Motivations

In my previous post I suggested that just as birds of different feathers can learn to love & respect one another, so too can people overcome their prejudices if they are adequately motivated.  Thus the question is: what motivated our ancestors to see American cultures as inferior to those of Europe?

Our ancestors were motivated by many things—money, religion, social upheavals, a lust for power, a call to adventure, stupidity.  Yes, I said stupidity.  Look, I respect our ancestors, I’m sorry for their sufferings, and I’m immensely grateful for the sacrifices they made on my behalf, but, let’s face it—they were, at best, bumbling fools.  They started out calling the Natives “Indians” because they thought they were somewhere near India, and then a high percentage of people in the first several generations of European immigration died of starvation in the most fertile, food-filled land on earth.  How could anyone starve when surrounded by rivers teeming with fish and skies darkened by flocks of delicious pigeons?  Obviously our ancestors were motivated to try new things mostly because they kept making so many stupid mistakes.

But to err is human and no one can blame our ancestors for being human; their other motivations, however, are less forgivable.  Their main motivation was very simple: they believed their culture was the best in the world because they enjoyed an immediate personal benefit from that belief.  Because their prejudices enabled them to get rich, to spread their religion, to improve their social standing, to increase their power, and to stave off boredom, they had no motivation whatsoever to see the world in any other way.

So what about us?  We still have all the same motivations our ancestors did.  We still take it for granted that “Old World” cultures were superior to upstart “New Worlds” cultures because that belief still gives us many immediate personal benefits.  What could possibly motivate us to abandon our heritage of seeing our culture as the apex of evolution, the supreme manifestation of everything humans can and should be?  Who wants to give up their smartphone to wear a loin cloth and live in a grass hut?

Um, look, I respect our culture, I enjoy lots of personal benefits from it, and I am truly grateful for clothes, houses, phones, and all the rest, but there’s something that really worries me, one nagging possibility that keeps snapping me awake in a cold sweat:  what if we’re still bumbling fools?

Ah, but this post is already way too long, so I’ll have to wait for next time to offer some solid motivation for us to see Native cultures as true equals at long last.