Tips for the "Man"...how to capture Standing Rock
Oct 24, 2016 9:35:54 GMT -5
Post by donk on Oct 24, 2016 9:35:54 GMT -5
A good friend of mine declared how she felt "empowered" by the latest move in the #nodapl game by the natives to declare "eminent domain" over some land they claim was their own. I didn't do any digging or read too deeply into the article, because my mind was blown that the movement would use such language...first thing I did was look up the term:
law : a right of a government to take private property for public use. Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary.
Trying to follow the events of the gathering of the tribes of the world to protect the water from the Dakota Access Pipe Line is what I consider my most "meaningful" purpose for being on the Book, second place goes to having thoughtful conversations who want to talk about the role of "authority" on our lives.
Most often, this comes from my friend Eric, who is convinced that "religion" is the source of the mentality in our lives. I hope not to mischaracterize his beliefs, but I use it as a chicken/egg type of metaphor, in that I agree with him that religion is the most obvious and perhaps most problematic manifestation of the "authority" mindset, but I think that it is the other way around: authority mentality corrupted religion, which permeates in our society...religion in itself is not the problem so much as the institutions based on them, were corrupted to seem like they were based on authority:
the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience
Careful study of several religions has taught me that none of them could have been based on this "power", most religions started as particular tribes' or groups' ideas about reality, particularly the parts we cannot explain through empirical evidence or the scientific method. I believe at the heart of them, is the attempt to answer what it means to be human, alive and aware of this existence.
To my observation, (blind) respect for authority is just the large scale version of enabling an abusive relationship. Programmed with "because I said so" as an actual value, most "civilized" people act from a place where they serve whatever they consider authorities out of fear or punishment (or withholding of a reward), a scary form of covert classical conditioning.
This conditioning is achieved through the use of deception, which can only be achieved when individuals are able to lie to themselves. This value of civilization, manifesting today in "Political Correctness" and acceptance of the farcical institutions we feel forced to live enslaved by (lying to ourselves that we are somehow "free") is made more difficult to grow past due to the fact that we tend to lie to ourselves about "human nature".
I'm no scientist, nor do I totally "resonate" with any religion. My beliefs about existence come from thorough examination of as many perspectives as I can imagine on any information that is brought to my awareness. The conclusion that I have currently come to is this: Human Nature is that we are generators and receptors for emotional energy (whatever THAT really is)...and who/what-ever has a better understanding and/or control of it, is able to (for "good" or ill) manipulate others.
That's it. The only thing I've found consistent across any creature I consider "human". Not that they are selfish, greedy, self-destructive, competitive, war-like, masochist, sadistic, vampiric, or parasitic. Yes...we all CAN be, but to me, these things are anomalies...anti-human. Anti-life.
Yet we are taught that through history, these tendencies and characteristics are what define humanity, because they have seemed to shape our world. Made it what it is today. Which brings us to the "water protectors" declaring eminent domain on land that colonizer's (our ancestors') treaties bestowed to survivors of their genocide.
When I was in "non-violent protest training" listening to the Red Warriors share their stories of effective strategies in stopping corrupt corporate actions from destroying and poisoning whatever piece of the Earth we were protecting, my hackles went up when they mentioned how "we" need to be "more like them". Use their tactics.
Conversely, my friend cheering the declaration of eminent domain and pushing the legal concepts of sovereignty, as if "not telling the cops your name" somehow helps in the "battle" this is becoming also has me worried. It seems that the seeds are firmly planted that in order to this game that the authority of an over-reaching corporate conglomerate backed by tax-payer funded government and their enforcers, many feel we need to "out-white" the white man.
In the minds of many, apparently "eminent domain" is somehow less magical (and terrifying) than the concept of "manifest destiny", the idea that fueled the genocide for perpetrated in order from what I'm calling the "white man" (which is more accurately describes as "civilization") to OWN the land.
