Civilization... What we have come to know as "civilization, (which is not so civil) started with the domestication of livestock. Prior to that people had been primarily hunter-gatherers. With the ability to herd their source of fresh meat, came the first hint of permanant settlement. Towns became cities, warlords became kings. Somewhere in there came the advent of the wheel. Somewhere also came the abandonment of the Female Deity. Men created for themselves gods based loosely upon their own image. Wheather this began on the steppes of Asia, or the middle east, or on the continent of Atlantis, I'm really not certain, but I'm pretty sure that there were people here on Turtle Island 22,000 years ago, and more. While the tribes of Europe were forming during the last ice age, tribes had already existed here. There are probably as many Creation stories as there are diverse peoples, There is truth in there somewhere, it's up to us to dilligently seek it out until we find it. Every individual is going to believe what they choose to believe, unless & until shown irrefutable proof to the contrary. Proof is a difficult thing to uncover. Far be it for me to tell anyone else what they should believe, or not believe. Don't "should" on me. I'm simply an observer, and a seeker of truth. Without some kind of proof, I can only state my own view of what I percieve & believe, take it or leave it.
...So the cities became states, civilizations rose & fell, and new ones rose to take their place... Spoken language blossomed into written language, technology flourished, men found themselves with enough time on their hands to think, to ponder, & to dream. Yet simultaneously the greediest among them found ways to hoard, to controll, to dominate & enslave. They became materially wealthy. Some fancied themselves gods. They amassed armies & became conquerers. And more civilizations rose & fell. Conquerers became tyrants. Religion became a means of controll by threat & fear. Meanwhile, here on Turtle Island, we were still living in harmony with Mother Earth. I urge you to read Basic Call To Conciousness. The writers of this book explain it far more eloquently than I can. But I'm doing my best to give a rough outline, the gist of the story.
Around 2000 years ago a man, who may or may not have been a messiah came along teaching new ideas. Rome was the dominant power at the time. This Rabbi, so the story goes, performed healings & miracles, as well as being a charismatic leader with a sizable following, enough to draw attention to himself. He pissed off enough tyrannical religious leaders that they plotted and carried out his torture & execution. This did not have the results they had expected. Most of the details are sketchy, at best. If anyone really knows the truth of it, they arent showing any proof. So a new religion grew out of this following. After a few hundred years, when Rome saw itself losing controll, it absorbed and took controll of this church, thereby retaining controll even though it fell from overt power. Those who controll the writing of history have the power to twist and distort it to their own ends. So it became common belief that those in controll had been divinely placed in that position. This left the door open for all manner of attrocity to be perpetrated in the name of the Christian religion. I don't think their founder would be very pleased with their track record of horrors, do you?
By the time of the first Europeans to sail accross the Atlantic & make contact with us, these bliefs of dominance were held to be self-evident. And so ensued the horrors committed against us by the Eueopean invaders, a legacy of which still holds us in its grip. They percieved us as ignorant savages, & to one degree or another, still see us as such, even though we know different. On came the merciless onslaught of oppression, genocide, and tyrany, westward expansion, ""manifest destiny"" (what pretty words to attempt to justify their wrongdoing in their own eyes!) Rape & murder of innocent women, children, and men. Those they couldn't kill, they oppressed & divided, and forced onto ever-shrinking islands in an ever-growing sea of hatred. They did everything they could to erase us, but they could not. Nor could they enslave us outright, as they did to the Africans they kidnapped. Instead they tried to kill our culture, ruin us with alcohol, assimilate us, (didn't work) every dirty trick in the book. This is the legacy that we have to live with every day.
Are you beginning to understand my anger a little bit? Be patient, it gets more interesting...
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