[Revolting cat!]

According to the Communist propagandists like Mr Hochschild entire history of the contemptible Western Civilization consists of barbarity against the noble natives. And that’s the entire point.

[Cronos]

Hochschild is partially wrong -- remember that the Germanics and Slavs were considered barbarians until the 600s and 700s AD -- only 1300 years ago.

Even 2700 years ago, the Italics, Romans etc. were really barbarians as were the Celts until their conquest by Rome

And 3000 years ago, even the Greeks were no more than pirates attacking the civilised states of the Hittites in Anatolia.

Furthermore, Hochschild is wrong in considering that Europeans were the only ones who conducted barbaric acts -- the Muslims were doing that until barely the last decade or so -- and arguably are still doing that in Darfur and around the world.