We are taught a lot of lies in our history books, but we wouldn't buy any of it if it was ALL lies...there needs to be nuggets of verifiable truth. And while I can't verify it, I believe an important lesson many of the stories teach is that when the colonizers (our ancestors) got here, taking over the continent was not as difficult as it could have been had the natives here had the ability to understand the concept of "land ownership"
It seems that now all civilized people are taught to fear any arrangement of living without it...even though no one even questions what it even means. Think about it....real hard. Even when you have a piece of paper in your hand defining the boundaries of "your" land, declaring it free and clear of debt...what is OWNERSHIP besides a agreed upon (faith-based) concept that not only do we lie to ourselves is some "right" (entitlement), but we cannot even identify the AUTHORITY that "protects" it.
Whether I'm right or not, I choose to believe that indigenous peoples of the not-too-distant past were unable to wrap their brains around the idea that an individual could claim ownership to a piece of the earth, I believe their "religion" or spiritual beliefs were much much closer to actual reality than any "civilized" people are taught and raised through the control hungry authority we were taught to accept.
I don't believe they could imagine the inhuman behaviors we are capable of to take from others what we feel we need...whether it be our twisted belief of security, comfort, scarce resources...or in this day-and-age....crap we want. Whether we acknowledge it or not, "boot-strapping" individuals serving themselves at the expense of the many (and the Earth) is the authority we serve and worship.
We play their game out on the personal level in wasting so much of our lives on meaningless bullshit, and feel like we are making a difference when we "win" any battles on an activist level. But the fight we "win" against our spouse is a loss for them, and the "Man" we fight at the activist level is just a more classically conditioned dog under the boot of some higher owner that gets petted more than we get kicked...but as long as we are divided, playing "their" game, we are ALL a bunch of animals in various positions of mercy or abuse of some "owner" that needs to keep this game going for its survival (and continued thriving). Apparently they don't need clean water or world peace, as long as we believe in their (very real) authority and play by the rules they make up as they go...status quo will continue.
I read today that the DAPL black snake is 2 miles from the river. While there is definitely a time and place for abiding the rules they created, for countering moves in the games they insist on forcing us to play, for respecting their customs (and authorities) in order to be able communicate with them....we can never "win" the game they rigged from the gate.
It's beautifully poetic that those at the camp have to go into the local casino to use wifi. The original "house" that has to "always win" to stay in existence. But the lie is that it needs to be a place for the dogs to get their fixes for their favorite vices. The humans that work their are allowing it to be used (free of charge) to receive and transmit information. This is how we can win. Refusing their temptations and using the less-scarce-than-they-tell-us resources to help our family and friends, our local area, our country, our species....rather than just our own immediate satisfaction (from self destructive behaviors
It sends chills down my spine to hear "we need to use their tactics to more effective". Because there is truth to that...their tactics are very effective. Trauma is most effective way to manipulate a human. But to what end?
This is a real life opportunity to try to break the cycle of abuse. That's all it really it is, to circle back around to my convos about "authoritarianism" I engage in with a dude much smarter than myself. I think religion (and economics, and the science and history we are taught) add layers of complexity on what should be a very simple problem: emotional maturity.
We need to grow up. Stop being victims. Take responsibility. End this abusive cycle.
It starts and ends with LOVE...which to me is truth. Recognize how much we were taught to lie ourselves, forgive yourself, examine them honestly....CHOOSE to dig up all the ones that have been holding us back from who we really are. That's the most important "work" we can do.
Because that's the real weakness of false authority, that which is taken and not deserved...TRUTH. It can't exposed through their tactics, through deception. Yes, it is important to learn them, to stand up to them and even counter them...but we must not employ any form of deception thinking it is a valid strategy. If they (and ourselves, and popular culture) are to be believed ( and i choose to believe it) there is no privacy anyway...someone CAN listen to your dog lick its balls through your dead battery flip phone down the hall if they wanted...your delusions that an Orwellian state type technology and information system may somehow be avoided through petitions and legal maneuvering and declarations and votes and treaties might just be antiquated already...doesn't it make more sense to assume that we're actually long past 1984?
And while it seems i may be digressing, my point is...this shit is all inter-related. It seems complex, because it is...but we can get down to the roots, if we can be honest. That's all...
truth=light=love=real information, that we can all agree upon and observe in this existence that we share.
We can break the cycle of abuse. But we have to think differently than way we've programmed to. Instead of pretending we know anything, I think we need to come from an approach that we know that what we've been told is just one perspective, and therefore a lie.