Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

July 1, 2010

VIDEO: John Trudell at US Social Forum




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGIRNxVtRhU

Watch Trudell's complete presentation at: http://johntrudellarchives.com/


1 comment:

chaz said...

I agree with John on everything, except where he doesn't go into the severe alienation reality that foments the systematic pattern of corralling and controlling we the masses. He mentions them as vampires, and metaphorically that works. He mentions them as reptiles, and again, metaphorically, that fits. Yet, that method doesn't build a bridge at all. It keeps people perpetually entrenched.

We don't want to be trampled, we shall not cooperate with authoritarians and their perpetual war machine at home and abroad, and yet, someone has got to take the "first step" in being radically human. Or radical's radically human. To try to grasp the hidden heart, the heart within their armors and fortresses of mind-set and severe alienation from the rest of us!

Do we want to perpetuate alienation? How are we going to face this reality?

I like to share the following insight with folks whenever i get the chance:

All of these "ruling class" folks began their lives under coercion pressed upon them from their elders when they were kids. Intuitively they might dissent as any organic human (not yet fully colonized) would when faced with unfair treatment or authoritarianism. They were told, "shape up or ship out"; they saw others whom dissented "made an example of", they were told that if they didn't conform (to The Way Things Is) that they would be put in a psychiatric ward, or a military boarding school, or be excluded from the family will. All kinds of threats (i'm sure i've just touched on the tip of the ice-berg) were made, and thus most learned to shut up. Most learned to follow the Given Reality and, to quote Trudell from elsewhere, "go along with the program". Some continued dissenting. Gore Vidal is an example of one hailer from material wealth who found ways to survive in his dissent. Others drank into oblivion. Recall that Pres.Bush II sniffed cocaine as a young man, but was put "back on track".

The same reality applies for "greenhorn" idealists going into, say, the social work industry as young offspring of the ruling class. They may have high hopes (i.e. Princess Diana, anyone?) only to see them dashed when the enormity of the bureaucratic-like structure of formal coercion brings them to "the truth"; no one points out that "no man is an island" and needs to have a network of support to back their great-spirited ideals up. No, they "mature" and become "realistic" and replicate bureacracy as we all know it. The same holds true with the ruling class "shared values" ghetto, I think.

More could be said on this, and I may say it in the future. But for now, perhaps food for thought!