And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 11:34:50 -0700
Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: arthur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ADate: 7/08/99 11:20:20 AM
permission to repost or publish granted
from [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ON EUROCENTIC COLONIALIST ENVIRONMENTALISM AND
PROGRESSIVISM
There is a growing problem of white chauvinism within the
environmental and progressive movements which is turning some into
nothing more than a continuation of eurocentic colonialism. Some of
those involved in this trend realize the reality of their actions, others are
heading in that direction because the ignorance brought about by the
conditioning of the dominant eurocentic society. It is my hope that my
words can begin a process of awareness to help reverse this reactionary
tread.
All people come from indigenous roots. Many people today have been
cut off from those roots by the eurocentic process of assimilation.
Though it is true that the process of colonialist assimilation was not first
seen in what is now called Europe and there are other forms of that
process today in different parts of the world, still the eurocentic form is
by far the most dominating and has become the greatest threat to the
well-being and survival of the people of the world and to Mother Earth
herself.
The eurocentic colonialist process started in Europe long ago. It
assimilated the people into Nation States in which the rulers sought to
control by the use of authorities in all aspects of the people's lives and
to accumulate the greatest amount of wealth as possible. That which it
could not assimilate the process sought to destory. All resistance to the
process was met with brutal repression.
Thereas, indigenous tribalism was based for the most part on common
needs and the well-being of the tribe, the eurocentic process
was based upon accumulation of power and wealth at the expense of
the people and the natural world. Out of necessity indigenous tribalism
sought to live in balance with the natural world. For in that balance the
well-being of the people was found.
The assimilation of needs and social interaction into the control of
authorities has almost been complete. Political interaction became
controled by the authority of the Nation State. Religion became
controled by the authorities of the institutionalized churches. The
economy became controled by the authority of the profiteers. The
control over education, knowledge, science and ideas became the
property of the authorities of the intelligentsia. Information became
controled by the authority of the ruling media. The people no longer
defined who and what they are, rather all things are defined for them by
some authority.
Culture which originally was a bonding amoung groups of people has
been developed by the eurocentic process into a commodity to be
bought and sold.
All aspects of life has been divided up into singular items or issues,
under the control of some authority. Those with different views and
interests on each item or issue compete for control and thus to become
the authority.
Since the eurocentic system is based upon control and accumulation
of wealth in the hands of the few at the expence of the many, that
process developed protections for the privileged few. The bottenline
protection has always been the force of might. That force of might has
been developed to the point of weapons that can destory all in the
protection of a few.
Other protections were also developed. Since the eurocentic system
was a hierearchical system it developed classes of people and all that
were assimilated were given their "place". Barriers were put into place
that made it nearly impossible for people to rise up the hierearchical
system.
To justify this system, to help protect it and to help it expand it the
idea of superiority was created. The following is how superiority became
to be viewed. The ruling class was superior in all things to all else. The
privilege of superiority gave them the right to control, exploit, or act upon
anything that was in their interest to do so. Since the ruling class was
white that meant the white race was superior to the other races. Since
the ruling class was male, that meant the male sex was the superior
sex. Since the ruling class originated in what became Europe (mostly
Western Europe) then the eurocentic cultural, religion, knowledge,
economics and so on was superior. To them the privilege of superiority
gave them the right to define all things.
The other classes within this system were conditioned to view
themselves as superior to the classes below them. This was an
important controling factor and the reason why racism, sexism and
ethnic bigotry became so institutionalized. And again the privilege of
superiority was in having rights over those viewed as inferior.
A major part of the assimilation process is the making the people
dependent upon the system for all things, survival, education, health,
culture, religion, legal remedies and so on. As they became more
dependent their indigenous self-sufficientence became more lost. As
that happened they becamed more identified with their class than with
their true natural function in the world. You can see this very clearly
within much of the left. They speak of the working class as those that
are employed by the employing class rather than those whose function
in society is to produce through work the needs of society. In other
words they identify with their exploitation and not their function. So when
they speak of the working class struggle they speak of the struggle as,
what many call "wage slaves". But if they were to indentify with their
function they would see the connection between them and those who
also work but are yet to be assimilated. From that viewpoint the
resistance to being exploited and the resistance to being assimilated
into the system of exploitation is the same struggle.
The divisions of classes or groups of people is not just about
economics. It is also about the attempt to destory indigenous roots and
thus allow for assimilation. Thus you have the grouping of people by
race or ethnic background. All people from Africa have become African
Americans, Native people have become Native Americans. This has
been a well defened attempt to strip indigenous roots. For an example,
even though the U.S. Government signed treaties with sovereign
indigenous tribes, the administration of the affairs is done by the Bureau
of Indian Affairs, and not by a Bureau of Lakota Affairs or a bureau of
affairs with any other sovereign tribes.
