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Is western civilisation better than aboriginies of the past? (1 Viewer)

Graney

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"You go on about how Aborigines were so primitive and the English were so advanced. The ‘sophisticated’ Europeans came to Australia and walked around in their funny suits, sweating their arses off while Aborigines knew how to take care of the land, the sophisticated Europeans were hopeless.
You guys are talking about the lack of Aboriginal inventions. What is so bad about the way Aborigines lived? The Aborigines took care of the land damn better than the clever whites. Aborigines burnt off forests to protect them from bushfires and they could survive in the bush. Look at our white advanced society – we are destroying the planet. Where have all these amazing inventions led us? Happiness? I think the Aborigines were quite happy before whites came along. This (current time) is the best we’ve ever had it, in terms of ‘quality of life’ and technology and yet it hasn’t really made us much happier. Isn’t that the point?
Aborigines had a much more complex society than the primal creatures you seem to think of them as. Aborigines do not have smaller brains you obtuse person.
Their decline in population - you attribute to gradual stamping out of those with smaller brains. Lol. Hey the whites deliberately trying to stamp out the Aborigines or ‘breed’ them out would have no effect? Right.
Did you read what that hpemma person said? –“If you knew anything about the Aboriginal culture, you would know the kind of values they have are not focussed on intellect or 'succeeding' in society. They care about one another, about families and beliefs. They knew how to look after each other and survive peacefully. Who the hell are you to say that this is not as important as technological advances?? Why is our society 'better'?”
She is so right. They had an amazing, deep-rooted, unique culture.
You’ll all probably go on about how western technology increased life expectancy and allowed more efficient travelling or whatever but this doesn’t make western culture superior. You need to look at it overall, and nothing about western culture makes it superior. Like hpemma was saying. Why do you value technology over other values? Furthermore, like other people were saying, you have to consider the environment. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth; of course the people living on it were going to live differently to those in Europe. Like those other people were saying, Australia is isolated, lacks native animals that can be properly domesticated.
You guys sarcastically suggesting that sticks were the most important achievement by Aborigines is incredibly degrading and offensive. Moreover it shows that you are stupid, not only because of your lack of knowledge of the culture you are condemning but because it shows that you aren’t listening to other people on here. Like, for example, Katie, your response to hpemma’s post - you didn’t take on her message but rather tried to find a loophole in her argument which is feeble, especially since your response did not disprove what she was saying. The fact that indigenous Australians (like every other civilisation that has ever existed on earth) had conflicts does not mean anything and it doesn’t disprove the fact that the Aborigines knew how to take care of the land, they lived in peace with the land and with each other (and like Wil Shakespear said – they didn’t have many wars at all, especially compared to Europe). You have no wish to change your view or even gain more information which might influence your view. Even if you don’t agree with what we are saying, you should try and respect the culture (and not be so dismissive and offensive)."

http://community.boredofstudies.org/3975183/post-557.html

Which is best?
 
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despite sarcastic/racist comments there are arguments for and against on both sides, but when aborigines are compared to other ancient civilisations of the past they were definitely not of the same level
 

Graney

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There's something to be said for being sustainable custodians of the land. They were well adapted to the unique demands of the Australian continent.
 

jb_nc

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white people who endlessly blab on about the beauty of aboriginal culture/how much abos rule/etc are the fucking worst
 

Kwayera

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Graney said:
There's something to be said for being sustainable custodians of the land. They were well adapted to the unique demands of the Australian continent.
Well. It's likely that they contributed to the extinctions of the Australian megafauna (though not certain), so I wouldn't say completely sustainable.
 

Graney

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Extinction of megafauna happened because the newly arrived pacific island cultures weren't used to the landscape, and the megafauna hadn't evolved to cope alongside humans. Adaptation to sustainability took time and of course the rest of the Australian landscape to an extent was forced to adapt to their culture.
 

moll.

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I'd just like to point out that 500,000 people on Australia could not do anywhere near the amount of environmental damage as 20,000,000, even if they tried. So using the environment angle is misleading at best.
 

verdades

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Aborigines > Western civilisation.

They didn't kill the land.
They also didn't kill each other off.
 

Will Shakespear

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verdades said:
Aborigines > Western civilisation.

They didn't kill the land.
They also didn't kill each other off.
only coz they lived like wild animals, died at 30 or during childbirth, and so the population density never got high enough to allow them to do those things, even if they tried
 

banco55

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Western civilization gave the world Shakespeare, Newton etc.
 

Graney

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moll. said:
I'd just like to point out that 500,000 people on Australia could not do anywhere near the amount of environmental damage as 20,000,000, even if they tried. So using the environment angle is misleading at best.
20 million people is too many for Australia's carrying capacity.
 

big8oyjames

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Graney said:
20 million people is too many for Australia's carrying capacity.
meh i doubt it. i think if we had the infrastructure and a few major metropolitan cities inland we would be fine.
 

Will Shakespear

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banco55 said:
Western civilization gave the world Shakespeare, Newton etc.
yeah but not on an island by themselves

they had to build on the foundations they pinched from the arabs
who had to build on the foundations they pinched from the greeks & indians
etc.

western civilisation on an island alone would probably still be like the vikings
or aborigines
 

Kwayera

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moll. said:
I'd just like to point out that 500,000 people on Australia could not do anywhere near the amount of environmental damage as 20,000,000, even if they tried. So using the environment angle is misleading at best.
QFT.

Graney said:
20 million people is too many for Australia's carrying capacity.
And again, QFT.


It shits me off when people go "oh we need to increase immigration and the birth rate because omg we need more people." No.
 

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