If You Live in Paradise
If You Live in Paradise
Historian Sir Kenneth Clark said the native culture of south sea islanders “…produced no Dante, Shakespeare, Newton or Goethe”, that “…the impact of European civilization on places like Tahiti was disastrous…
The fragility of those Arcadian societies…collapsed on the peaceful appearance of British sailors followed by a handful of missionaries-”
Clark said it demonstrated these Polynesian societies were not civilizations in the western sense of the word.
The happy and harmonious life the island natives enjoyed before the arrival of the west was a world the conquerors did not know, could not know.
You don’t need Shakespeare, Dante, et al if you live in paradise.
Only those who live in hell need great literature searching for meaning in life.
That these peaceful island societies collapsed due to western influence, a civilization based on warfare isn’t surprising.
Does this include Native Americans , american Indians , with the arrival of the pilgrim pilferers : sounds the same to me .
Good one .