Subject:
The simplest society.
Date: June
8, 1995 14:15
12:47 Babawaki-cho 7-2, Shugakuin; Kyoto, Kansai-Japan
:: 8 JUN 95
An observation of Australian Aborigines from James Cook's journals:
They appear to be in reality far more happier than we
Europeans; being wholy unacquainted not only with the superfluous but
the necessary Conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy
in not knowing the use of them. They live in Tranquility which is not
disturb'd by the inequality of Condition; the Earth and sea of their own
accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life, they covet not
Magnificent Houses, Household-stuff etc., they live in warm and fine Climate
and enjoy a very wholesome Air, so that they have very little need of
clothing. . . . In short they seem'd to set no Value upon anything we
gave them. . . .
An observation of Native Americans in California from the pen
of explorer Thomas Jefferies:
As they covet only the necessaries of life, with which
nature has abundantly provided them, they scarce so much as think of its
superfluities . . . the Indians are the happiest of all mortals . . .
they neither know, nor desire to know, those false enjoyments which we
purchase with so much pains, and with the loss of that which is solid
and real. And their most admirable quality is that truly philosophical
way of thinking, which makes them condemn all the parades of wealth and
magnificence.
Thoughts on these observations by Robert Lawlor, author of Voices
of the First Day-Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime:
Based on these descriptions, we need not search for
paradise in Elysian fields or nirvana; we need not construct extraterrestrial
visitations, buried civilizations technologically superior to ours, lost
continents or space travel. To locate the Golden Age we need only understand
the essential aspects of the old primary hunting and gathering way of
life, of which there is no better example than the traditional Australian
Aborigines.
My own reactions:
The economic modality of a society is not the determinant of
its happiness. The source and technique of food gathering are not the
aspect that sets Aboriginal culture so firmly apart from western society.
If Donald Trump became a hunter/gatherer tomorrow, he would scarcely be
spiritually transformed. Further, an Aboriginal adopting technologies
such as rifles, steel knives or even agriculture in no way compromises
the essence of their spiritual happiness. Rather the significant cultural
aspect is the relationship between an individual human being and other
individuals, their community, the earth, the water, the air and other
life. In the happiest societies none of these relationships holds significant
precedence over the others, nor does the individual themselves merit significance
outside the connections to Earth, spirit and life.
The happiest societies avoid conditions and social techniques
that promote struggle and conflict. Meanwhile these societies foster activities
conducive to achievement and expression. In the West we perceive struggle
and conflict to be necessary adjuncts of achievement and expression. More
insidiously, we believe struggle and conflict to be conditions of living.
The happiest societies are satisfied with the simplest necessities
that nature provides equally for all. In the West we climb the social
ladder and move up the corporate hierarchy; we can never be certain of
our happiness so long as someone else is perceived to have more-more wealth,
more material belongings, more status, more power. We often fail to understand
that these individuals endowed with 'more' are no happier than we and
hardly deserve our envy.
Essentially, Buddha espouses the simplest characteristics of
happiness, as did Christ and Muhammad. The organised religions we created
in the wake of these prophets maintain their teachings with varying degrees
of success. However, none of these paths emphasises the conception of
Earth-bound spirituality, of connection to Earth, animals and plants,
that is the centre-point of the cultures created by hunter/gatherers,
pastoral nomads and small-scale agriculturists.
Patrick. -- Responses Sought --
An even more important contribution [of the indigenous
New World] may be the early colonial leaders' recognition of fundamental
democratic principles in the caucuses, tribal gatherings, and organization
of Native American society. Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, and other
leaders built the American federal system on these principles. The ideal
of the free and autonomous individual citizen, developed by romantic philosophers
such as Rousseau, arose after Europeans made contact with the Indian nations
and brought back eyewitness accounts of the independence and freedom of
tribal people. Recently, it has been documented that the perfect, homogenous
socialist state that Marx and Engels envisioned was initially inspired
by the genuinely egalitarian organisation observed among hunter-gatherer
tribes.
| |
 |
Robert Lawlor
Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime |
