A quote from The Matrix, that Old Man Rivers reminded me of (I added a couple things as well ;-)"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. When you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, Indian chiefs, bureaucrats, social workers. The very minds of people we're trying to save, but until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand that most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they're going to fight to protect it."
...although it may be a semantic issue, I would use the word 'enemy' more carefully...W
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If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second of your life. Don't you have better things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and creedence to all who claim it!? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your appartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned........[OldManRivers]
What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can hear, and taste and touch, than real is merely electrical signals interpreted by your brain...lol.
seriously...nicely worded o wise padawan...
rrYou know what I think is bullshit? When we start responding to pop culture's (the Western f'n world) interpretation of us as Indigenous peoples, instead of staying true to the meaning of our lives as we define them. We make t-shirts with images of our family crests, or we commission or buy jewlery from our cousins who carve to show our lineage... but now we gotta explain ourselves cause white people appropriate it for their own commercial and shallow means??? It is crap that we judge each other on so called commercialization of our identity when we base that jugement on our interpretation of our own cultures. If it was and still is normalized and meaningful to show who we are through clothing, tattoos, and jewlery then there's no reason to stop that in fear of offending a different indigenous sense of morality, especially if its not ours.
The the anonymous:
"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. When you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, Indian chiefs, bureaucrats, social workers. The very minds of people we're trying to save, but until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand that most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they're going to fight to protect it."
What about the "so called" assimilated? The ones who's grandfather and grandmother could not withstand the opression of colonialism and dehumanization. And what of their children who were raped, killed, and opressed by their parents and aunties and uncles? And what of the wretched of the earth who grew up believing in the big mighty buck, who just want to make a living and support their kids. It's all a system of control, and our people are being controlled. Is the power energy of anger going to awaken them out of their sleep, and come out of the dream disillusion world they've lived in. Or will some of them, the collaborators die to protect what they hold dear because, in the struggle out of oppression, the oppressed tend to become the oppressors.
I agree. It is why I do not wear native rings, nor place native paintings in my house. My uncles are carvers, and so is my grandfather. But in the spirit of resistance, I say no. Now, all we have to do is inspire people to humanize themselves and reject (and subvert) the Western mainstream culture.
But is it jewelery, plaques, paintings that make us? Is it these material things that have spiritual roots that make us. If that's the case, whynot wear cedar bark clothes. Why not forget the ENGLISH language and reject this new mode of communication. Get off the fucking internet. Get off your car. Get off your TV, Books, talking and everything you've been raised with.
It's not so easy to stop doing all of that now is it?
You're not your fuckin' khakis...
Good comments with alot of feeling !
I would say, however, that there are people in our communities who are true "enemies", and they are absolutely real, in the sense that they cause "real" damage through thier incessant collaboration. Domocles (as in the Greek story of the Sword of Damocles) didn't realise his ass was on the line until he looked up (at the sword dangling over his head suspended by a single horse hair). The question always is, however, how do we deal with these folks without becoming just like them, and more importantly, how do we deal with the "enemy" within ourselves?
-a Tlingit
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