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Bill Campbell's avatar

Darya, your wonderful writings help me see the world differently -- past and present.

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And there is a cautionary tale in your essay, a powerful lesson for me to remember (as you wrote):

“...Looking back, it pains me to see how Belarusians lost probably their best chance for freedom and independence and instead chose “stability” that quickly turned into a suffocating dictatorship under Russian control.”

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David Petersen's avatar

The cultural dynamics of colonialism are very well known also in North America, but paradoxically kept hidden, especially in the U.S. I am speaking about the native peoples. When I was growing up in western Canada, I was aware of the genocidal wars and the reservations, but I never connected the dots between the past and the long term consequences of forced cultural assimilation. It wasn't until I was in a room full of young Mohawks when they responded to the question I posed to them which was why don't you assimilate. I have travel the world many times over, and very seldom have I witness whole peoples literally destroyed their whole communities with alcohol as I did in western Canada.

I may seem to be coming from left field on what was discussed by this recent post, but I believe I do have a point. In a way, I was like a Russian when I addressed those Mohawks. I was completely self assured not so much in the superiority of my white culture, as I was by the certainty that natives were destroying themselves.

My earliest memories are peppered with scenes of passed out natives laying on sidewalks, sleeping and drinking underneath bridges (especially near rail road tracks). I literally knew nothing about the residential school system where children were ripped from their parents and forced to live and attend schools ran by Catholic priests, but I did go to grade school with a number of 1st nation people who were bused in so I while my friends might've been shocked by my directness (I do remember a couple of them begging me with their eyes to shut up else we were going to get kill) I knew enough that my directness would be respected. And, I was right.

For sure, I think there was a couple of seconds, given the looks between the Mohawks in the room whether they should give me the boots, but their leader in words far more eloquent that I possessed made the case as follows. He said look at your cities and look at our lands, your cities are full of garbage and strangers who steal and murder each other, he asked me if I have ever seen any pollution on native soil (treaty land). He said in his culture a person's word was his bond, and that native societies did not have the need for prisons nor lawyers, did not force their parents into nursing homes to be forgotten...Quite honestly, I wasn't expecting what I was hearing. The zinger was when he asked the rhetorical question after ripping to shreds the superiority of the so-called advantages of living in planned communities, and mass consumerism which was would a native American ever have built a nuclear bomb. He knew I knew the answer which was never.

It's been many years since that crazy night. I have doubts about retroactive responsibility as a feasible public policy. I have read that California is experimenting with making cash payments to descendents of African slaves. I think such a policy will alienate people taking an interest in building a better legal system. On the other hand, despite my convictions, I know many people will be like Russians and don't care about the past.

There is no way I can relate to what it is like to be a Belarusian. The sum and substance of my argument is if one believes in the virtues of freedom, then one must believe in the utility of progress whatever road that takes a person. For myself, I now understand that the reason that Canadians should support native rights is that as a people it allows us to think outside the proverbial box, and that is power. Furthermore, understanding the relationship between our human nature and nature itself allows us to comprehend advance scientific ideas, especially in quantum mechanics. Is time linear, or a function of a superposition of multiple states? Surrendipendity abounds in pluralistic societies. I now look back and say to myself I am grateful to have been exposed to multiple world views.

If the world does not blow up, the question that will remain is how to prevent the future from becoming old again. I truly believe that Eastern Europeans are way ahead of most of the world because they understand intuitively that the real battle is for the control of the narrative. Terms like "informational space" I read are common expressions to Eastern Europeans. We all have skin in the game now to prevent future NordStreams from empowering jack-ass dictators threatening to blow all of us if we don't bend the knee.

So, I read your words, with much sadness, and as a product of series of invisible cultural privileges that I still barely understand exist I believe that those who think and feel have a choice, to understand and accept the hard road ahead of them, or say fuck it all and try to make lots of money while pretending that their sense of self worth is not being affected.

In my case, I truly believe that native peoples should have full property rights which would be a revolution of sorts in Canada because individuals can not own mineral rights, and I understand the reasoning, but white people have no business telling natives which of their values is legit, which language they should speak. When we do, we demean ourselves and over the long run empower demagogues who will exploit everyone for their own personal gain.

In other words, there are many of us who want to understand on human terms what we up against...and in the process, we are going to find new ways to kick some ass. Hopefully, not as brutal as was done during the Reformation, but something needs to be done to prevent future Putins and Elon Musks.

In the final analysis, very few of us can translate our hard earned lessons into something practical for the future, not as individuals but we can through sharing our ideas and beliefs.

I respect Eastern Europeans so much more than I did before Russia attack Ukraine. I have very high hopes for Eastern Europeans

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