Sum it up already...

I'll start by explaining myself. I am lazy and arrogant. I neglect my journal because of this. Now that we have established this, I will discuss my opinion toward the American Indian and their struggle.

I will begin today with the rhetoric of empire. Rhetoric is the art of both spoken and written word. Rhetoric seeks to understand and develop methods which become increasingly persuasive through skill. The rhetoric of empire seeks to diminish the conquered by both dehumanizing them while legitimizing the efforts of the conqueror. The Christians have been particularly good at this through the ages. When I watched the movie The Kingdom which was about the first crusade, there was a preacher calling to all incoming soldiers claiming "to kill an infidel is not a sin". People often deal with the guilt of murder by claiming the glory of God. It is sickening. Rhetoric can also be used to rally the confused to their call. By offering land to white men who would settle the west, they were able to expand the American population and draw new people to its cause. This duality of rhetoric among the conquered and the conqueror is both frightening and powerful.

Personally, I feel that the common ideas between many American Indian belief systems run parallel with many of my own. I have spent a long time studying religion. I never considered myself a Christian, and my parents raised me to be open to all ideas. For a time I was very interested in ancient religion. I learned that in the beginning, god was the mother, the earth. That many small societies were run by women, and that the feminine was sacred. But it was the patriarchal societies that brought war among them. Ancient Greek religion although patriarchal and polytheistic, still recognized the mother as a significant power. I have always known that we come from the Earth, and we will return to the Earth. The Earth is so beautiful and so powerful. It is a damn shame what we do to her.

John Trudell blew my mind. I had heard of him previously but did not recognize his name. The incident at Oglala had been told to me before but I was unsure of the details. Hearing Trudell speak really opened my eyes and made me return to many of my revolutional thought processes that predominated my mind as a high schooler. The strongest image for me in this video was the burning of the American flag on the FBI steps. But what struck me even harder was Trudell's justification. He said that the American flag has been desecrated, and that there is only one proper way to deal with a flag that has been desecrated. Such deep understanding of the soul of a country astonishes me. I start to wonder what we can do to make our world a better place. Fighting the system from within eventually will corrupt. "and there is usually nothing wrong with compromising a situation, but compromising yourself in a situation is another thing entirely." -Immortal Technique.

Today in class we examined a poem by Trudell about Crazy Horse. I found it interesting while doing my research assignemnt that horses were not native to the Americas. Of course this makes perfect sense, but it had never occured to me before. One of the strongest images from the poem put to music on youtube was the image of Trudell on a chair outside with South Dakota hills as a backdrop. This was a stillframe taken from the video we watched, but thinking about it again really takes me deep. His home has no roof. His home has no walls. How can we claim ownership over anything?