Irony is not PC, but it is also not disrespectful...

Although I appreciate your use of quote marks to indicate you don't really think the Bushmen are primitive, the use of this word implies an unevolved, crude, and animal like society. It is similar to referring to them or other native peoples as savages. You could instead refer to them as "early man" or "barefoot man" simply refer to who you are talking about - the Bushmen, but also nomadic people and a lot of indigenous people in other countries, basically other hunter-gatherer societies. By referring to them directly, you in a way would be honoring the fact that they're actually doing the whole walking/running thing better than us in the West.

Your concern is real, and it certainly does touch me. And you are right. I certainly do not think that the bushman is primitive. Hence the quote marks. In their own environment, the bushmen are in fact very knowledgable. That is to say in comparison with western man extremely advanced. The whole thrust of my article is to show up the irony of our western attitudes that might lead us to confer the label "primitive" to the bushman, or other hunter gatherer peoples, whereas when it comes to such a basic thing as movement, it is us westerners who are in fact the primitive ones.

I suppose I could use such a term as "early man" but they are not early. They are contemporary. I could also say "barefoot". But then I would exclude myself. To the extent that I can find public places free of broken beer glass (this saddens me - "primitives" have more environmental respect than do drunken westerners), I like to walk and run bare foot.

I refer the reader to the Movie "The Gods must be crazy II". There is a scene in which a lovely little bushman girl is forced to conclude that an American woman - also pretty but big and ungainly by comparison - is "illiterate" because she can't read footprints or broken vegetation. The American lady might be a high power New York business consultant, but in the eyes of the of the young bushman girl she is illiterate. That is irony. With the help of irony, we can appreciate that the fool is the one sitting behind our own eyes.

I think that at the end of the day, we should feel free to sit down, talk things out, and get to see the other point of view. Thank you for sharing your point of view, and "here's to your health"!

Picture: Obama, Biden Sit Down for Beers With Gates, Crowley
source: Southland Times, August 1 2009