by R. Teichmann
Foreword
About 30 years ago I met a young woman during a train ride
and we began talking. During the conversation I asked her what she was
doing and she replied that she was studying indigenous civilizations
within her anthropology course. When I asked her why she was interested
in this subject she replied (the exact words I do not remember after
such a long time but I remember the essence): “We will need their
knowledge to sort out the problems we’re faced with.” I did not
understand then what she was saying; or better I dismissed it, because
what could it possibly be that these cultures (now barely existing and
still under threat from genocide) could contribute to the solving of
modern day problems?
I recently attended a workshop with an Elder of the Wampanoag Nation,
Manitonquat (Medicine Story). This article is my personal “digestion”
of that weekend. I dedicate this to all fellow men and women who hold a
vision for a better future and are working towards reaching that goal
and especially to Manitonquat and his partner Ellika.
What is the issue?
Ever since I was a teenager, I realised that something was not right
with the way we live and the longing to put things right has never left
me. I have been active in quite a few movements and political
organisations during my lifetime, trying to make the world a better
place. I witnessed sectarianism, splits, infighting, movements getting
hi-jacked to serve a certain agenda or co-opted to advance something
they were originally opposed to, persons with big egos rising to the top
to become “leaders”.
In that respect the best example I can think of was the rise of
Joschka Fischer to the top of the German Green Party. As such he became
Foreign Minister of a coalition government, composed of Social Democrats
and Greens, and denounced everything the Greens and he himself
previously stood for when he advocated waging war on an independent
state, the then Yugoslavia, “on humanitarian grounds of course” without
UN Mandate and contrary to international law and the German
constitution. It was then that all my hopes to change something by
engaging in that party faded and I left it in protest and disgust.
Many parties and movements and even “alternative” communities seem to
be ending in the dustbin of history without ever achieving their
initial goals – leaving behind many disillusioned good people; people
who invested time, work and money to achieve a better world and tackle
the problems we are all faced with. And if they are successful they end
up establishing their (or rather their leaders’) way and oppressing and
dominating the remainder of society. Why is it that way?
Fear and Isolation
Most of us agree that the current way society works (referred to
throughout this article as ‘the system’) is not only unfit for purpose –
i.e. ensuring that the needs of people, plants, animals and everything
else surrounding us in the broadest sense are met – but is also based on
isolation and fear.
The fear of not passing the test in school is where it begins. The
fear of not getting a job comes next. Then the fear of losing that job.
The fear of not being able to provide for your family. The fear of not
being able to pay the next mortgage rate and losing the roof over your
head. The fear of not being taken care of in sickness or old age. And
then there is the fear of the unknown. That is why people shy away from
consciously acknowledging that the system is unfit for purpose and begin
to think about how it can be changed and what they can do, even though
deep inside they are aware of this fact.
Any movement aiming to replace the failing system with something
better must create an environment where people can lose their fear. How
can that be done?
Since humanity replaced tribes with ever larger entities of social
organisation, comprising more and more humans, the isolation of the
individual human has increased. Instead of living in a society where you
knew all members of your tribe on a very personal level, where
decisions affecting the community were made together and swiftly
implemented, we now live in towns and cities or even hubs where you
hardly know your neighbours, let alone on a very personal level.
Our direct interactions with nature, to provide us with what we need
to survive, are replaced by factory farms and visits to the
supermarket. Group creativity has been replaced with hours in front of
that square screen in our living rooms or with spending hours shaking to
synthetic music or with finding thrill in consuming “recreational”
drugs. Even in the midst of thousands of other people around us, we have
become more isolated than ever before.
Hand in hand with this development came the concentration of power in
fewer and fewer hands. Instead of being involved directly in decision
making and implementing we now have a vote. A vote that changes nothing.
Many begin to realize this as the ever less participation in elections
indicates. The real power people once had has migrated to career
politicians who are lobbied and sometimes financed by big corporations,
which are financed by “too big to fail” banks, which are financed by
central banks, which are controlled by a tiny elite who make all the
vital decisions behind closed doors.
We may feel connected through the Internet, the so-called social
media, but these connections are artificial, virtual. We are living
virtual lives instead of real ones. The deep personal connection between
humans and between humans and nature has been replaced with the
illusion of it. Instead of talking to each other face-to-face and heart
to heart we now send twitter messages, smileys and hit “Like” buttons.
Instead of actually interacting with nature, we watch “Nature programs”
on TV.
Isolation equals disempowerment. Humans feel helpless when isolated.
People do not engage to replace the failing system with something better
because they feel powerless or perceive the powers that shouldn’t be as
being the normal state of affairs that cannot be altered. Resulting
from the isolation from nature and fellow human, instead of developing
their intrinsic individual spirituality and respect and understanding
for everything that is, people follow various religions, look for gurus
and ideologies to fulfill their need of spiritual community. This is
exploited by those who want control and domination or, even worse, it is
used to turn humans against each other.
Any movement aiming to replace the failing system with something
better must create an environment where people can connect with one
another on a deep personal level as well as with nature, which they are a
part of. How can that be done?
Fear and isolation are the necessary ingredients that allow the
current system to linger on, to manipulate most of society, to prevent
development and implementation of solutions to most problems and to
allow domination, control and destruction on a massive scale.
The creation of an environment where fear and isolation are
absent and that encourages direct contact with nature is a prerequisite
for any attempt to effect meaningful and lasting change for the better
for all of life on this planet. How can we create it?
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