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Over the years that I've been a member of the Democratic Underground community, I have often quoted from and referred to Vine Deloria, Jr.'s 1970 book, “We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf” (Dell). In today's fast-paced culture, with 24/7 cable news and instant messaging, a small book from more than 40 years ago may seem outdated. Yet, the truth is always the truth, and in the early months of 2011, a growing awareness of many of those truths that Deloria spoke of is spreading around the globe.
Briefly, the Pine Ridge attorney/ Native American Rights activist defines the unholy growth in economic growth and political power of corporations as modern feudalism. He contrasts that with the tribal strengths of minority cultures – including black, brown, red, yellow, and even some white groups (such as the Amish and some “communes”). He predicts that the future of America would involve a conflict between corporations/ castles and tribes/teepees.
Deloria was not an advocate of a romantic, unrealistic return to pre-1492 conditions. In this book, for example, he stresses that the “new tribes” view the U.S. Constitution in terms of groups' rights, as well as individual rights. This is one of the concepts of Iroquois' thought that did not fully translate into the Thirteen Colonies' transition from the Albany Plan of Union (Franklin), to the Articles of Confederation, to the Constitution. The larger society has limited it to “state's rights” versus federal powers; we need to consider the modern tensions between corporations and groups of citizens as being the primary conflict today.
It might be people fighting the “mountain-top removal” mining; or people struggling to keep their water safe from the toxic contamination of frack drilling; or people fighting for equality in marriage; or a union fighting for the dignity of its membership.
At the same time, such an approach provides for a higher value for the individual, than does the current corporate interpretation of the Constitution. Deloria writes about a 1969 speech by McGeorge Bundy (himself more of a corporate tool than Vine noted), at a college graduation, where the then head of the Ford Foundation noted that corporations had twisted the Constitution in such a way as to deny the worth of the individual more than at any time since the Civil War. I dare say things have gotten worse for the individual since that speech, 42 years ago.
Too often today, people look for a individual leader, at the national level, to correct the flaws in the system. That “system” is the corporate machine. In truth, no single national leader could correct those flaws – assuming that there has even been such a potential leader in the past 40 years. These problems (and I think the word “crimes” fits) are of such a nature that no individual in the castle is going to repair them.
We need to look to the modern tribes. Many of these tribes are located in specific geographic locations: for example, it may be an anti-fracking organization in part of Pennsylvania. Or a union in Wisconsin. Others are spread out across the land, but have common interests that current technology allows to have greater communications. While each of these groups is “individual,” they are also connected to many of the other tribes across this country. Indeed, the time is ripe to recognize our connections with tribes around this Earth, in part because multi-national corporations pose a common enemy.
Of course, we have had it drilled into our heads that we are not supposed to think this way. At most, we are supposed to focus all of our energies on puppets of the corporations – Senator Redneck from Mississippi, or Congressman Jack Ass from Nevada, or Glenn Beck of Fox. But we are discouraged from aiming at the puppeteers – the criminals on Wall Street, and those ghouls making a fortune on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and other “conflicts” that the public is generally unaware of. Yet they, too, are a “tribe” that is united for their common interests. They have mangled the Constitution, robbed the working class, and desecrated the land, air, and water, so that they enjoy the comforts of their castles.
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I had hoped that my interview with Tom Hayden would be completed for publishing on the Democratic Underground in February. My goal is to do one per month. My schedule, however, is not his. Hence, when he completes his end, we will have an interesting discussion of some of these same ideas. And there is a very real Power of Ideas. For March, I'm considering either the “Hurricane” or cousin Oren Lyons, one of the most influential Chiefs of the Onondaga Nation, and member of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy's Grand Council of Chiefs.
Also, either later today or tomorrow, I will have some further information on “fracking.” I had hope that the documentary film “Gas Land” would win the big prize last night. As has been widely reported in the news, the “energy corporations” included a large, coordinated attack to try to keep the film from winning. That action may have helped bring more attention to “Gas Land,” especially combined with the outstanding report in yesterday's New York Times, which exposes many of the lies the energy corporations are spreading about the “safety” of pushing deadly toxic wastes into the water table.
My tribe is fighting fracking, and I'll be asking your help with three important phone calls. Likewise, I always want to hear what your tribe is doing, including recommendations on what myself and other forum members can do to support your efforts. And reports on what other tribes across the country are doing, and how we can help.
Alone, we are like individual fingers that our common enemy can twist and break. Together, we form a powerful fist, that is capable of protecting all of us.
Power to the People,
H2O Man
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