Ed, Thank you for the compliment. As a man of the theater, I take difficult characters and situations and try to understand the context, motivation and intent behind the historical event. I save that information in my file in the form of poems.
The Russians are an interesting people. They also said the same thing about the German Papists who baptized their Russian babies and then threw them in the fire. Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein). It seems they never forget a massacre or a slight. During the Soviet Union the Mongals were particularly oppressed by the communists. They fenced off Genghis' home and area and treated it as a radiation zone. No one was allowed in or out until after the fall of the Soviet Union. Then Jack Weatherford, an anthropologist, was allowed in for the first time and wrote two books about it. He has also written two very good books called "Native Roots, how the Indians enriched America" and "Indian Givers, How the Indians of the Americas transformed the World" about the history here. Your comment about work is, of course, the point that I was making. After Kublai had built Beijing and had the most religiously tolerant society in the world, he needed money so he tried to invade Japan to get it. Even though he had followed the "White, peace path" in the society at Beijing and across the empire (as long as they swore fealty to him and the Mongol Lords) when he conceived of work, it wasn't the incredible building of the largest empire on earth and the great city. It was waging war and competing in the field of battle for talented craftsmen, money and precious stones and metals. Of course the spirits blessed his white staff but when it came to Japan they buried his ships on the bottom of the ocean. "Enough of this black staff!" The Soviets didn't trust the spirits and so they too banned even walking where the black staff had been. So Ed, we say there are four choices in life. You chose your God, You choose your mate and family, You choose your work and you choose your play. I don't like the English concept of work much. I find it patronizing and far too narrow. For example, you manifested John Locke and the "waste land" theory when you said that the Khan's armies didn't "do" anything with the lands they conquered except exact tribute. That's the theory of "waste land" as espoused by John Locke and used to displace and kill my ancestors one field at a time through the use of the immigrant as pawn fodder. It was brilliant. Far more efficient than massed armies. And you didn't count the dead. So history barely recorded the death of tens of millions. You just buried them and used them for fertilizer. I consider John Locke to be far more toxic than the military folks. Locke's God was money, property and trade just like the Khans, except Locke devalued the craftsmen which none of the Khans did. That's how Beijing became so beautiful. All of those craftsmen from every culture except here. My people consider all work to be equivalent. And we consider all work to be necessary. In times of peace, the peace structure requires great cultural growth in order to sustain peace. In times of war, the murderous structure requires complete commitment to destruction and total loyalty to your comrade on pain of death. War is simple and devouring. Peace is complicated and requires the accomplishment of what John Warfield called the "Diminution of Complexity." Or put another way, the building of competencies. But spirits of all individuals are free and all people must be allowed to follow their own growth and destiny. The purpose of the peace government is to do those two things. Great public works come about as an expansion of the resources available for doing those two things. The movement to the War government comes about when physical property becomes so scarce that the only way for growth and destiny to happen is to steal. War is theft and murder. Since no deed is without responsibility and payment, revenge is allowed as balance but revenge plus stealing is murder and idolatry. Life and death are the realms of the spirit world. Illness is ignorance of that fact. It is also acting like two leggeds are God. Taking over the realm of the Gods and deciding for others what they will be. Both Communism as practiced in the West and Capitalism are idolatrous. In my culture they are both called witchcraft and their practitioners are called Conjurers. You see, at our core, we think as Artists. Only in the Art are we allowed to participate in Creation. Thanks for your thoughts on this. I find cross cultural work to be very rewarding and enjoyable. That's what we call "walking in the other person's moccasins" and is required for the right to make a judgment without offending the Spirits. REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 9:44 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: The Next 500 Years Wonderful, Ray. This list is taking us away from the world of work and into strange new areas. Still I suppose it is about work, past, present and future, European, Aboriginal, African or Far Eastern. Everybody alive now or that has ever lived has had to do some kind of work even if it is, as Chris would say, predation. We work to support each other and we work to destroy each other. Those who destroyed the twin towers worked very hard to do that and in turn the Americans worked very hard to destroy Iraq. Poor old Genghis Khan. Never really had a chance, did he? I ran into his grandson Batu's legacy in Vladimir, Russia, in 1994. Here's a piece from my diary: The [Ouspensky] cathedral was the scene of a great tragedy. When, in 1237, Batu Khan, the Mongol conqueror, took Vladimir, he ordered all the Russians, men, women and children, to go to the main square and fall on their knees before him. The Russians refused, and many fled to the cathedral and prayed to God for protection. God did not respond but Batu Khan did. He ordered fires to be built at all of the cathedral's windows and doors. The church, being of stone, withstood the fires, but all inside perished and are now buried under the floor. And another piece from a little further on: Though they now lie some seven centuries in the past, the Mongol conquests are still strong in the traditions of Vladimir. In the main gate to the city, the Golden Gate, which was also built in the 12th Century, there is an evocative diorama of the Mongols taking the city. Thousands of them are coming across a flat plain from an outpost they have just taken and set afire. They are storming up the huge earthen rampart, part of which still exists near the Golden Gate. The Russ on the palisades are trying to drive them back down into the moat, but the odds are overwhelmingly against them. In the background, behind the palisades, stand rows upon rows of thatched log houses, and beyond these, the cathedrals we visited and a couple of other cathedrals which no longer exist. In the middle of the diorama stands the Golden Gate, looking very much as it does today, though there is a moat in front of it. How terrible it must have been to be a child or parent in that city, knowing that the Mongols were coming through the February darkness. That the Mongols were on their way was well known. The fate that could be suffered at their hands was also known, as the Mongols had picked of several other cities before turning on Vladimir, which was a great prize. The Russ were not unified, and were fighting among themselves, and so proved easy prey. Once having done their business of raping, looting and pillaging, it would seem that the Mongols did not bother much with their new subjects. They extracted tribute from the Russ via a system of local satraps, and probably played an important role in uniting them by giving them something to unite about. It really is about work, isn't it? Destroying and rebuilding have been types of work that have gone on as long as we have existed and will go on as long as we exist. Armies or hoards or whatever are great sources of employment. What would Batu's followers have done if they hadn't been part of the hoard that followed him across the Mongolian plains into Russia? They probably would have hung around the local bar or coffee shop doing nothing useful. Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Ray Harrell <mailto:[email protected]> To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME <mailto:[email protected]> DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION' Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 9:12 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: The Next 500 Years THE OLDEST FAITH to Adanowa Aninvya Every religion has it's person who goes insane. But how can that be in a beautiful Faith that equates balance and peace with health and war with insanity? Genghis Khan and his family were of that Faith and yet he treated other peoples like sheep and demeaned the animals as game. What was the source of the virus that destroyed such a beautiful system of thought in the mind of such a man? Genghis suffered tremendous abuse almost from birth. But With a breathtaking logic on the systems of war Genghis still retained (as if in a dream) the appreciation of beauty and peace and balance. The people of the steppes had been out of balance for some time. Their pledge not to shed the blood of a member of their nation had degenerated into a fear of blood. The human spirit demons reigned within their faith and they descended into the quagmire of superstition based not on the joy of the Great Mystery but upon the mythology that their vulnerability excused any action. The White banner of the peaceful soul rarely flew over the steppes while the black banner of the soul at war was everywhere. Genghis' soul was kept in his war banner with peace lost to the ages. Once he exorcised his anger in destruction and war he became addicted to the flow of goods that war brought in spite of the insanity of murder. Cursed as a baby by circumstances. Cursed as a child by rivalry ending in murder. Cursed as a young man by politics Cursed as a conqueror by a superior mind's ability to justify disdain for life to the attainment of personal ideals. The first was the animals. They became "things" rather than "beings." His faith dictated the consciousness of all life. His life taught him the lessons of caring for the animals but it turned to objectivity and control. Hunting became simple food gathering once more wrapped in dreamy indifference to life for the pacification of his soul's anger. His Ideals for all humanity would justify his choice of efficient insanity. The animals were silent, His heart was cold and Humanity reigned in his mind. A heart wounded by abuse and circumstance would now heal the world as an act of revenge. The Gods give us our freedom only in peace. War is slavery and insanity. For every death there is a reaction. Not even genocide assures the tyrant of mercy. That was the faith of Genghis, That was the faith forgotten. That was the circle that closed in his empire's destruction. There is no benevolent tyranny. There is no benevolent wealth. There is no educated elite. There is no common man. There are just people who are evolving and it is our job to help each other for the good of all. Copyright 2005 Ray Evans Harrell from The Long Dance From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 8:47 PM To: [email protected]; RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: The Next 500 Years The topic makes me think of movies. And movies make me think of how we can possibly even think we know. "A Space Odyssey" had us flying about in space with a truly marvellous computer in 2001. "Soylent Green" saw New York with a hugely unemployed population of 40 million and food requirements met by converting the dead into food by 2020. "Blade Runner" saw us making humanoid robots in some not distant future and shipping them off to far off places in the universe and then making sure they didn't come back to Earth. Five hundred years ago, in 1510, the new world had just been discovered. Very little of the great ruination that took place as a result had as yet happened and Christian Europe was still trying to recover from Islamic invasion (so what's new?). There was as yet no industrial or scientific revolution even if the seeds were there. Could anyone then have predicted what the world would be like in 500 years? Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Spencer" < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> To: < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 6:34 PM Subject: [Futurework] FW: The Next 500 Years > >> Have you heard of Dr. Masaru Emoto? He wrote three volumes of books, the >> first called /The Hidden Mesages of Water. /I'll sum it up for you. >> Water responds to music and to thought. Google it. >> >> What are you trying to say with this bit: >> >> /Suggesting that water is alive, as Parry did, is esoterical nonsense. >> That's how Predators hijack science./ > > Dr. Emoto sells products based on his claims. For example, the > products page of Emoto's Hado website is currently offering > "geometrically perfect" "Indigo water" that is "highly charged > hexagonally structured concentrate," and supposedly creates > "structured water" that is "more easily assimilated at the > cellular level" for $35 for an eight-ounce bottle. > > Chris is saying that anyone who belives that is a classic specimen of > Sucker for Pseudoscience and that the Professional Bad Guys are happy > to exploit such gullibility and ignorance. > > Here's another one: > > <http://www.slimspurling.com/> http://www.slimspurling.com/ > > I know about this only because I met Slim Spurling (now deceased) back > in '76 when he was a blacksmith. Good smith, good teacher, cool guy > but believed all kinds pseudoscientific crap. Eventually he > discovered that he could make good living with gullibility and > pseudoscientific mysticism and gave up smithing. > > > - Mike > > -- > Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. > /V\ > <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] /( )\ > <http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] > <https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework> https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _____ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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