After reading The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, by David Korten and The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg, I am even more convinced of the necessity of creating a new civilization here in the Western Hemisphere based on Indigenous values. Korten’s analysis of the 5,000 year history of Empire and the Dominator model, comes largely from Riane Eisler’s book, The Chalice and the Blade. It is clear that we are headed for economic and moral collapse, that the Empire cannot be sustained and a new path must be taken by all the different people here in our land.
The Party’s Over, made it clear that Peak Oil is basically here and that there is no escape from rising fossil fuel price rises that will cause modern industrial society to collapse because it will run head on into Capitalism’s iron rule — Grow or Die.
I see three areas that Korten’s book has not addressed clearly enough:
1.) One is on the necessity of finding a way to heal society’s hurts, so that we do not fall back into the trap of Internalized Oppression, which keeps us locked into seeking victims to blame for our anger, disappointment and frustration, when we cannot find the true source of our oppression. This weakness is manipulated relentlessly and skillfully by Empire and its main actors, government and globalized corporations, to keep us divided and at each others throats. It is the old and well perfected strategy of Divide and Conquer, using the tools of racism, sexism, homophobia and classism. Until we understand this dynamic clearly, we will not be able to build the unity and trust that is the foundation for a successful movement for social justice.
One tool for healing old hurts is practiced by the Co-counseling community. This is done in a peer community that helps individuals to recognize negative patterns that have developed because of old undischarged hurts. But it also recognizes that hurts can have a communal and ethnic base coming out of colonialism and the oppressions of Empire on entire nations.
2.) The other is how not moving into Restorative Justice from Retributive Justice, has kept revolutionary movements and governments locked into creating internal enemies (“class enemies”, “Kulaks”, bourgeois intellectuals”, etc) which are then thrown into prisons, Gulags, Re-Education Camps, etc. Revolutionary movements and People’s Governments morph into Dictatorships of the Proletariats, Leninist Vanguard Parties and other authoritarian, top down and undemocratic ruling edifices which just create a left version of what Korten calls Empire.
Restorative Justice, based in communities, not governments, starts out with the basic belief that all people are good underneath their patterns, and the way to deal with people who are hurting each other through ‘criminal’ acts, is not through violence and punishment (an eye for and eye) and isolation from society (except as a last resort) but a process of healing and restoration of trust and responsibility within the community. If this process is integral to communities, especially as it relates to young people, society can deal with breakdowns of trust and harmony before they get too severe. Tribal and Indigenous people practiced forms of restorative justice that negated the need for police, prisons and a standing army.
In the modern world, beginning with South Africa under Nelson Mandela, a form of restorative justice was tried in their Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Despite some criticisms, it was considered mainly a good thing and many other countries have tried variations on it.
Retributive Justice, arising out of old patterns of allowing only the State to mete out punishment and isolation, is used in a top down manner to create law and order, so that the State and Empire can continue their oppressive control of society for the benefit of wealthy elites. This Oligarchy uses the Criminal Justice System (Police and Courts), to repress dissent domestically. The Military (basically organized violence and legalized murder) uses Armed Force to conquer, colonize and confiscate the resources of weaker nations. Even so called Revolutionary Governments are still locked into this old paradigm, which eventually causes their people to no longer support them or believe in their ideology. The Soviet Union is a prime example of a Revolutionary Government that morphed into a undemocratic Empire, and eventually collapsed when enough people withdrew their energy and support from it. The same thing could happen here, especially if Obama is unable to extricate himself and his government from the control of the Oligarchy.
3.) The third area that was not addressed fully was the role of Indigenous and Latino people would play in this Great Turning, especially in the Western Hemisphere.
It is my firm belief that Indigenous people need to take leadership in this movement. We are the original link to the this hemisphere — the First Nations — whose Earth centered values have been reminding the newcomers to this land of our role as stewards and spiritual firekeepers since time immemorial. We need to step up to our role as Elder Brothers and Sisters and adapt our Origin stories and Prophesies to serve the needs of our people in the 21st Century. This would include understanding the role of Internalized Oppression in keeping us divided and demoralized, not only from our own peoples, but from our allies among the Latinos who are mostly indigenous. In reality, they are more than allies, they are our brothers in sisters in the struggle to protect Pachamama/Mother Earth.
Native people still own large amounts of land that could be taken out of control of the BIA and could be the basis for many organic farms or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. Such farms could greatly contribute toward healing our people from the ravages of Diabetes and cancer causing Industrial Agriculture. We could also ally ourselves with African American and Latino farms and farmworkers to create a powerful source of Food Security during times of crisis like the present. One such initiative is in Oklahoma, the Mvskoke Food Security Initiative (MFSI).
Most of our tribal land that is currently leased to non-tribal ranchers and farmers, but if we can ally with organic and permaculture based organizations and farmers nationwide, we could tip the balance away from Factory Farms and Chemical based food and fertilizers.
All in all, I highly recommend reading The Great Turning. I suggest that we also use the resources of David Korten’s People Centered Development Forum.
Robert Mendoza
