Tourism Issues

We are only at day one with the tour and I am already struggling with it. It's more than the frequent stops to take ridiculous photos, it's more than the impossibility of keeping up with the French guide. It's the sick feeling I get while a part of a tour. I feel like I am contributing to something sinister. There's nothing wrong with the people on the trip nor those that run it. It seems to creep below the surface of life here--looks on peoples faces, being swarmed by sellers, crowding through tiny passages.
An insurmountable barrier is laid down between those who come to see and those seen. It feels like a perverse neo-manifestation of nineteenth century colonialism. The people might be "free" but they are forced to be put upon because we don't have anything better to do than come look at things, at them, to relax under their sun while they bring us sodas and sandwiches.
To those that say, "you are helping their economy," I say there were jobs before.
To those that say, "it raises cultural awareness," I say travel raises cultural awareness. This just creates an "us" and a "them" mentality--lucky us, poor them. Equality can't exist. It's like arguing that going to the zoo can show you how animals live. Biologically speaking those poor beasts might be alive but they are not living.
The tragedy of course is that I see all this, I feel all of this but am cynical enough to know that there is no hope for change. And that cynicism, that loss of hope is a bigger tragedy than anything I might see here.