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Depends on "acquired" means. Pillages as part of a war? Then yes, why not give it back? "Acquired" in terms of gifted by the other party, like this Obelisk, the
by diggan 1y ago
Depends on "acquired" means. Pillages as part of a war? Then yes, why not give it back? "Acquired" in terms of gifted by the other party, like this Obelisk, then no, that wouldn't make sense. Same goes for purchased.
But things stolen with violence or threat of violence, should probably be returned (if they want it returned). While we shouldn't hold children responsible for the actions of our parents, we can also be better than our parents and return things we know aren't rightfully ours.
Off-topic, but you're probably one of the top 3 persons in the world with the most similar first+last name as myself, with a Levenshtein Distance of only 6 :)
- tough 1y agoAmericans "purchased" new york from the natives after feeding them alcohol to decimate their population for a few dollars.
- autoexec 1y agoEverything in America is "pillaged" I guess and should be returned. Seems unrealistic.
- bigstrat2003 1y agoHonestly, I would have more respect for people who do land acknowledgements if they tried to give the land back. I don't think they should (because I believe that we shouldn't attempt to fix the sins of those who are long since dead), but at least then they would be attempting to walk the walk. Right now it comes off very poorly because people go "this land belongs to the natives" and then happily continue to possess it as if saying "well you own this technically" makes everything alright.
- defrost 1y agoYou must be well impressed with Gough Whitlam and Eddie Mabo et al then. > to fix the sins of those who are long since dead A good number of land right issues and acts of racism began with those long dead and continued forward under the actions of generations that followed, perpetuated in some form by some still living. In a US context there are still current acts of administration that impact native title and rights to reservations that are current and contentious.
- autoexec 1y ago> I believe that we shouldn't attempt to fix the sins of those who are long since dead I mean, we should try where it's possible and reasonable and the impact is ongoing. When a bunch of long dead people passed a law saying that women can't own property we were right to later correct that sin. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be trapped by the horrible choices of the dead. We just have to be careful about when and how we try to correct the wrongs of the past.