HeavenlyPossumApr 27, 2024

When European settler colonists first encountered the indigenous communities of northeastern North America, many things surprised them about the indigenous communities.

Among these, the Europeans were surprised to discover how restrained and personally responsible the people in these communities were. They very, very rarely engaged in interpersonal violence. They didn’t insult each other; they didn’t lose their tempers around each other.

The Europeans were also surprised to discover that the people in these communities rarely, if ever, disciplined their children. They were, the Europeans believed, impossibly indulgent with their children, allowing them immense personal freedom.

I think it would surprise many contemporary readers that those two things don’t conflict with each other. People living in contemporary state-capitalist modernity tend to assume that children require quite rigid discipline, the routinized order of mass schooling, and fairly constant coercion to keep them out of trouble and turn them into civilized, responsible adults.

It turns out that lots of things we assume to be self-evidently true are not actually true at all.

Show threadDesert PlainsApr 27, 2024

@HeavenlyPossum

Forgive me for observing an underlying topic here, but it sounds so wrong, in all literatures, the idea of the "colonization".

From Canada to Argentina, the arrival of the Europeans, was just invasion: these lands were inhabited and had their civilizations or tribes, depending on the region of the American continent...

Show threadDesert PlainsApr 27, 2024

@HeavenlyPossum

For example, I cannot relate the arrival of Cortez, as an act of colonization, but indeed in invasion: claiming lands and resources that were in possession of another people. Same goes for Pizarro, Cabral, pilgrims who expelled indigenous groups from their own lands, even though they were invited to stay there, learn about the resources, the weather conditions, and once they were adapted, they imposed their will on taking those lands (Bury My Heart at Wonder Knee).

Show threadHeavenlyPossum

@desertplains

“Settler colonialism” is a term used to distinguish between kinds of colonialism, not as a euphemism to paper over what they did. Settler colonialism was common in the first phase of European imperialism and entailed the expropriation, replacement, and often genocide of indigenous communities. This is why populations in places like the Americas and Australia is primarily of European descent.

In contrast, the later stages of imperialism were marked by minimal European settlement in favor of highly extractivist economies and indirect rule—think of the plantations of the Kenyan highlands or mines of Zambia.

It doesn’t mean the perpetrators weren’t invaders; it just specifies what kind of invasion they were committing.

Apr 27, 2024 at 12:29pmWeb
Show threadDesert PlainsApr 27, 2024

@HeavenlyPossum

I see. Thanks for this explanation. It enlightened me, in some way. Makes sense, and intrigues me to know more about the matter.

I know it's too much of a fantasy, but considering the remote possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, with a civilization established, then arriving on our planet, appropriating our resources and lands, by force, and establishing the extension of their civilizations: then, I wonder how would it be called such act?

I wonder.

Show threadHeavenlyPossumApr 27, 2024

@desertplains

You’re welcome! I suspect we’d call it “an invasion.”

Show threadDesert PlainsApr 27, 2024

@HeavenlyPossum

I suspect that too. I have an idea to write a book about it, by the way. It requires a lot of research regarding the act of "colonization" as we know in our history. But still, same as you, I suspect. Thanks again for the inputs.

Very appreciated ✌️

Show threadHeavenlyPossumApr 27, 2024

@desertplains

Good luck with the book!

Show threadDesert PlainsApr 27, 2024

@HeavenlyPossum

Thanks. Still embryo idea but, gathering thoughts from like minded people, really helps too. Peace 🙂 🙏

Show threadバツ子（犬育てマニアApr 28, 2024
@desertplains @HeavenlyPossum
in english there's a sense-difference between "invasion" and "colonisation

the feeling of invasion is something like "when one group or country enters into or absorbs the territory of a group or country adjacent to it". country A sends armies into country B and annexes it or so

colonisation is something done more at a distance. a group of people from A enter into territory B, claiming B as their own. but in the end the people in B are not really synonymous with A; they are semi or totally independent. e.g. colonies in australia or north america were too far away from england for direct unified rule, so they had to some extent their own leadership and rules and customs and ways of doing things (and in the end this separation broke the empire apart

in sf writing, establishing a new population on a distant planet this way is often conceptualised as colonisation, as the distance of space between any two planets makes for that sort of independence in the same way that oceans did a couple of hundred years ago. of course "invasion" can still be applied to such behaviour in the direct sense of "someone else is entering where we live and commandeering" but
Show threadVoquiLeibbrandt pas un pseudoApr 28, 2024
@ageha @HeavenlyPossum @desertplains I found an interesting POV in SF - UK Le Guin's Rocannon's World. IMO the 'invaders' may discover what they are unprepared to meet. Thouht UK Le Guin did not mention what was the feedback on them. What can happen to you if you dare hear what children say ?