News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on What do slaveholders think?. Parent comment

Re:What do slaveholders think? by amorphid on Saturday March 25, 2017 @09:57AM (#13955646)
>> We don't think about it.

I'm a 10,000 BC chieftain. My village of Hutsville is within raiding distance of the northern village of Teepeetown. Teepeetown just a my neighbor of mine. I've never really liked or disliked Teepeetown, as I don't really know them. But I am sure thinking about them now. I'm going to raid Teepeetown before they raid my Hutsville. Whether I like raiding or not, if I don't do the raiding, I'm gonna get raided. Civilization is too hard right now, and someone bigger and stronger than myself will have to figure out how to make that happen.

Fast forward to 500-ish BC. My city state of Rome is within raiding distance of...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What do slaveholders think? by chimeracoder on Saturday March 25, 2017 @10:52AM (#13955927)
This is a rather ahistorical claim that presumes colonization to be a historical inevitability. Most historians - yes, even most Western historians - would disagree with that. The fact that this is the direction history happened to take does not mean that it was inherently inevitable or "natural".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What do slaveholders think? by Para2016 on Saturday March 25, 2017 @11:54AM (#13956198)
I don't understand what this comment means. A biologist would argue that spread and colonization is inevitable when local resources are exhausted/scarce.
[ Parent | on HN ]