Discuss: Savage Disobedience

I wonder if the defenders of cultural rights would defend another culture’s right to kill humans as well, or if it’s only non-human killing which is worthy of righteous defense.

“greentangle”, What planet do you live on?

All cultures kill people, often legally and in socially-acceptable ways.

Amongst these (with no moral judgment assumed) are personal or property defense, tribal or national defense, police in the line of duty, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide, capital punishment, the legal sale of deadly products (such as Twinkies, tobacco and liquor), and the wide support for high-tech allopathic medicine (which one recent meta-study determined kills more Americans than any other cause).

In many “civilized” cultures, several or most of these are practiced and largely accepted. The culture of the United States, perhaps, leads the world in socially-acceptable killing.

But we Americans, prone to smugness and the superiority that comes from Manifest Destiny, judge “our” killing to be OK while that of other cultures is not. Compare the millions of Muslim lives lost in our quest for “security”, the nearly one million annual abortions, the dozens of legal executions - to the rare cases of infanticide and voluntary death of elders amongst indigenous peoples to control populations.

Or considering cross-species killing, compare the near total depletion of the world’s oceans by “civilized” nations compared to one gray whale among the Makah. Or the mayhem of legal slaughterhouses for profit compared to a hunter’s careful dispatching of a few wild creatures to feed his family.

As my mother used to say, “Homosapiens who reside in transparent edifices should refrain from hurling geological objects through the atmosphere.”

EVERY ACT COUNTS
The proselytizing and the rhetoric aside, why has only one person offered up a positive solution to the conversation?

Crofoot: “proselytizing and the rhetoric aside”, by which he means cogent arguments for which he has no effective rejoinder.

He refers obliquely to the demeaning suggestion, paraphrased from Fred Howard : “Why not spiritually evolve with the whales instead of killing them because you can.”

A demeaning and culturally insensitive suggestion made all the worse by Howard’s pretense that he “developed a cultural awareness, affection and sensitivity to their customs, culture and art, and to this day, respect[s] their traditions…”

As repeately pointed out, the above “positive solution” is based on the assumption, unsupported by the article, that the Makah killed the whale ‘because they could’, and on the unsupportable assumption that the Makah, who prayed over the whale they killed and voluntarily ceased their traditional hunting when the Grays were endangered, are less spiritually evolved than either whales or progressive vegans, colonial liberals, or militant animal rights activists.

Whales, I will grant, are highly evolved and pacific creatures. Self-righteous modern humans, however, are not.

I quote Riversong/ Nov 20: “the obsenity of eco-tourism, another way to prostitute one’s culture and land for the sake of financial gain”

Of course, the Makah could take the revenue generating approach that their bretheren on other reserves have take, namely the sale of tax free tobacco, fireworks, billboard advertising and gambling casinos. However, I don’t condone these methods just as Riversong doesn’t condone Eco Tourism as a bonifide bridge between cultures that would also bolster their meager financial coffers. Their elders admit that alcohol and substance abuse needs to be addressed and I would surmise that other abuses such as elder, spousal and child abuses might also need to be addressed. Maybe the energy and passion of the hunt might be better channeled toward improving the economic, social, health and welfare structure of the band in it’s entirety. This is not meant to demean their spiritual pursuits, but only to acknowledge that there is more than one pea in the pod that needs to be picked.

A recent email to a friend:

Hi XXXXXX.. I know that you are up to your arse in alligators over this holiday season… however, it may take a while for the hard copy of the Makah article to arrive on your doorstep and it won’t include the stimulating dialogue that the on line version presents. So, if you wish for a time out….place yourself in a tranquil space, as though you were on the boat at anchorage, at peace as it were, where you were in close proximity to a First Nations’ Village (as Canadian Indians preferred to be known as) vs American Indians as I perceive the lower 48 calls them, not what they choose to be referred to as etc…. then open the article, generalize and identify your perspective on the content. Then get in to the comments that have arrived from wherever.. and I really don’t qualify any of them except that I know where I come from, and where my experience base and education would direct me. I’m not asking you to formulate an opinion, however, I respect your intellect and sensitivities and I would receive your feedback willingly without prejudice, as it were.

In Canada, we didn’t treaty all Indians. We did not progress nor colonize by annialization therefor many of our First Nations have no contract with the government of the day and as we speak, treaties are being contracted at today’s prices, given credit for harm done, resources denied and resources yet to be harvested. So my perspective does not concur with those of the lower 48 or elsewhere who have taken positions presented in this feedback of the article. This does not preclude that those who are most vocal have any local knowledge or experience in the field, only emotional and possibly academic influence…. and a loud presence.

This is the first experience that I have incurred, ever, of such emotion by so few who appear to have an agenda, rather than one of arbitration and resolve.

So my friend… let’s keep in touch over this.. after all, it ain’t over ‘till the fat lady sings….. as someone said… best regards, Fred

Fred,

You are surprised by “such emotion by so few who appear to have an agenda, rather than one of arbitration and resolve.”

You urge us to use “reason” and to find “solutions”.

Perhaps if you let go of reason and discover passion, you will understand an “agenda” to confront the arrogance and conceit that is foundational to Western culture and the root of its dysfunction.

Perhaps, as one who seems to come from a dispassionate academic environment, you might consider the wisdom of a great and noble academic, Phillip Simmons Ph.D., English professor at Lake Forest College, diagnosed with ALS at age 35, died at home at age 45, author of Learning to Fall:

“Problems are to be solved.  True mysteries are not.  But each of us finds his or her own way into mystery.  At one time or another, each of us confronts an experience so powerful, bewildering, joyous, or terrifying that all our efforts to see it as a problem are futile.  Each of us reaches the end of reason’s rope.  And, when we do, we can either grip harder and get nowhere or we can let go and fall.  For what does mystery ask of us?  Only that we be in its presence.  That we fully, consciously hand ourselves over.  That is all, and that is everything.”

- address at Harvard Medical School about healing

Riversong… oh for goodness sakes… I’m not participating in this dialogue for reasons as you suggest. quote: “to confront the arrogance and conceit that is foundational to Western culture and the root of its dysfunction.”

I am a born and bred West Coaster… I am educated but I have real life experiences beyond many who choose to pass judgment. I have lived with those who came before the white man. I have learned their ways. I have introduced their new generations to their culture, art and heritage thru many medium. I am not a novice presuming knowledge of their culture. I live it. I respect it. I choose to enhance it. It has been said, “there is a critic born every day but there are very few who have the ability to create a new path”.

Many of my footsteps are on virgin ground. I like it that way….. I don’t like passing over those who have passed before me…. so I’m tired of this pissing contest… adios..