okay, but how about imperialism? Well, the Tahitians conquered Hawaii a few times. But hundreds of years after the Tahitians stopped coming by to pester them, King Kamehameha conquered all of the tribes on all of the islands and created a Hawaiian empire. Yes, America annexed Hawaii well over 100 years later and replaced the Hawaiian kings and queens, but it was just another case of one imperialist conquering another.

Gee. Maybe evil isn’t confined to people of a single (pale) skin color.

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  1. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Richard Fulmer: Maybe evil isn’t confined to people of a single (pale) skin color.

    I’ve long since decided people are people. Some good; some bad. It doesn’t matter where they come from people around the world are more alike than different, and the bad and good pretty well evenly distributed in every race and nationality.

    • #1
  2. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Richard Fulmer: It turns out that traditional Hawaiian human culture was based on a system of three castes: rulers, commoners, and slaves.

    Yup…underneath the various skin, hair color, eye color, facial features, etc, humanity shares this tendency toward sorting themselves into these common social structures and power dynamics.

    Thus it ever was.

    • #2
  3. danok1 Member
    danok1
    @danok1

    This entire post is Wrongthink! @richardfulmer, report to Room 101 immediately!

    • #3
  4. PHenry Inactive
    PHenry
    @PHenry

    It’s not discrimination nor imperialism nor evil if non whites do it. Only a privileged white wouldn’t know that!

    /sarc

    Apparently, history only began when white Europeans began to colonize.  Until then, the whole world was the garden of Eden. 

    • #4
  5. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    PHenry (View Comment):
    Apparently, history only began when white Europeans began to colonize. Until then, the whole world was the garden of Eden.

    Jesus Christ is also to blame.  I’ve heard leftists on the radio describe life prior to Christianity as one where everyone lived in peace and harmony, people didn’t have to work for a living, gay rights were universally recognized, women were treated as equal to men, etc.  The whole world was one big Woodstock.

    • #5
  6. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    Richard Fulmer: Maybe evil isn’t confined to people of a single (pale) skin color.

    I’ve long since decided people are people. Some good; some bad. It doesn’t matter where they come from people around the world are more alike than different, and the bad and good pretty well evenly distributed in every race and nationality.

    People aren’t perfect – even those not “corrupted” by civilization. Moreover, people aren’t perfectible. Some leftists who finally understand this come to believe that humanity is a cancer on the face of the earth that must be eradicated.

    • #6
  7. Gumby Mark Coolidge
    Gumby Mark
    @GumbyMark

    I believe the only way to rectify this injustice and ensure global wokeness, is for mandatory DNA testing of every human.  Based upon their predominant ancestry they would then have to go back to their starting point at some set date, say 3,000 or 4,000 years ago.  Then we can start the clock again and let history proceed once more.  It’s the only fair way.

    • #7
  8. Kim K. Inactive
    Kim K.
    @KimK

    We were on the Big Island in February for a week. At one point we took a sunrise tour to Mauna Kea. The tour started at 3:00 am and was about 7 hours from start to finish. Our guide/driver was a native of the Big Island and also incredibly knowledgeable about practically everything to do with the Hawaiian Islands. She obviously had lots of pride and was very fair about telling all sides of the history of the islands. No one group was the bad guys, even though she was sure to let us know there had been injustices at several points in the islands’ history. It was refreshing to get such a thorough and seemingly unbiased presentation.

    • #8
  9. drlorentz Member
    drlorentz
    @drlorentz

    I’m surprised they even let you haoles in. Consider what the locals did to Capt. Cook.

    King Kamehameha is not amused.

    • #9
  10. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Fair points that you bring up. There is also an idealization of the American Indian – or rather – First Nations … Which is an ironic name – they where not first (just before Europeans) and where not nations. If you look at the culture of the Iroquois, Cree and Blackfoot tribes for example – you’ll find many traditions and practices that would be very ‘troubling’ to modern supporters. Its not unique to the Hawaiian Islands, liberals excuse the unacceptable traditions of non-Caucasian tribes quite easily – flippantly even. 

    Are Americans in Hawaii about to sue Polynesians for preparations for the centuries of slavery?

     

    • #10
  11. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    drlorentz (View Comment):
    King Kamehameha is not amused.

    How did a statue of a king survive the recent anti-statuism?

    • #11
  12. barbara lydick Inactive
    barbara lydick
    @barbaralydick

    Seawriter (View Comment):
    I’ve long since decided people are people. Some good; some bad. It doesn’t matter where they come from people around the world are more alike than different, and the bad and good pretty well evenly distributed in every race and nationality.

    Among Dennis Prager’s thought provoking offerings is a story of Viktor Frankl, a rabbi who survived Auschwitz, though all of his family perished there.  Rabbi Frankl came to a rather remarkable conclusion as a result of that horrifying experience: he said that when all was said and done, there are only two races – the decent and the indecent.  The decent act on those values good people of any race aspire to; the indecent shun those values, hold firm to, and actively engage in that which is the very worst in some of us.  So, he determined, once one makes this distinction, little else matters.

    • #12
  13. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Rush Limbaugh says everything is settled by force. He’s right. Now we are doing it to ourselves with government. 

    • #13
  14. PedroIg Member
    PedroIg
    @PedroIg

    Yesterday, I overheard a conversation pertaining to the recent news story about child sacrifice discovered in Peru.  Here’s the link to the BBC reportage on it:   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-43928277

    The gist of the conversation was the epiphany that the “first peoples/native Americans/what have you” were indeed as capable of evil as those who succeeded them.  No whitewashing.  No excuses.

    • #14
  15. Larry3435 Inactive
    Larry3435
    @Larry3435

    On the one hand, using actual historical facts to counter the SJW narrative of privileged white oppressors and their evil imperialism just seems kind of unfair.  It should end the discussion right there.  On the other hand, the left is congenitally incapable of hearing or absorbing facts.  So the discussion goes on; if you want to dignify the tantrums of the left as being part of a “discussion.”

    I don’t think it has been mentioned, so let me – I highly recommend James Michener’s book (the book; not the movie!) Hawaii, which tells the whole story.

    • #15
  16. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    Great post!  And I can’t think of any area of the world with regard to which  the myths of white supremacy, the evils of colonialism, couldn’t be similarly debunked. 

    • #16
  17. barbara lydick Inactive
    barbara lydick
    @barbaralydick

    PedroIg (View Comment):
    The gist of the conversation was the epiphany that the “first peoples/native Americans/what have you” were indeed as capable of evil as those who succeeded them. No whitewashing. No excuses.

    In addition to the ancient Chimú civilization there were the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Mayans.  Bloodthirsty all.

    On the site History on the Net (one would think Howard Zinn had a hand in that site!), there is a piece entitled “6 Reasons Why the Mayans Were an Awesome Civilization” wherein one of the reasons was that they invented the first organized “ball game.”  Right.  A polo-type game using the head of one of the sacrificed.  Sometimes it was a skull inside a hard rubber ball.  And of those 6 reasons, no mention was made of human sacrifice.  Oops – musn’t make judgements about other cultures.  All cultures are equal, don’t ya know.

    As an aside, there is evidence of Genghis Khan and company playing a similar polo-like game in Asia…

    • #17
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