By forefathers here, I'm not talking my *direct* progenitors. While I doubtless come from a line of fine, virile, energetic and handsome titans of great social, moral and intellectual standing, they probably aren't *solely* responsible for say, subjugating the Incas.

Rather I'm talking about the general sense of "Western European" culture (which now, of course, has nothing to do with Europe whatsoever.) In a cultural sense we've been rolling over pretty much everything we've met without too much of a hiccup since the Turks knocked over Constantinople. We've reached a point now where, even if it's not true, there is at least a perceived dominant culture and it's one that could best be described as 'does not play well with others.'

At this point is would be easy for me to slip into the usual 20th Century mud-wallow of moral self-flagellation. But I'm not going to.

The harsh, brutal fact is that frankly I don't miss, oh, the Mayans. Really. I mean, I'm sure they had their place, but that place is in the history books. If you get to the 16th Century and haven't invented the wheel yet, well, sorry bud, but it's time to get with the program. Pack up your sacrificial stones and start learning to speak Spanish. Or Portuguese, or whatever language the nice man with the metal helmet and thunderstick used. Given the way most Central American peoples dealt with each other, the arrival of Cortez can't have been much of a change.

And call me a cultural imperialist, (go on, I really won't mind,) but I don't really hold any great space in my heart for the simply joys of shooting monkeys out of trees with blow darts. Now, our society really isn't exactly the Utopian year long vacation that it could be, but that's probably a good thing. A bit of social discomfort is a great stimulus for change and change is the only way to get better. Still, I think that we have a great deal to be proud of. Even if, as a society, we screw up all over the place, we are at least *aware* of the fact. We, as a group, hold a set of standards against which we are prepared to judge ourselves.

Sure, it would be nice if there were little pockets of the world populated by happy indigenous folk who hold hands in the sunset and treat each other with dignity and generosity. Sure, it would be refreshing to see a society where everyone maintains an innocent, child-like love for the earth and its multitude of wonders. But it's a fantasy. Worse, it's a dumb fantasy. People like that don't exist. And if they did, they'd be killed in ten minutes by the tribe two rivers down who want to eat their brains. Come on, wake up.

On an individual basis I am not advocating anything more drastic than well, exposure to Levi's and the joys of Budweiser commercials. I bear the people themselves no ill will. But I'm tired of being made to think that we should feel guilty about the fact that we view our lifestyle as, frankly, more advanced. It is more advanced.

Look at what's happening right now in Borneo. The Dayaks have decided that they should get rid of immigrants to their little corner of paradise. So, in the best traditions of the Dayak people, they've been hacking the heads off hundreds, and most probably thousands, of innocent people. Men, women, children, dragged out of their homes and beheaded.

Here's a little gem for you taken from a recent interview with a Dayak hotel owner:

"A local businessman said: 'We were in the lead with 478.'"

He's not talking about wicker hats here. He's talking about people's heads. And unless my anatomy is a little rusty, you can't collect heads without seriously impairing the previous owner's ability to stay alive.

Allow me to continue with a quote taken from the same interview :

"Most were beheaded. He did not follow the ancient Dayak custom and bring home any of his victims' heads as souvenirs but some of his brethren did, and buried them with their ancestors' bones to act as their servants in the afterlife. He said: 'Some acted like this but for me the heads are a bit heavy."

Call me heavy handed, call me culturally insensitive, but really, does the world need this?

If the price of cultural imperialism is the end to a worldview that says it's ok to pull fifty children out of class and behead them one by one, well then, it's a price I'm willing to write a check for.

If you want me to take responsibility for the loss of another language, another set of religious and ethical viewpoints, another kind of art vanished forever, well, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

I'll take my cultural guilt and I'll put it with the rest of the fairy stories.