April 30, 2007

My Hands

The modern world seeks to conquer nature, to bend it to it's will and to use it wastefully until it is all gone and then simply moves on, leaving the waste behind and looking for new places to take.

The modern world is a monster! A monster who is always hungry and devours natural resources, destroying the very resources it requires to live.

Indigenous cultures of America knew the evils of civilization, and fought hard against. Native Americans lived in balance with nature, taking just what they needed, living in harmony with wild animals, living without destroying the natural world. Their spiritual world was bound to their treatment of the natural world.

From birth on—and probably from conception, but I’m not sure how I’d make the case—we are individually and collectively enculturated to hate life, hate the natural world, hate the wild, hate wild animals, hate women, hate children, hate our bodies, hate and fear our emotions, hate ourselves. If we did not hate the world, we could not allow it to be destroyed before our eyes. If we did not hate ourselves, we could not allow our homes—and our bodies—to be poisoned.

Does love imply pacifism?

The material world is primary. This does not mean that the spirit does not exist, nor that the material world is all there is. It means that spirit mixes with flesh. It means also that real world actions have real world consequences. It means we cannot rely on Jesus, Santa Claus, the Great Mother, God, or even the Easter Bunny to get us out of this mess. It means this mess really is a mess, and not just the movement of God’s eyebrows. It means we have to face this mess ourselves. It means that for the time we are here on Earth—whether or not we end up somewhere else after we die, and whether we are condemned or privileged to live here—the Earth is the point. It is primary. It is our home. It is everything. It is silly to think or act or be as though this world is not real and primary. It is silly and pathetic to not live our lives as though our lives are real. The culture’s problem lies above all in the belief that controlling and abusing the natural world is justifiable.

Within our culture, economics—drives social decisions,
not community well-being,
not morals,
not ethics,
not justice,
not life itself,
economics—drives social decisions.

http://www.endgamethebook.org/index.html



"Bless the beasts and the children
For in this world they have no voice
They have no choice

Bless the beasts and the children
For the world can never be
The world they see"

10 comments:

Undeniable Liberal said...

That is one thought provoking post, thanks.

Blueberry said...

The native American cultures proved that we (as a species) are capable of treating the planet right. Other human cultures teach that we humans are not part of nature, but rather above it and in charge of it -- and that heaven will be a better place than the earth. But like your blog title says, "This is it".

Anonymous said...

Good morning my friend,

This is a great post, thank you.

It's difficult not to get sucked into it!

Difficult to love our bodies (especially women) when society tells us what we're supposed to look like to be acceptable, beautiful and loved.

This said, I better get on my bike and try to lose the extra five pounds I've gained since I've been off work. Who's going to want me with that extra weight? ;-)

LOVE YOU!

XOXOXOXOX

Anonymous said...

Will we be getting two Friday posts this week? wink wink ;-)

Yeah, I know, I'm quite demanding.. ;-)

BadTux said...

"Native Americans lived in harmony with nature"... bah. What a bunch of drivel. Native Americans drove the proto-horse and mammoths of the Americas into extinction. Native Americans turned the Rio Salado valley into a salt-ridden desert that took 500 years to recover to the point where agriculture was possible again (the Hohokum culture disintegrated once no longer able to raise enough food for survival). The Anastazi did much the same over in New Mexico. Native American cultures were continually at war against each other, to the point where, when they had a common enemy, they refused to unite and drive said common enemy into the sea. As for technology, the Native Americans eagerly embraced as much technology as they were capable of absorbing given their lack of education, rapidly adopting the horse and stirrup to the point where when American settlers encountered the Plains Indians they assumed that the Plains Indians had always been nomadic tribesmen (they had previously been sedentary agriculturalists), embracing whiskey and wool blankets to the point where they were used to destroy Native American cultures by giving them smallpox-infected blankets and all the whiskey they could drink, and Native Americans could never get enough guns.

