While
reading Scott Richard Lyons’s second chapter of X-Marks, I couldn't help
thinking of the title to this blog. I have yet to discuss it in the blog and
thus I have never given an explanation of what I meant by it or why I chose
that specific title. Perhaps its meaning is apparent and easily understood;
however, I would like to take the time to discuss it now anyway, but in context
with some of what Lyons discusses in the chapter.
I began
thinking about the title while reading through a certain paragraph, which is,
for the most part, written as follows:
Who wouldn't support
the revival of Native cultures? They typically promote sustainability, produce
happiness and equality, and are usually geared towards inclusion and justice.
Traditional knowledge and philosophies, especially those concerned with
environmental concerns, and democratic action are immensely valuable. And it is
no small matter to detect a growing sense of pride in Native communities that
for centuries have been among the most fragile in the world. Through our
current cultural revival, imperialism is resisted, development is pursued,
independence is growing, and people’s lives are improving. For these reasons
alone Native cultures are most definitely worth reviving. (75 &76)
In any
excerpt of such length there is obviously a tremendous amount of unpacking, but
my mind could not help but focus in on the notion of Native culture as
something that promotes “sustainability,” “happiness,” “equality,” “inclusion,”
“justice,” “environmental concerns,” and “democratic action.” Along these
lines, I must agree with Lyons; who wouldn't support a revival of
such a culture? But at the same time, I could not help but also have the
thought “who would destroy such a culture?” Of course, at this point we all
know, generally speaking, what happened; a clash of cultures between European
imperialists/colonialists and Native cultures. Hence the reason Native cultures
have been in such a fragile mode for the last few centuries. I mean, come on,
what is one to do against armies of gun wielding men who possess the arrogance
of believing that they are the only people with a legitimate history, culture,
and thus civilization?
As Lyons
states, this is why the revival of Native cultures is so important, because it
brings a kind of balance back to the world such that “imperialism is resisted,
development is pursued, independence” grows, “and people’s lives” improve. But
in this scenario, it is Native culture that represents that which is good. So
what does this imply about the culture of the United States? If its culture was
essentially responsible for the systematic destruction of Native culture, than
is it ultimately a culture of imperialism? I mean, if you really study history,
that does seem to be the picture that is painted. The genocide of Native
peoples, the enslavement and later colonization of Native peoples, war after
war with other Native people. Imperialism, colonization, capitalism, invasion,
exploitation… etc. The list goes on and on, and it runs like this
all the way up until today, and sadly, it’s still pretty much running in the
same direction. Lyons even alludes to this and references it directly in the
text when he mentions “American support of the Saudi royal family, its
militarization of the Middle East,” and “American-Israeli coalitions against
Palestine and Lebanon” (82).
Thus I
return to the title of the blog. What is, or was, the American dream? I had
always thought, mostly because I was always taught, that the American dream was
to create the world’s greatest democracy, where freedom, liberty, justice, and
other such noble notions would abide and thrive. Now, ever since I was old
enough to think for myself and read a book, I never really believed that.
Because reality seems to dictate otherwise, and this reality seems to find
itself manifest in the experiences, and thus the thoughts and writings, of all
kinds of people. To further explicate my point, let us go through that list one
more time: first, in terms of sustainability, our system is one of the
most unsustainable systems the world has ever known; second, in terms of
happiness, equality, inclusion, and justice, our system certainly drops the
ball quite often in these respects; third, in terms of environmental concerns,
we seem to have relatively little care for the pollution and destruction that
we cause to our surroundings; and fourth, in terms of democratic action, this
has almost become a game of pure mass media manipulation. When looking at it
from this perspective, it’s as George Carlin so brilliantly put it years ago,
“It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”
Now,
having said all that, I do not want to be mistaken for a pessimist; I do not
believe that this is all that America represents, nor do I believe that
everyone here represents these negative qualities. But in terms of the system
itself. It does seem to represent those negative aspects, and we have not been
able to really change this a great deal in all the years of our “democratic
actions.” Yes, much has changed; many things have gotten much better, and it was
almost always due to grassroots action. I’m not taking anything away from that.
It’s part of the reason I think the Idle No More campaign is awesome! I still
have hope. How can we give up on that?
However,
the dream of the U.S. representing the greatest thing on the face of the earth
just does not vibe right with me. One, that is offensive to every other area of
the planet and every other people. Hence the reason I despise statements like
“God bless America.” And in terms of peace and justice, I also cannot get on
board, because we are an extremely violent country who simply will not hesitate
to invade whoever in order to maintain international “trade” and, well,
business as normal. So, I feel like I am awake in this dream of America, which
is really more like a nightmare, in many respects, but again, not all, and
possessing this kind of perspective does feel someone like a nervous condition.
Mostly, because everyone looks at you like your freaking nuts, haha. But just
research the vast connections the corporation Monsanto has to our Federal
Government, and you might be surprised, and hopefully a little disgusted,
especially when you find out that our new Food and Drug czar is a former
Monsanto lobbyist. Understood in conjunction with Lyons reference to
“healthy crops” (87), I do not think Monsanto is going to be so great in
ensuring that our “crops” are as healthy as possible.
In
conclusion I would like to end with a rather long excerpted paragraph from
Lyons, mostly because I think it is awesome! So, here it goes:
Why were values invoked in the
“Declaration of Indian Purpose”? Were the authors claiming a right to live in
societies defined by different value systems than what they had witnessed in
the dominant society, on that had placed them in boarding schools for the
explicit purpose of changing their values? Were they insisting on the
legitimacy of indigenous arrangements of value that would privilege, say,
loving, respectful, honest, wise, humble, and truth-seeking personalities over
the kinds of people most highly valued in a militarized, imperialist, consumer
culture? A society prioritizing indigenous values would be a very different
world than the one we all know today. This other world probably wouldn't value
people like Donald Trump and Donald Rumsfeld so much as those kind, gentle
elders that many of us have been fortunate to know during our lifetimes, and
saying so is not to invoke a culture war or clash of civilizations. It is only
to posit the small suggestion that perhaps the American Indian Chicago
Conference had something quite ambitious in mind when they heralded the
importance of Native values and called it a sign of complexity and an inherent
human right. Perhaps what they meant was no more than a desire to live
according to a value system of one’s own, but perhaps they held the more
ambitious hope that others might come to value Native values as well.
I
do believe this is happening, and I believe it is one of our greatest hopes. I
also do not think that these values can be separated from human values; I
simply believe that many of the people in this world have lost their way,
and perhaps a little bit of their humanity as well. But I do not think it is
too late to revive this humanity, and I do believe that Lyons is on to something
here in suggesting that another society is possible and that “others might come
to value Native values as well.”
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