Xref: utzoo tor.general:533 ont.general:578 can.general:979 can.politics:1648
Newsgroups: tor.general,ont.general,can.general,can.politics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: A Good Idea From Dr. David Suzuki
Message-ID: <1988Oct22.225904.19358@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <536@yunccn.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 88 22:59:04 GMT

In article <536@yunccn.UUCP> john@yunccn.UUCP (John Hummel) writes:
>   Here is a quote from Dr. David Suzuki...
>     "Native peoples have an attitude in which the humans
>      are a part of a much greater picture...

Such a pity that even David Suzuki has been taken in by this.  The fact
is, native peoples varied widely, and more than a few had the same sort of
whatever-we-can-get-away-with attitude that we do.  They just didn't have
the power to do real damage, by and large.  Of course, you don't hear much
about this today:  the environmentalists want to present the native peoples
as squeaky-clean good examples, the native groups (only the least "civilized"
of which still retain a pro-nature attitude, even among groups that once had
one) find a pose of ecological sainthood useful for political purposes, and
miscellaneous do-gooders find romantic appeal in the semi-myth of the
ecologically aware native.  I'm not saying that the belief is completely
baseless -- it's not -- but one should distinguish facts from hype.
-- 
The meek can have the Earth;    |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
the rest of us have other plans.|uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu