I can understand why we feel the need to protect uncontacted tribes, but as an individual I wonder how they feel finding out the rest of the world has all this amazing stuff and cheap easy eats but was keeping it from you on purpose.
If you know so much about European colonization then you might also know the topic of “contact with then” vs “avoid contact” is almost as old as the colonization itself.
I hope the irony of “our amazing stuff,we know better” and your statement of “just leave them alone” isn’t lost on you.
I wonder how they feel finding out the rest of the world has some nasty infectious diseases and people there need to work their asses of for 30+ years to pay their mortgage and have a roof.
Of course, if they don't have access to antibiotics, they have other much worse kinds of sickness to deal with, and even their relatively simple lifestyle will be hard to maintain without hard work...
As I understand it, when corporate start setting up pineapple and sugar plantations in Hawaii they found they could not get cheap labor from the Hawaiian people themselves. And why would they? Between fish and fruit they have all the food they need. A simple structure (on the preferred side of the island) is all you need for shelter.
So they brought in Chinese laborers.
Also, tap water or at least a well.
During tje first year, children get like 20 or 25 vaccines. Some of the ilness are very rare and they may not know them, but other are just severe diarhea caused by a common bacteria. And add antibiotics for other common problems.
Go far enough into a forest and you'll likely be left alone when you build a primitive hut, except that now an hour of work buys you a lighter, a knife of unachievable quality, a pack of pills that save you from dying from infection, or "firewood" (a propane cartridge) for days.
There are very few places left in the world where that is true.
Governments basically all hate stateless people. There's been a long history of forcing "civilization" on stateless people "for their own good", but really it's because they can't be easily controlled or taxed.
Joke would be on humanity.
Or what about no internet? No computers? Would that country really turn out that bad?
Hubris at the individual level is rather easy to discern. At the civilizational level, it's a bit harder.
Probably though TV was the beginning of the downward spiral.
If everything else falls apart the Amish will be out in the middle of nowhere doing their thing. If you want to see what it looks like to stop the clock, go talk with them. They’ll happily have a chat with you if you buy some furniture from them.
Heck, my friend was Amish for most of his childhood. Then his parents pulled him out of it. Then he fell in with the wrong crowd and struggled with heroin addiction for several years before getting clean. And that’s a far, far smaller cultural shock than an uncontacted tribe. Sometimes he says he wishes he could go back.
and mostly unhealthy in comparison to self hunted / self-planted food.
There's a big reason why the vast majority of people choose to buy their food.
There's things I wish were different in the world I find myself living in, but there are also many developments that my parents found magical over the course of their lives.