Society in that way is a totalizing game—not allowing any other games to coexist, not as a legit possibility. They didn’t allow native societies to continue to exist because the white man had this concept of all land as property. Instead of seeing land as source, as above the human, and as more fundamental than the people (without land, we can’t live), the white man sees himself and his ideas as above the land, as outranking it, in some odd way. The logical end of this is that people wouldn’t need land at all to live, and thus the fantasies about living in space. Duh, all mere fantasies—why would you want to live apart from your source?
… This vast fiction, this set of values with the weight and reality of fiction—that is, these seem true to the people who believe them, they seem necessary, these values, this worldview, though of course it’s not, and it makes me want to really question things, see things without this set of values (because it’s probably impossible to see without any values—but why not see life from a different side?)
Civilization has done some helpful things—medicine, human rights—as long as you’re a citizen, an insider—and yet I’m reminded of John Dominic Crossan’s idea that Apostle Paul saw all civilization as hooked on the drug of violence.
Property’s silly. Think of how much sh!t people do just to protect their sh!t! Even M’s trusts & wills—deciding where your property goes, considering taxes. My god, it sure does seem a lot of work just to distribute your game pieces! You give your game pieces to your family or whatever only to help them keep playing, just like our Monopoly game, when we decided to give our properties to those we chose. What do you care—you’re dead! Really makes me skeptical about owning property, etc. And yet I must admit, I really have lived a pretty easy life because my family has always had some property. Like now, renting here is nice, nice to be on farm, etc., but if we had to rent somewhere else, not as nice. Have to live under someone else’s property rules—my god, why does everyone else take property so seriously!! Property’s only tangentially tied to survival and all that.
[From journal of Sat. 19 March 2005, Journal 46, Page 49-50]
MonkeyMoonMachine 