Bitter Pill/"With Great Power..."

not sure what you mean by fear and exclusion but I think most people's natural survival instincts drive them to live in communities with people who look like them. Cosmopolitan uptopias fly in the face of human nature and you need more police on duty to keep the racial tension under control (some would argue the ivory tower crowd is using racial tension to justify tighter control of the population)

 

Absolutely everything is based on fear and exclusion. Naturally humans are very community minded and we yearn for connection. This connection keeps us out of harms way in terms of destructive behavior. Our culture is based on capitalism which is "every man for himself" and "dog eat dog" type of world. This keeps us separated from each other and in fear and consumerism. That fear can be based on race, gender, societal status, income etc. Then there is the never ending race to be better than everyone else by buying lots of crap.

 

Long time ago
in the beginning
there were no white people in this world
there was nothing European.
And this world might have gone on like that
except for one thing:
witchery.
This world was already complete
even without white people.
There was everything
including witchery.

Then it happened.
These witch people got together.
Some came from far far away
across oceans
across mountains.
Some had slanty eyes
others had black skin.
They all got together for a contest
the way people have baseball tournaments nowadays
except this was a contest
in dark things.

So anyway
they all go together
witch people from all directions
witches from all the Pueblos
and all the tribes.
They had Navajo witches there,
some from Hopi, and a few from Zuni.
They were having a witches' conference,
that's what it was
Way up in the lava rock hills
north of Canoncito
they got together
to fool around in caves
with their animal skins.
Fox, badger, bobcat, and wolf
they circled the fire
and on the fourth time
they jumped into that animal's skin.

But this time it wasn't enough
and one of them
maybe Sioux or some Eskimos
started showing off.
"That wasn't anything,
watch this."

The contest started like that.
Then some of them lifted the lids
on their big cooking pots,
calling the rest of them over
to take a look:
dead babies simmering in blood
circles of skull cut away
all the brains sucked out.
Witch medicine
to dry and grind into powder
for new victims.
Others untied skin bundles of disgusting objects:
dark flints, cinders from burning hogans where the
dead lay
Whorls of skin
cut from finger tips
sliced from the penis end and clitoris tip.

Finally there was only one
who hadn't shown off charms or powers.
The witch stood in the shadows beyond the fire
and no one ever knew where this witch came from
which tribe
or if it was a woman or a man.
But the important thing was
this witch didn't show off any dark thunder charcoals
or red ant-hill beads.
This one just told them to listen:
"What I have is a story."

At first they all laughed
but this witch said
Okay
go ahead
laugh if you want to
but as I tell the story
it will begin to happen.

Set in motion now
set in motion by our witchery
to work for us.

Caves across the ocean
in caves of dark hills
white skin people
like the belly of a fish
covered with hair.

Then they grow away from the earth
then they grow away from the sun
then they grow away from the plants and animals.
They see no life
When they look
they see only objects.
The world is a dead thing for them
the trees and rivers are not alive
the mountains and stones are not alive.
The deer and the bear are objects
They see no life.
They fear
They fear the world.
They destroy what they fear.
They fear themselves.

The wind will blow them across the ocean
thousands of them in giant boats
swarming like larva
out of a crushed ant hill.

They will carry objects
which can shoot death
faster than the eye can see.

They will kill the things they fear
all the animals
the people will starve.

They will poison the water
they will spin the water away
and there will be drought
the people will starve.

They will fear what they find
They will fear the people
They will kill what they fear.

Entire villages will be wiped out
They will slaughter whole tribes.
Corpses for us
Blood for us
Killing killing killing killing

And those they do not kill
will die anyway
at the destruction they see
at the loss
at the loss of the children
the loss will destroy the rest.

Stolen rivers and mountains
the stolen land will eat their hearts
and jerk their mouths from the Mother.
The people will starve.

They will bring terrible diseases
the people have never known.
Entire tribes will die out
covered with festering sores...
vomiting blood.
Corpses for our work

Set in motion now
set in motion by our witchery
set in motion
to work for us

They will take this world from ocean to ocean
they will turn on each other
they will destroy each other
Up here
in these hills
they will find the rocks,
rocks with veins of green and yellow and black.
They will lay the final pattern with these rocks
they will lay it across the world
and explode everything.

Set in motion now
set in motion
To destroy
To kill
Objects to work for us
objects to act for us
Performing the witchery
for suffering
for torment
for the stillborn
the deformed
the sterile
the dead.

Whirling
Whirling
Whirling
Whirling
set into motion now
set into motion.

So the other witches said
"Okay you win; you take the prize,
but what you said just now -
it isn't so funny
It doesn't sound so good.
We are doing okay without that kind of thing.
Take it back.
Call that story back."

But the witch just shook its head
at the others in their stinking animal skins, fur
and feathers.
It's already turned loose.
It's already coming.
It can't be called back.

-From the Book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko​

 

Wow wow wow!!! Love that mumchance.

 

I know! That poem is so powerful and perfect for this thread. You should read the rest of the book if you have time. I definitely recommend it.

Our fear is often the grammar of the stories we tell about us. Manifest Destiny, the Good Consumer, The Faithful Citizen, America the New Israel, CyberCitizen: all these stories are built on fear. Fear of the Other, fear of not "keeping up with the Jones", fear of being thought not to care about your country, fear of becoming poor, fear of people thinking you are old-fashioned and not with the times. And because of these fears we exclude people as we try to build a our fragile bubbles of security. We exclude people who don't look like us. We exclude people who are poorer than us. We exclude people who don't agree with us. And we live in our little bubbles always worried that someone will break in.

Sorry, that kind of life is not for me. Instead of obsessing over all your perceived enemies, why not make those enemies friends?

 

Fear and exclusion of outsiders is rooted in our genes, because it gives an advantage to the group who does it over those who don't. Insiders have opportunities both inside their group and in others that don't exclude. It also decreases chances of falling victim to groups with bad intentions.
So of course you can try to suppress it and treat everyone equally. This might make for a peaceful and uniform world if everyone would do it. But not everyone does it and therefore what has formed our genes in the past is still true in this case.

 

Immor I don't think there is anything wrong with fear of a true and real enemy especially if it is against a group. I don't think we mean treat everyone equally even bad people. What I mean is that we are so afraid of others for absolutely no reason we can't even form groups against bad 'others'. for example banding together to defeat a corrupt government. When I am afraid of my neighbour, afraid to walk at night, afraid of people based on race I am excluding a lot of people that might be thinking the same way I am thinking. Nowadays we are afraid of everything and it keeps us separated. Think about NoFap and how we are all in this together as a community against porn (maybe against porn is a strong word for some but you know what I mean). this would not really exist outside of the internet because people are so afraid of others. Separation keeps us from defeating any real threat. It's similar to shadow boxing, we are so worn out from fighting imaginary demons we can't begin to fight real ones.

 

Alright, I didn't see it that way. I really like the sentiment Limeaid.
Let's stick together and form groups again. Since family and religion have been seriously sabotaged, we need to build something new or fix those. Neighborhoods are a good place to start.