In the grand scheme of things, this book has brought to light the "people" side of exploration. It's the PEOPLE. Why does this happen to innocent PEOPLE? Why did certain PEOPLE come into contact with the new surroundings first? Why didn't other people step in and stop them? Why did it take so long? Why do these exploitations happen?
I think it's sort of simple. Most people, like you, or me, or Jeff over there, or Joe (the plumber), are "normal." We are fine with our surroundings. We don't have any horrible mental scarring from a violent childhood. We don't have undiagnosed autism. We don't have a lust to find a new place. Sure, some of us want to "get out of Napa" because Napa is so boring, but we want to stay within the confines of a place that we know exists. WE don't know the feeling of knowing that there is a place out there that has never been photographed, that no video footage has captured; a place that is completely new. "Well, Eric, I have never been to Spain, or Russia..." Yeah, I know that, but OTHER PEOPLE HAVE. We have photos and documented evidence of those places. With Africa and the Americas "we" did not. In fact, no one did.
Imagine, for a moment, that Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and that other guy ( face it, you don't know his name either) went to the moon. That's pretty intense, right? A whole new place.
Now, imagine if they had not been able to take pictures.
We would not have any images in our minds when we thought of the moon. We would just have imagined pictures, based on descriptions, but not the real thing. And deep down, we would all feel the lust to want to see that place for ourselves.
So, now that we know what type of "lust" these "explorers" had, what was the defining factor that led to exploitation?
These "people" were not normal. Take Cortez; sent out to study and develop a career at 14 years old. As a seasoned 16 year old, he returns to his home and is disappointed with the low level of life his family has had. He turns this want for more into fuel that drives him into the New World, and riches are on his mind; not the animals that inhabited Mexico that he either fought or converted to Christianity.
Pizzaro was another guy who grew up incredibly poor. In fact, this guy grew up illiterate. What more motivation could one need to exploit an entire world, that isn't really ever seen by the general public. There aren't really repercussions of anyone's actions in a "new place," initially, that is.
Don't even get me started on how not normal Ponce de Leon was; Fountain of Youth? Really?
Take Henry Morton Stanley. He was not normal. This guy had a troubled childhood and a habit of over-exaggerating things. He needed to please his peers. He did what he needed to do; what he could justify as "right" in his mind. That's what a lot of these guys were able to do, and it ended pretty similarly.
So, I guess what I'm saying, is that the PEOPLE who tend to gravitate towards "new place" situations are not "normal," and exploit the indigenous (I can't believe I just used that word to describe humans) because of their abnormalities, and the reason we have trouble coping with this today is because we can't really get a hold of what the feeling was like back then to be in a place no one had been before (at least no one that matters), and that no one would be able to get to.
So, yes, this has changed my thinking of these situations slight bit.
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