Interesting... (#57597)
by chris l pettit on March 30, 2005 at 3:46 AM

In many of your arguments I hear echos of Locke's reasoning for allowing for the waging of war on the Native Americans by the colonists...because they were not using the land effectively and were not "mixing their labour with the land."

One question...why give the human kind so much credit and denigrate nature, the environment, and geographical significane? Are we that arrogant? One can make the case that humanity is the lowest of all creatures because of our inability to live in the system of interdependence that pervades all of nature...and one can also support the contention that man is the highest of all creatures (that have thus far been discovered). It is not that I agree with Diamond...indeed, i support many of your complaints regarding him...I just find that you are a bit to vehement in your own ideological positions and sometimes fail to see the interaction between the utility of both viewpoints. Social environment, physical environment, human innovation, geography, and many other factors must be taken into consideration...none being any more important than the next.

CP