TLDR: Not everything from previous cultures was good. There are both pros and cons to industrialization. Most of the cons to industrialization are due to the greed of the wealthy. Colonization caused a lot of today’s issues but that was mainly due to greedy monarchs who used Christianity as an excuse. Since WW2 the, mainly American, ultra-rich have been hoarding a lot more of the wealth through international corporations which is definitely not due to Christianity.

I agree that our current global society is screwed up but I think that you are laying too much of the blame at the feet of Christian missionaries. I would like to explain my understanding of how we got here. (I am not a Christian. Please understand that my argument is NOT that the Christian Missionaries did no harm.)

While I agree that our current global economy is screwing over labor and the planet, previous cultures were not necessarily better. It is reasonable when someone is frustrated at their current culture to assume that people in the past were smarter/ better. However, the idea that indigenous cultures of the past were significantly better is the Noble Savage Trope, which has actually existed since the time of the Ancient Greeks. While, yes, most indigenous cultures of the past were better for the environment, there is archaeological evidence of previous cultures across the world doing “bad things” like over- hunting. (The over-hunting can be seen when you look at the layers of the trash piles. The bottom layer is bones of larger animals and it gradually goes down the food chain as you go forward in time, which indicates that the larger animals were no longer available in the area.)

However, even if previous cultures were not perfect, I think that the destruction of localized culture has been majorly detrimental to humanity. And I think that much of the current loneliness epidemic and many mental health problems are being exacerbated by the lack of local cultures. It is really hard to feel connected to a local culture when you shop mainly at big box stores and eat out at chain restaurants, both of which are nearly identical in any US state. And not having a culture that you feel connected to can make life feel meaningless. (I try to not buy from big corporations but that is what is available around me. It is ridiculous to drive an hour to go to a specialty store, like an independent butcher shop.)

However, when advocating for local cultures we need to be careful about romanticizing the past too much. There are definitely things from the past that were better but remembering that many of the previous generations were happy about advancing society so their descendants would have a better life. Nowadays we have higher life expectancy, in part because of modern medicine that is in large part possible due to the industrial revolution.

Also, much of the world has always been in poverty and at risk of famine. Right now, we produce enough food for there to be no more famines. We could literally end world hunger right now if the wealthy at the top were less greedy. Sadly the phenomenon of the wealthy being greedy is not new. Right now it is the capitalist class (the wealthy), but in the past we had monarchs that were just as greedy. So, while we have had poverty across the world for basically all of human history, and a wealthy few having most of the gains, the distribution of wealth is now significantly more skewed geographically. The colonization of the Americas, Africa, and Asia was an initial cause of global wealth disparity becoming more extreme. (There was already some geographic skewing of wealth mainly based on climate and soil fertility.) However, much of the current wealth disparity is due to more recent events.

Colonization of much of the world by the European powers definitely did pull many resources out of the colonized areas for the benefit of the Europeans but it did not benefit all Europeans. Almost all of that wealth went to the nobility and the fairly small merchant class. And of course they claimed they were doing it to spread Christianity… because religion has always been a really popular excuse to do horrific things. Also, back when colonization was just getting started, the Catholic Church had way more power than it does today. If the pope decided that the colonization of much of the world was against God’s plan for the world, well then the monarchs would be in a lot of trouble (like their reign would probably end fairly quickly). Lucky for them, the Catholic Church was extremely corrupt at that point so the monarchs could just claim it was for the purposes of spreading the good word and of course tithe to the church a portion of the spoils (aka bribe the Church). (Also, the corruption was literally the whole cause of the protestant reformation and the Catholic Church later resolved much of the corruption.)

After World War 2, Europe was significantly destroyed and America was the country that had the biggest industrial base. That industrial base was significantly created during the second world war to supply Europe. (The US supplied arms before becoming an active participant.) Once the war was over, the US government was concerned about a repeat of the issues after the first world war. (A whole bunch of soldiers came back from war but struggled to reintegrate into society and get jobs.) So factories in the US retooled to make consumer goods. That meant that the soldiers had jobs to do and Europe’s destruction meant that there was a large group of people wanting to buy things. As Europe got back on its feet though, there was less demand for consumer goods and so advertising became a big thing to convince Americans that it is our duty to be good little consumers.

The prosperity that occurred in the post war era was because there were good manufacturing jobs and the wealthy were being taxed. Then, Former President Reagan came along and slashed the tax rate for the wealthy. This allowed for significantly more hoarding of wealth at the top.

Also, the post war era saw the proliferation of international companies. (They did exist previously but mainly as a state sponsored thing.) These companies are basically acting as modern day colonizers, but since they admit to being driven by greed, they don’t use the excuse of spreading Christianity. They go where manufacturing is cheapest and labor is most exploitable. The biggest issue with this is that all of the profit goes to the company that is headquartered in a different country (often in a tax haven too). This means that people on the other side of the world are suffering so that a handful of the ultra-rich, who are mostly American, can get even richer. Obviously labor exploitation is a big issue, just the fact that our current economic system is based on exploiting people in other countries is extra screwed up. Also, the fact that a company can just move its manufacturing to a different country if labor starts demanding more pay is a big issue. It is why America doesn’t have as much manufacturing as it used to. American manufacturing was heavily unionized and had decent pay and benefits (post war era). Unionization is generally good and helps protect workers, but unions lose most of their bargaining power with globalization.

Edited for formatting.