Peace And Prosperity?

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Here in Poland there's widespread admiration for English-speaking countries with high standards of living, like the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand. We've been enamored with America since WWII, when Allied forces freed us from Hitler. Later, that sentiment grew as the U.S. helped abolish the Iron Curtain (especially Reagan). And now, millennials are enchanted by prosperous countries like Canada and New Zealand. We just can't fathom how these countries are prosperous, diverse, and majestic at the same time. Poland surely has all these qualities too, but is seems like those countries have them at 100%, which seems impossible.

Where did Canada get its wealth from? Natural resources. How did they get them? By pillaging, murdering, and torturing the native population.

What we, and drastically large amounts of Americans/Canadians/Australians/Kiwis don't understand, is that all this perfection came at a terrifyingly high cost. Entire cultures got vanquished in the worst possible way. They say the Holocaust was the worst crime in humanity's history - and I agree. But we can't forget about the annihilation of thousands of uniquely distinct people groups brought forth by European colonization.

My country never colonized anything. But, as part of the Old World, we're all, in a way, responsible.

Going to 100% on all metrics cannot be achieved without terrible sacrifice.

And, to be honest, all of this makes me sick of "100%".