Perhaps you'd be good enough to explain to us all exactly what an "uncivilized lifestyle" is, what is "backward" about them, and exactly which "uncivilized" and

Perhaps you'd be good enough to explain to us all exactly what an "uncivilized lifestyle" is, what is "backward" about them, and exactly which "uncivilized" and "dark age" cultures you feel currently live lives which are "uncomfortable, short, and brutal." Exactly what characterizes "our way of life?" Technology? How does technology make our way of life "better?" Science? I'd advance that many of these "backwards cultures" are probably successful in large part because they are more scientific and experienced and thoughtful about the worlds they inhabit, than oh, say, the average conservative Republican in the "civilized" U.S...who denies global warming, thinks education is dangerous, wants to halt stem-cell research, believes in the efficacy of prayer in health care, etc etc. Maybe we could continue our discussion with a glance at the now classic 1990 New England Journal of Medicine article indicating that African American men in the middle of one of our modern and "civilized" cities and countries in the late twentieth century have a lower life expectancy than their counterparts in Bangladesh. "Dark ages quality?" "Myths and prejudices" You mean racism? Nationalism? "In God We Trust?" http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199001183220306 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199001183220306 Maybe we could move on to a thesis dozens of historians share, that the "primitive" Native Americans gave us MORE in the way of transfer of technology and culture than we provided. The agricultural knowledge passed on, the result of generations of careful observation and experimentation by Native Americans, was immense. Beyond agricultural technology and an enlightened, observational ecology, it's not even clear that the average European knew you could take a damned bath with water regularly as a healthful practice before immigrants gaped at Native Americans doing just that. More importantly, as Ian Frazier notes in the first chapter of "On the Rez" which I invite all the cultural imperialists here to read, at the time of Columbus there were probably about "eleven people in all of Europe who could do what they wanted." Amerigo Vespucci had brought back news that in the New World, "every one is his own master." Frazier goes on to show the profound impact Native American thought had on the idea of personal freedom among European immigrants still steeped in monarchy, and what that brought forth in America.