I was browsing through my New Man magazine, courtesy of my dad, and came across an interesting movie advertisement. End of The Spear is a new movie about Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and three others and their families contact with the Waodani Tribe in Ecuador. In high school, I was a fan of Jim Elliot, having been quite inspired by his memiors, Shadow of the Almighty. Though, I do think their intentions where good, I’ve started to question the way their mission was carried out.
What struck me about this advertisement was this statement:
50 years ago five families dared to make contact with the most violent society on earth.
I’d personally like to see a reference for that fact. I’ll look up the statistics in a minute, but I would suggest violent might properly be measured by “number of people killed” or something similiar. My guess would be the USA is probably the most violent society on earth. I’m mean really, how do you measure something like that? Let’s see what statistics we can pull up on google…
- Yes, this society has created sick, violent individuals, after all it is the most violent society on earth.
- Although an unpopular proposition, the assertion that America is the most violent society on earth is true.
- …one dedicated group’s incredible will and desire to save the most violent society on earth
- South Africa may be the most violent society on earth that is not at war.
I think it was probably looking on a more micro level and eliminating the results of technology to consider the tribe on a philosopical level–at the time teh Waodoni were close to wiping out nearly their whole tribe because of deeply ingrained patterns of violence and an apparent lack of any sanctity of life. They were also constantly at war with neighboring tribes and hostile to any newcomers (ie the fantastic five). Given computers and bombs and our technology, who knows–maybe they would have given the US a run for our money. You’re right, it’s always dangerous in our postmodern society to talk in definite terms like “the most…”
Hey, bud, not all evidence is first found on the web. Watch the movie & you’d have your answer of how they came to that conclusion that it was perhaps the most violent society on the planet–percentage of the society who died by murder.
I’m amazed that anyone would put this protest on the web without first viewing the movie!