Monday, January 05, 2009
Renouncing the Great Lie
Fifteen years ago, our associate Rudolph C. Ryser wrote about the Great Lie fostered by colonial societies in order to subdue, exploit and exterminate indigenous peoples. Today, the Great Lie is still told in classrooms and the media in every country around the world, wherever there is indigenous land or resources yet to steal.
Ugly as this truth is, it is not nearly as repugnant as the deliberate destruction of indigenous communities through the subjugation, subversion, and murder of traditional indigenous leaders that continues to this day. As the seed of mankind, the remaining indigenous nations that retain the ancient wisdom we need for a spiritually and ecologically sustainable way of life, are all that stands between us and disaster.
While we cannot undo all the destruction that modern states have wrought, we can resolve not to participate in continuing on this suicidal path. But that first requires renouncing the Great Lie, and replacing it with truth in our daily lives.
Ugly as this truth is, it is not nearly as repugnant as the deliberate destruction of indigenous communities through the subjugation, subversion, and murder of traditional indigenous leaders that continues to this day. As the seed of mankind, the remaining indigenous nations that retain the ancient wisdom we need for a spiritually and ecologically sustainable way of life, are all that stands between us and disaster.
While we cannot undo all the destruction that modern states have wrought, we can resolve not to participate in continuing on this suicidal path. But that first requires renouncing the Great Lie, and replacing it with truth in our daily lives.
