This Nazi purism has given affluent Westerners moral license to collaborate with African governments to force peoples from their ancestral lands. In practice, however, it is exploitative. The more one explores the many issues that Proctor raises, the more similarities one finds between the tenets of Hitler's Nazis and today's romantic, anti-technology convictions. This counsel is wise. But some such comparisons are valid.
Cultures are analogous to rivers that have many tributaries.
Some of these, such as tobacco-cancer research, have contributed to human improvement. Others have been contributing to misery and premature death among the world's poorest or most vulnerable populations. ACSH advisor Thomas R. DeGregori, Ph.D., is a professor of economics at the University of Houston, in Houston, Texas.