The groupings of people are also placed with the hierarchical
eurocentic system. This has come to mean that white people are higher
up and have more privilege and people of color are lower down in the
system and have less "rights", in all things are viewed as inferior
(except where it profits the system), and their needs and concerns are
less important.
The eurocentic system does not function in harmony within itself.
There has always been and there will always be social conflict. But
since the conditioning has made people view the elements in society
individually rather than the reality that all things are connected, the
social conflict does not become a threat to the overall eurocentic
system. The system has learn to assimilate much of the conflict and
some of it has even become a source of further profit making. Those
parts of conflict that is viewed as too dangerous to assimilate is
crushed.
Because of the eurocentic conditioning of eurocentic superiority,
individualization of 'issues', authority control and so on, the white
environmental and progressive movements tend to be a continuation of
the process rather than an agent of real social change. Mostly this is
not something that they do on purpose, but rather because their
conditioning does not allow them to see the whole process as one big
picture. Because of this they tend to place their individual 'issues' as
superior or more important, and with that superiority comes the privilege
of attaining what they want at the expence of others. This is why, for
example, you will find environmentalists blaming Native people, working
people and so on for the envirnmental problems created by the system
itself. Or having those people make sacrifices rather than those that are
creating and profitting for the problems.
Nobody has all the answers to how things must be turned around in
order to create real social change. Hell I ain't done asking all the
questions yet, so I don't have all the answers. But to me there is a clear
direction to proceed in which the answers will be found.
We must begin with the understanding that the overall eurocentic
colonialist system is harmful to all people and to Mother Earth. This
system is heading us in the direction of an abyss of social and
environmental suicide. Within that eurocentic system as in the natural
world all things are connected. The way the system treats humans is
also the way it treats everything else including Mother Earth. Humans
are not above or outside of the environment, but rather, no matter what
they like to think, they are just one part of it and are dependent upon it
to survive. Thus, dealing with human conditions is as much a part of
dealing with environmental conditions as is dealing with the destruction
of land, water and air. That makes fighting racism, for an example, an
environmental struggle. So, in reality you cannot create real social
change at the expense of others without being nothing more than a
continuation of the problem. All things are connected.
Though it is impossible to directly struggle on all the harmful effects
of the system at the same time, but in our struggles we should not
place our struggle as superior to others and in time of need stand in
solidarity with other struggles.
I do not advocate "white guilt" for the reason why white people should
support the struggles of people of color. Rather I advocate two things; 1.
That all people, outside of the rulers, have been victimized by the
eurocentic system and that they should join in common struggle against
that which has victimized them. 2. That the eurocentic conditioning
keeps white people along with others stuck in their victimization and it
has them victimizing others in the interest of the system. So for those
reasons the white progressive movements need to learn to step out of
that conditioning and also not use it to continue the oppression of
people of color.
People need to directly deal with their own oppressions. White people
are not oppressed by race, but the oppression by race, all things are
connected, is a means of controling all communities. So white activists
need to struggle against racism in their own communities and stand in
solidarity with other communities when needed. Since the groupings of
people of color is one of the means of their oppression and those
groupings are created to strip them of their own self-control, then to
regain what has been lost to them the struggle for self-determination of
their communities is paramount in the struggle against the eurocentic
system. And self-determination means beyond the control of even the
white radicals.
The struggle of the remaining indigenous peoples is the frontline of
turning back the colonialist eurocentic assimilation. This is important to
all movements for surely we as a society will have reached the abyss
at the point of complete assimilation. Though those who have lost their
indigenous roots cannot just join those who still have them, indigenous
tribalism is not like joining a political party or church, still we they can
learn from them of how to set a direction to regain that which has been
lost.
Though we all struggle for day to day things, we must create a
resistance mentality that brings in all aspects of life. That includes
everything that the system oppresses us with, be it in the home, our
place of work, school, culture, all of the environment and so on. Upon
that resistance mentally and the joining together as a collective
resistance, through that power we can create the great refusal to
function for the system and rebuild society based upon the restored
living in balance with Mother Earth, including with each other. This would
be discarding the values of the eurocentic colonialist system of greed at
the expense of others and Mother Earth and replacing it with the values
of respect, balance, self-determination and the well-being of all.
In Solidarity
Arthur J. Miller
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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