Let’s say you’re the leader of a primarily indigenous country where most people are peasants who sustain themselves through the practice of subsistence agriculture, like Peru or Bolivia. Let’s say you want to develop the country’s economy in the way development is traditionally conceived of. This involves the creation of a modern industrial economy at the expense of the indigenous peasant’s traditional ways of life. Would you say that by doing this, you would be oppressing them to an extent that is unacceptable? If so, what is the correct vision to have for the future if you’re in a country like that?
The way I see it it really doesn’t matter if it’s better or worse for it to be the way I described it. I’m trying to use language as morally neutral as possible so as to not goad people into answering a certain way.
Would you say that if I read Mao, it would disabuse me of the notion I have that China has a traditionally Marxist idea of development where advancing society to the next stage of development at the expense of the institutions of the earlier stage of development is seen as a goal?
