From: Peshewegunzh <beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia!peshe>
Subject: Truth is Academic?
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 23:09:01 GMT

Original-Sender: Peshewegunzh <mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia!peshe>

Pete <CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU!UKANVM.bitnet!PSHEMITZ> wrote:

> The right wing's denigration of the env. movement is therefore a predictable
> response of the champions of the western world's dominant worldview-- rational
> capitalism.

I would say rather, that at the end of the twentieth century, practically
speaking, the dominant worldview is essentially marxist - that is, reductionist
materialism. That could include "rational" capitalism, which is pretty
well synonymous with state capitalism. It may seem that there are some
"rich" people who are independent, or some corporations, but in
actuality, they act only within and towards the ends of the state of which
they are part. There is, because of enormous regulation and social pressure,
very little "independent" wealth - in other words, wealth that could act
contrary to statism or its goals. The financial system and its assets
tend to move people according to its own ends, not theirs. Anyone who
has ever acquired wealth and been chagrined to discover there is no
real independence derived from it will understand what I mean. However,
this offers encouragement for the dispossessed, too, because it shows
how illusory is the power and security of wealth. Real power lies
somewhere else, and it is free for the asking, should one really want
an answer.

Marx hated reform - the stated goal was the abolition of all truth and
morality. How far along this route the western world has come. Indeed,
"deconstruction" in the universities couldn't say it better:

> Also, there are no ideological truths, just fictions with footnotes--
> fantasies which are intelligntly, and creatively given weight and power.

In other words, it is ... all academic. I believe a Roman governor of Palestine,
in the Christian bible, expressed it with a shoulder-shrug for all time,
saying "What is truth?"  Yet the Romans and their heirs, the Europeans,
discovered there is something disconcerting about the spiritual that
transcends the mere possession of the means of power. Why, if money and
power are enough, were the war criminal military commanders in the
U.S. west so frightened of the Ghost Dancers, who practiced a syncretism
of Christian ideas and spiritism, but no violence? Even if the Ghost Dancers
didn't get it just right, the spectre of what judgement was being called up,
which the U.S. officials knew with something more than the intellect would
swallow them? And I am sure it has, for those responsible. And neither have
the repercussions ended there either.

> I would like to see this discussion move towards examining how 1) this war may
> be turned to the native peoples' advantages (the history of the Haudenoshonee
> 2) look at religion critically. what are its dimensions in North American life
> religion can teach us respect, the inter/dependency of life and spirit on this
> planet, the reciprocity that keeps Society in balance.

Just so. And obviously, for Indians, alliances should be chosen carefully
and impermanently, and Indians should find a way to negotiate from strength,
which must in our case be derived from spirituality of necessity, but then,
it should be anyway, whatever physical manifestations of it are sought
for.

The danger in dealing with spirituality from certain "critical" stances is
that some may seek to use it cavalierly as a tool, as inferior to and for other
self-directed purposes. In other words, denying the existence of its objective
truth while attempting to use its side effects. That is very dangerous,
indeed: those who dabble can find themselves messed up one way or another,
and certainly no closer to achievement of any real goals. That's one reason
western science has gotten us into such terrible trouble: there was not
simply a seeking for and understanding of truth, but the inheritance of the
mantle of medieval alchemy, which seeks to cheat.


--
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