The Death of the Sachem
Beginning in the 11th century and lasting until the 17th century, Native Americans selected Sachem’s as tribal chiefs. A Sachem could have been any member of the tribe, from a valorous warrior’s son to a shaman’s daughter. A Sachem was selected based on merit in various criteria: morality, intelligence, sanity, leadership, social cognizance, creativity in the arts, bravery, perspicacity, well-roundedness, etc.
Sachems were chosen whenever necessary by a unanimous vote of the matriarchy. The oldest women of the tribe would assemble and discuss at length to reach an agreement. The mothers of the tribe were the ones least likely to resolves disputes through war and violence and most likely to be responsible for childrearing. Therefore, it was seen that mothers were most clairvoyant when it came to future generations and therefore the long-term sustainability of the tribe, so they were granted election powers. It wasn’t that men didn’t have a say, but they respected the logic and insight of the older women who were less bellicose.
The Birth of the Plutocracy
The ringleaders of today’s political circus are unaccountable individuals, either from outside of the “tribe” and are thusly entirely non-representative or they are unconscionable self-serving sycophants who can convince the public that they have their best interests in mind. These tyrants are bred, trained, and selected – not elected.
Through the art of sophistry and bull-shittery, these narcissistic parasites regale the hungry throngs of voters through their charismatic smiles with imaginary stories of alikeness meant to foster rapport with their constituency. These puppet politicians, all working for the same banks, taking the same blood oaths in fraternal orders, and following the same philosophies of individuals like Albert Pike, masquerade in blue and red sashes and tell the psychologically-broken what they want to hear.
Not only do they sign oppressive laws behind locked doors, they lie to your face and try to convince you that their hands are clean. They spit in your third eye and call it rain.
What America and most of the world has today as governments are a direct manifestation of man’s schizophrenic psyche. He outsources his decisions, his self-image, his emotions, and even his beliefs about reality. Of course, of course he outsources the rules of the playground to the schoolyard bully.
As Michael Tsarion explains, when man has a broken inner republic he creates a broken outer republic. He says,
It is some insecurity within us, it is some fragmentation within us, it is some sort of false need, false want, or false desire that leaves us open. If we were immune, strong, and had true community – this word gets bandied around a lot and I’m not even sure if some people know what it means – but if we really had true community like running our own shop, running our own state, running our own neighborhood, we wouldn’t need a damn thing that Big Brother offers. No matter what flies from its cart, we wouldn’t touch it. We have become so destitute of the things that really matter in this world that they can come along with their fake systems, sell them to us cheaply, and we will give our souls for it.
Intertribal Bloodshed
It is extremely important to note that things were not perfect before the Europeans slaughtered millions of Native Americans and influenced their politics. There were many horrific tribal wars and endemic fighting that claimed untold amounts of lives.
James R. McIntyr, on ABC-CLIO Historical Research Database, wrote of Native American conflict,
For the Iroquois and other groups, the goal was to kill the other warriors and take their scalps. Women and children were taken captive and sometimes adopted in accordance with their culture’s practice of mourning war. Still, warfare between different Native American groups could be quite lethal. In some cases, the goal stood as the complete destruction of an opponent, to such a degree that it could be considered akin to an act of genocide. Such was the case between the Creeks and the Tuscaroras, as well as between the Sioux and the Illini.
Globalization is a Search for Selfhood
Globalization has wrought much havoc on this planet as man has sprawled outward in his imperialist conquest. This is because, historically, globalization was not intended to set foot in altruism, to create systems of food and resource distribution to impoverished regions, for instance. In fact, it has not intended anything other than exploitation of land, people, and resources for power consolidation. This power has been leveraged to slowly but surely construct the Global Village where the all-seeing eye watches over the shackled downtrodden as they lug about in bondage. Man’s social tendency was noticed long ago by the Powers That Be as they fueled race, gender, and class wars. “Divide and Conquer” has been the name of the game since the start.
Globalization is indeed a search for Selfhood. We plunder the world desperately seeking new enemies to blame and battle, more problems for the ego to solve, and bigger spaces to dispose the misplaced shadow material of our unconscious. We fear to look within for Truth, so instead we look far and wide.
However, globalization offers us the choice for acculturation. Humans desire communion and connection with others and we are natural explorers at heart. We long to come together and learn from one another. It is only when we globalize consciously that we can cohabitate with our distant brethren and unite against our common enemy.
The Merger of Local Systems with Trans-Tribal Mentality
Native American tribes were intimately involved in their local politics and knew their leaders personally. However, they were still operating from ethnocentric elitism and territorialism. This was their downfall.
People need to act locally while thinking globally. A return to localized “politics,” if that word remains applicable, while transcending ethnocentricity is heralded by the invention of the internet.
Marshall McLuhan, author of The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), had this to say about the internet’s implications for catalyzing a new social orientation:
[The] electric speed in bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree. Increased speed of communication and the ability of people to read about, spread, and react to global news quickly, forces us to become more involved with one another from various social groups and countries around the world and to be more aware of our global responsibilities.
American philosopher Ken Wilber expounds on Transpersonal Psychology as a means of social progress in his lectures that explore mysticism, ecology, and developmental psychology.
In his commentary Ken Wilber in Diaologue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers, author Donald Rothberg describes Wilber’s warnings of “resurgent tribalism.”
Wilber maintains that his views on human development and evolution, far from contributing to further social oppression and ecological damage, are consistent with the politically immense to ecological aims of most ecofeminists. Further, he argues that the eco-crisis results not from rationality as such, but rather from a dissociated rationality, from a “rationality (and its technical know-how) in the service of ethnocentric dominance or tribal power ploys.” He insists that only the personal freedoms, democratic institution, and scientific understanding mad e possible by such rationality can stave off the ecological crisis long enough to permit the emergence of centauric vision-logic, the final personal level that will integrate humankind and nature.
Rothberg goes on to posit that Wilber would perhaps agree with a more egalitarian, if not matriarchal, government. He also discusses that the suffering on this planet is part of man’s evolution of consciousness and pivotal in “Enlightenment humanism.”
Even though joining ecofeminists in condemning the ecologically destructive and socially repressive dimensions of patriarchal history, Wilber refuses to concede that there is no telos [endgame] in human history. The death and destruction suffered by human and nonhuman alike in world history can be redeemed in part because they contributed to a transcendent purpose. Wilber would agree with Hegel’s dictum that many an innocent flower is trampled underfoot as Spirit moves toward self-consciousness. Sentimental attachment to existing social or ecological formations is understandable, but naive.
We do not know where our leaders come from and this does not bother anyone. We have no relationship with our leaders and blindly believe they care about each of us individually. We do not know a damn thing about our leaders pasts; we only have a few slogans and empty promises to go by. We cannot undo globalization, but we can certainly reintegrate some tenets of Native American politics into our modern systems. We must think transpersonally and universally with an obvious focus on self-purification to create a more cohesive global society, all the while keeping an eye on the predatory psychopaths who try to co-opt our future.
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