yay ~ !

[lookingland]

it's The New World day ~ !

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terrence malick does native america ~ whoohoo!

if i ever got grossly famous, i would beg terrence malick to direct all my movies. malick has had a greater impact on my writing than many authors.

i am counting the minutes before i can leave for bloomington to go watch this film (and have been counting since november when it was originally supposed to be released!)

: D

Comments

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i don't think i was very clear in my previous post ~ i wasn't using young america and innocent in a metaphorical way to describe america and the colonization. i was using colonization as a metaphor for the seduction of an innocent girl in a very literal way ~ because that's what the story is about more or less.

i think it can work both ways, in truth. while i agree the whole "paradise lost" thing has been hammered to death the truth is native america didn't need colonists "improving" their lives through technology/science and in that imposition they were, in fact, dragged out of eden. colonist "knowledge" brought sickness, terror, and a new kind of war to people who had been otherwise in a balance. you only have to look at the huron missions to see what chaos Christianity alone wrecked on the northeastern tribes ~ and those were people trying to do good.

so no, america was not young and native peoples were not innocent, but the colonists still descended like greedy snakes into the garden and taught the people that they were naked and should be ashamed.

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

Hmm, see, I am debating that the situation can be taken into light of all history. And of course Rome wiped out Carthage, Israel wiped out the ancient tribes of the middle east, etc.... What I mean is that it isn't that unique a situation in history really. And I am quite certain that a few native american tribes wiped out others of prehistory too. I guess I see it as just the way of history in this world. It happens everywhere to every culture. And I rather can't blame the Europeans for trying to Christianize america...perhaps some missions efforts were unChristian and therefore hypocritical, but very much like the temper of that time...but, for evangelizing, they wouldn't be Christians if they didn't try to display their faith to others and spread the word.

P.S-- I am playing devil's advocate. ;)

P.S.S.--as a safeguard to your reply, I have already declared my independence and enlisted Lee, Longstreet, and Stonewall Jackson...leaving you with, for the foreseeable future, just *coughs* McClellan...;)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

ew ~ i dun't want tricky Mick. ptui.

i'm not saying any of those things that you are. of course colonization and war are inevitabilities. that doesn't make them right or okay. and even the best efforts of the missionaries were disruptive and destructive in some (many) cases ~ in others they were not and worked to the good of the people.

but i'm not even picking sides here. i'm just saying it's wrong. simply wrong. i don't think it's unique. i don't think the desire to spread the gospel is evil. i'm saying there was a culture here that wanted to keep their way of life and were bulldozed by the spanish, the french, the english, and anybody else (Christian or not) who believed in the entitlement of Manifest Destiny.

Manifest Destiny is evil. it's the stuff of imperialism. it's the justification of little hitlers and napoleons all over the world. and little constantines too.

God did not create man to make war and enslave one another. it's what we do, but it isn't right and never will be.

: o p