"Now Phaedrus remembered when he had gone to the reservation after Dusenberry's
death and told them he was a friend of Dusenberry's they had answered 'Oh, yes,
Dusenberry. He was a good man.' They always put their emphasis on the good,
just as John had with the dog. A white person would have said he was a good man
or balanced the emphasis between the two words. The Indians didn't see man as
an object to whom the adjective 'good' may or may not be applied. When the
Indians used it they meant that good is the whole center of experience and that
Dusenberry, in his nature, was an embodiment or incarnation of this center of
life.
"Maybe when Phaedrus got this metaphysics all put together people would see
that the value- centered reality it described wasn't just a wild thesis off
into some new direction but was a connecting link to a part of themselves which
had always been suppressed by cultural norms and which needed opening up. He
hoped so. The experience of William James Sidis had shown that you can't just
tell people about Indians and expect them to listen. They already know about
Indians. Their cup of tea is full. The cultural immune system will keep them
from hearing anything else. Phaedrus hoped this Quality metaphysics was
something that would get past the immune system and show that American Indian
mysticism is not something alien from American culture. It's a deep submerged
hidden root of it.
"Americans don't have to go to the Orient to learn what this mysticism stuff is
about. It's been right here in America all along. In the Orient they dress it
up with rituals and incense and pagodas and chants and, of course, huge
organizational enterprises that bring in the equivalent of millions of dollars
every year. American Indians haven't done this. Their way is not to be
organized at all. They don't charge anything, they don't make a big fuss, and
that's what makes people underrate them.".
('LILA', Chapter 32)
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