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sikander, i didn't say that there were no benefits. what i said is that the benefits do not outweigh the problems they've caused.
yes, the ethnic fights were there in africa before the euros got there. but that's also whitewashing, if you'll pardon the term, the fact that it's likely you wouldn't have half of these "civil" wars which are fought along ethnic lines inside a country--especially when these groups are separated across several different borders.
sorry, but i believe in primordialism. evidence seems to show that when ethnic groups are separated into their own countries, less devastating conflicts occur more often than the concentrated extermination of the hated minority in mixed societies.
if you didn't have the unnatural european borders, i doubt that we'd've seen the exact same situation as in rwanda, or the turmoil that until recently was in nigeria, or the mess that was the partitioning of india/pakistan.
look. the point is not that imperialism, or manifest destiny, was knowingly evil. it was, in most cases, unintentional but mistaken in its deeds. the point is rather that whatever good came out of it, it wasn't worth the cost that was paid.
something that was done unintentionally does not make it any less wrong. something that was done unwittingly or unknowingly does not make it any less devastating.
the extermination of the old natives' ways was by and large, an unwitting, unintentional campaign. in manifest destiny, we weren't out to kill every last red man, we weren't going there to ensure that only we, the white man succeeded. we thought we deserved the land, and anybody already there, well, they'd figure out on their own what to do.
in any event, it's all in the past. excoriating oneself for the misdeeds of your ancestors, well, is a bit silly. if you're absolutely intent on it though, then stop whinging about it and actually go do something.
do you feel guilty for the misdeeds propagated on the natives? then go to a reservation and donate your time and effort to their betterment. if you're not going to do that, stfu and go do something else.
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