By Bill
Woollam
Sept 24/03
"Civilization"... Was it only a passing
thought?
In Kevin Annett's book "Love and Death in the
Valley" www.1stBooks.com/bookview/11639 , the former 1992 Port
Alberni Christian missionary lays out the thesis that "genocide as we know it,
developed within European Christianity and has always been an explicitly
religious enterprise, especially once 'Christianity' merged with the Roman state
and shared colonialism's aims of eradicating non-Christian cultures".
Mr. Annett reasons that to understand
the present nature of "legal" genocide in Canada, we need to understand
where it came from, and why. He uses a statement by Christiopher Columbus
to his Royal superiors (after his first contact with New World aboriginals,
1493)
"They should make excellent slaves, since it appears that they
have no religion whatsoever."...revealing the prevailing belief
that 'Christian civilization is the right and only way...no matter
what'.
Present day schooling keeps up the belief that our
"civilization" must continue onwards...no matter what. It is the 'no
matter what' part that is a little hard to swallow. Howard Zinn in his
(banned-in-America) novel, "The People's History of The United States" shows the
genocide, the slaughter, the torture, and the enslavement of the Black Africans,
the Mayans, the American Indians and South American Indians ... in a
straightforward manner that reveals 'no matter what' we established our
'civilization' across this globe...and then we make up 'safe' history to glorify
colonialism and ignore the collateral damage.
Our school classes offer up this 'safe' story while they
ignore the history of the oppressed. History is "dressed up" to fit
the illusion that suits the hierarchy and all its affiliates-- from worker class
to the wealthy upper classes. We never question the hierarchy itself...we
never question what 'civilization' really stands for... instead we
participate in the destructions which our 'civilized organization'
ushers forth down through the ages. Grades one through twelve promote the
belief that we are a 'civilized' society that caters to and supports the royalty
of our times i.e. the CEOs who run the muti-national corporations. Our
television and news services honor those corporate rulers whose
oil/arms/weapons industries propagate war on "uncivilized" Third World
nations to "share" their resources and "liberate" their citizenry. Of
course, "share" means to "steal" and to "liberate" means to
"exploit" for corporate profit. To 'liberate' also means to convert
the oppressed Third World peoples to the "rightness" of our 'civilized religion
and hierarchical system'.
A simpler view of history, as seen from the eyes of Daniel Quinn
in his book "Beyond Civilization", is that 'our social organization (our
hierarchical civilization) has introduced humanity to oppression, injustice,
poverty, chronic famine, incessant violence, genocide, global warfare, crime,
corruption, and wholesale environmental destruction.' Our
'civilization' thing isn't working and hasn't been for quite some time.
His answer is simple; "If the airplane is in trouble, you don't shoot the
pilot, you grab a parachute and jump. To overthrow the hierarchy is
pointless; we just want to leave it behind...to discontinue supporting
it."
And how could a self-interested, corporate businessman ever be
regulated or legislated into changing his motivating
beliefs? Such beliefs held by business and workers support
the war-for-profits agenda of selling depleted uranium tipped artillery shells
and ignoring the radio-active fallout which brings wanton destruction. The
answer is that it is not possible to alter that kind of belief system held
by the corporate executives and wanna-be rich people which states 'no matter
what, ...profit is the bottom line'. It is not
possible to force war-addicted,corporate rulers and their drones to
stop waiving the banner of Christianity while slaughtering people of other
faiths.
However, it is possible to have a change of
attitude. Any CEO or working person may wake up one day
and decide to change the way he does things. His new belief might save the
lives of his children and their living environment. Heck, his new attitude
might even consider mothers and children of the Asian and African nations.
By letting go of supporting war-for-profit, air
pollution-for-profit, low wages-for-profit, water pollution-for-profit,
and drugs-for-profit agendas...his new beliefs may usher in a
different kind of reality...still to be explored and discovered..
These are Daniel Quinn's suggestions...and I like
what he is saying. There is a choice...to support this
wanton"civilization" or to go "beyond civilization" as we know it.
To support the belief in "the working class/ruling class hierarchy" or to
choose alternative beliefs. This is the challenge. Do we continue to
be the pyramid-builders to the pharaohs of our time? If so, we
witness continued exploitation of world citizens, and by our efforts
we continue to fund devastating empire-building agendas. Maybe
our so-called "civilization" is nothing but the perpetuation of an
outdated belief system ...a belief system we bought into four thousand
years ago? Let us ask ourselves what this "civilization" thing really is
about...and do we wish to continue buying into this worker class/middle
class/ruling class scenario at whatever the cost?