Image courtesy Jungle Hut who has a fantastic post on the cultural suicide of Western Civilization:

When I see this cartoon, I see what many Americans may not see. I learned something, living and working among a tribe that is very foreign to most Americans. That is, the tribe’s perpetuation is above all other things. My personal life and future is always subjected to what is considered best for the tribe in general. My sacrifices that I make for my tribe may not bring to fruition any benefits for the tribe in my life time …or my children’s life time…or my grand children’s life time! But my sacrifice is needed and respected by all the tribe and brings me the most value as a citizen of the tribe.

I first saw this among the Sanema Tribe. One day a Sanema indian hobbled to our door. He had a bad foot. Upon inspection, we found a huge thorn embedded and we ended up having to make an incision to remove it and then put in several stitches. The young man looked earnestly at my husband and asked, “Did you do a good job? Because I have to walk to Cacuri and kill a man!”

My husband asked him why he needed to do this. The indian responded, “Because a long time ago, one of their family stole my great grandmother. Now they will think we have forgotten and will not be expecting an attack. Now is a good time for me to go and kill one of that man’s decedents.”

My husband looked at me and said, “Maybe I should not have fixed his foot up after all!”

We Americans have such a short history, we are often innocent and child like in our short term memory. This can be a good thing, as is seen in how we relatively quickly forgive our enemies. Remember WWII? Germany, Japan? We forgave and rebuilt them. But when dealing with the Middle East, I fear our short term memory may be our down fall.

It’s really worth your time to read the whole thing.