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Re:The Forbidden Island by rapind on Friday July 19, 2013 @10:02AM (#6070187)
Considering they have no marketable skills or education, how could their situation get any better? There are tons of poor people in the world who die from easily preventable diseases that you could help instead if that's your true motivation.

They are a self-sufficient people that don't seem to be screwing up the world nearly as much as we are... why would we even assume we're superior? Maybe we're just jealous?

Re:The Forbidden Island by s_q_b on Friday July 19, 2013 @12:42PM (#6071238)
Personally I like refrigeration, modern medicine, transportation, and high technology. Maybe those aren't your thing, but I know if I was born into a society like that, I would spend my life trying to see what was beyond the water.

Or die. Because, you know, a lot of them die.

Re:The Forbidden Island by rapind on Friday July 19, 2013 @08:19PM (#6073769)
Life's good when you're at the top of the totem poll.

However, if the greener grass turns out to be a Mumbai slum or an e-waste site in China, or one of many other terrible but more realistic fates, maybe you'd pass on that opportunity... because, you know, a lot of people die there too.

Re:The Forbidden Island by s_q_b on Friday July 19, 2013 @08:36PM (#6073816)
I'd take a job in a factory churning out iPhones in China over dying a slow and painful death from gangrene that started as an ingrown toenail.

People in the first world romanticize ancient ways of life, but the reality is that life without basic technology is nasty, brutish, and short.

Another blind spot is that there are degrees of bad. Living in a village in northern Afghanistan is better in a lot of ways than living in Darfur, which is better than Somalia. Honestly, people didn't choose to live in cities and work long hours in factories because we tricked them. They do it because it's better than their previous existence.

Re:The Forbidden Island by LukeShu on Saturday July 20, 2013 @12:20AM (#6074326)
> They do it because it's better than their previous existence.

Something to consider is that if some members of a society choose the new existence (provided by the new outsiders), then it can undermine the rest of the society.

Re:The Forbidden Island by true_religion on Saturday July 20, 2013 @09:09AM (#6075099)
I don't think its really fair to deny people a chance at a better life as they see it, simply because it'll negatively impact the original community they came from.
Re:The Forbidden Island by freyr on Friday July 19, 2013 @01:32PM (#6071613)
We all die.
Re:The Forbidden Island by johnchristopher on Friday July 19, 2013 @05:21PM (#6073037)
I am pretty sure parent wanted to point out that we live much longer.
Re:The Forbidden Island by gotrythis on Friday July 19, 2013 @10:47AM (#6070480)
Exactly!!!! They are superior in that they are sustainable, and it's so horrible that people want to convert them into us. Let's build them a Walmart while we're at it.