All in all, the only difference between the Native Americans and us is that they didn't have a Scientific Revolution. If they'd had the capability, they would have despoiled the Earth just as much as we're doing. If you really believe that bullshit about Native Americans being such "stewards" of the Earth, I suggest you go to any Native American reservation. There's enough trash and junk lying around to make that stereotypical TV Indian cry. The backside of the Hopi mesas has four centuries of trash just piled up on top of each other. The Navaho stripped all the grass covering off their reservation by running so many sheep that they turned high plains grassland into utter desolate desert. Some of this is just poverty, of course -- impoverished people generally aren't concerned about making their homes look nice, they're concerned about survival. But the same was true 500 years ago before the "White Man" came on the scene too.

Too many people have bought too much Greenie propaganda. The only way we could go back to living the way the Native Americans lived would be to kill off 99% of the world's population. We'd also kill off all technology at the same time, and it'd never come back -- there simply are no longer the easily-exploitable resources that allowed the Industrial Revolution. We'd live as ignorant tribesmen with no knowledge of anything other than what's immediately necessary for survival in our short, nasty, and brutish lives -- forever.

- Badtux the Socio-Technology Penguin

Angry Ballerina said...

you should join a nudist colony.

azgoddess said...

thanks for this great post!..i believe it's cause is TV and the media...sheepeople spend time in front of their god-box instead of playing outside...

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pissed off patricia said...

Bottom line, too many people and too much greed

Anonymous said...

Hey man. It sounds like you have really thought this through. However, i respectfully disagree with your philosophy on life. Despite what people tell you, this life is not all you. I believe with all of my heart that every human being will live forever. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and i know that we all will spend eternity in one of two places: heaven or hell. In other words, we WILL all live forever. Therefore in the big scheme of things, happiness on this earth matters nothing in light of eternity. I know this may sound crazy to you, unless you also are a follower of Christ. But please hear me out.
You can have a personal relationship with the creater of the Universe that will save you from an eternity in hell and instead ultimately put you in heaven, a place better than any one can begin to comprehend. How does God do this. Read on to find out. It is the most amazing thing ever done.
When Adam and Eve sinned (rebelled against God) man was seperated from God(the whole story starts in Genesis 1). However God realized that we could not get to heaven on our own. In order to save us, he sent his perfect son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live as a man and dwell among us. Because of his great love for us he died a painful death on the cross. However, He endured an even greater burden for us by taking all the sorrows and pain of the world upon him to the point that God forsake Him(Mark 15:34). He did die and was buried. But,praise God, he rose from the dead and conquered death(Mark 16:5-6), taking away satans only hope of victory.
Because of this great sacrifice, we have hope and a purpose. I assure you nothing else will satisfy you. All earthly things will pass away. Christ is the only thing to never fail. This gift is so easy to attain. God offers it to everyone. all we have to do is accept it. This is why God put us on the earth: to have a relationship with him. I am confident enough to promise you that this is the most important decision you could ever make. Christ will change your life. He will give you more joy and blesssings than anything else possibly could.
If you want to take advantage of this free gift of eternal life with the savior, Jesus Christ, this is how God himself says to do it through his perfect word.

Admit. Romans 3:23 says: ",for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," We cannot get to heaven on our own. Scripture says our righteousness and good works are as filthy rags before the Lord. We all need to accept Christs sacrifice. It is by him alone that we are saved. Admit your sins to God and aaccept his great gift of forgiveness.

Believe-Romans10:9 says "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Just acknowledge what he did for you out of his love and tha he really is the ruler of the Universe, the ultimate, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and God of Gods. There is none above Him.

Cry Out-Romans 10:13 says "for, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Praise God for his goodness to me. I would be nothing without Him. I was nothing without Him. The Bible is God's word and is flawless. Search it for the truth of His love for man the awesome truth it contains. THIS WORLD IS NOT OUR IT IS HOME. It is a temporary time where we determine where we will spend eternity.

Thank You for reading this and I pray that God would reveal himself to you.

GOD BLESS.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."(NIV)