So it's the 4th of July, Canada Day just passed, haven't written in months, and here I am.
The other night as I lay in bed, considering the state of the world, the nature of man, and the blighted world economy-it struck me. Remember when we were little and were told that the America's were 'discovered' and that to the Europeans we were The New World? It occurred to me that the language around all of this was misleading, misguided and just plain wrong. I hope that it wasn't purposely thus, but I fear that it was.
Well of course we weren't 'discovered', this land is ancient, and the inhabitants had already discovered it's bounty. Imagine if you will had the new discoverers treated it as though it were a New World? Not one to be divided up along traditional European Tribal lines, but rather an opportunity for a new outlook, a new start on creating societies that forged new thought and innovative ideas? Instead what we got was the same old same old, a rehash of a capitalist system that was already past it's due date. That was described to us as a Mercantile System, as though the utterance of Capitalism would have destroyed our youthful ears. I well remember believing that the transpositioning of European ways to our shores represented the best use of our lands. That all the new world had was wares and resources that could best be used by Europeans to further their own needs and wants. How our furs, and lumber were required to sustain trade in the great European nations. Settlers too, were swayed along national lines, even those who found the small mindedness of their home countries too restrictive and sought freedom in this new world, mirrored the tenets of the old world.
The laws, the governance, the class systems were all reproduced on our shores because the only new thing was the land. New land for exploiting, new resources to be used up for personal gain. The inhabitants who through many years of surviving and living with the land had their values overthrown and belittled by the new inhabitants. (Witness the Indian Wars to the south, and the many instances of theft of land and attempts to isolate a people from it's beliefs to the north) Ridiculously evil spirited attempts to assimilate while isolating and segregating a people from it's life's blood, mother earth.
Imagine, if you will, had the Europeans truly discovered a New World, and had they honoured that discovery, what our entire world would look like. Certainly, the America's were not perfect, it was a harsh life, a cruel climate in many of its parts, and not without tribal wars of its own. But the importation of fresh tribal wars was not what was needed when new options afforded themselves. Had they chosen to learn, and not so heartlessly dismiss the indigenous people as primitives, had they listened to the language and rythm of this new land....would we now, be trying to undo the great destruction that western civilization has wrought on our planet. Would we be worrying about the impending loss of fresh water? Would the fish of the Grand Banks, that I learned could never be used up, be lost to us. Would our air be so spoiled that sunshine is now our enemy? Yet we continue to use water as though it were not important, the degradation of our tar sands continues.....using fifty times the water that it gives back for every unit of oil. I heard a remarkable fact the other day, our human brain is 95% water.....and we never stop and ask ourselves, it it's so important, why do we so undervalue it so? That is truly, counter intuitive......
As the world struggles to recover from an inevitable breakdown of it's economic systems.....imagine if you will, rebuilding as though we have a 'new world' in which to operate.
Happy birthday to Canada and to the United States of America, I truly wish we could be the New World once again.
