wetiko disease
Nov. 6th, 2007 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lahermitea snipping of different quotes from "columbus and other cannibals" by jack forbes (stolen from a forum i read. the book is currently out of print but is being reprinted by seven stories press in spring):
Many people have examined the subjects of aggression, violence, imperialism, rape, and so on. I propose to do something a little different: first, I propose to examine these things from a Native American perspective; and second, from a perspective as free as possible from assumptions created by the very disease being studied. Finally, I will look at these evils, not simply as “bad” choices that men make, but as a genuine, very real epidemic sickness. Imperialists, rapists, and exploiters are not just people who have strayed down a wrong path. They are insane (unclean) in the true sense of that word. They are mentally ill, and, tragically, the form of soul-sickness that they carry is catching.
The wétiko disease, the sickness of exploitation, has been spreading as a contagion for the past several thousand years. And as a contagion unchecked by most vaccines it tends to become worse rather than better with time. More and more people catch it, in more and more places; they become the true teachers of the young.
It is very sad, but the “heroes” of European historiography, the heroes of the history books, are usually imperialists, butchers, founders of authoritarian regimes, exploiters of the poor, liars, cheats, and torturers. What this means is that the wétiko disease has so corrupted European thinking (at least of the ruling groups) that wétiko behavior and wétiko goals are regarded as the very fabric of European evolution. Thus, those who resist wétiko values and imperialism and exploitation . . . are regarded as “quirks,” “freaks” . . . who could never exploit enough people to build a St. Peter’s Cathedral or a Versailles palace.
I believe that this form of insanity originated long ago in several places, but principally in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Subsequently it appeared in India and northern China and much later in Mexico and Peru.
To a considerable degree the development of the wétiko disease corresponds to the rise of what Europeans choose to call “civilization.” This is no coincidence.
Over and over again we see European writers ranking as “high civilizations” societies with large slave populations, rigid social class systems, unethical or ruthless rulers, and aggressive imperialistic foreign policies. Conversely, societies with no slaves, no distinct social classes, no rulers, and no imperialism are either regarded as insignificant (not worth mentioning) or primitive and uncivilized.
The overriding characteristic of the wétiko is that he consumes other human beings, that is, he is a cannibal. This is the central essence of the disease. In other respects, however, the motivation for and forms of the cannibalism may vary. . . .
The wétiko psychosis is a very contagious and rapidly-spreading disease. It is spread by the wétikos themselves as they recruit or corrupt others. It is spread today by history books, television, military training programs, police training programs, comic books, pornographic magazines, films, right-wing movements, fanatics of various kinds, high-pressure missionary groups, and numerous governments.
Native people have almost always understood that many Europeans were wétiko, were insane.
Many people have examined the subjects of aggression, violence, imperialism, rape, and so on. I propose to do something a little different: first, I propose to examine these things from a Native American perspective; and second, from a perspective as free as possible from assumptions created by the very disease being studied. Finally, I will look at these evils, not simply as “bad” choices that men make, but as a genuine, very real epidemic sickness. Imperialists, rapists, and exploiters are not just people who have strayed down a wrong path. They are insane (unclean) in the true sense of that word. They are mentally ill, and, tragically, the form of soul-sickness that they carry is catching.
The wétiko disease, the sickness of exploitation, has been spreading as a contagion for the past several thousand years. And as a contagion unchecked by most vaccines it tends to become worse rather than better with time. More and more people catch it, in more and more places; they become the true teachers of the young.
It is very sad, but the “heroes” of European historiography, the heroes of the history books, are usually imperialists, butchers, founders of authoritarian regimes, exploiters of the poor, liars, cheats, and torturers. What this means is that the wétiko disease has so corrupted European thinking (at least of the ruling groups) that wétiko behavior and wétiko goals are regarded as the very fabric of European evolution. Thus, those who resist wétiko values and imperialism and exploitation . . . are regarded as “quirks,” “freaks” . . . who could never exploit enough people to build a St. Peter’s Cathedral or a Versailles palace.
I believe that this form of insanity originated long ago in several places, but principally in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Subsequently it appeared in India and northern China and much later in Mexico and Peru.
To a considerable degree the development of the wétiko disease corresponds to the rise of what Europeans choose to call “civilization.” This is no coincidence.
Over and over again we see European writers ranking as “high civilizations” societies with large slave populations, rigid social class systems, unethical or ruthless rulers, and aggressive imperialistic foreign policies. Conversely, societies with no slaves, no distinct social classes, no rulers, and no imperialism are either regarded as insignificant (not worth mentioning) or primitive and uncivilized.
The overriding characteristic of the wétiko is that he consumes other human beings, that is, he is a cannibal. This is the central essence of the disease. In other respects, however, the motivation for and forms of the cannibalism may vary. . . .
The wétiko psychosis is a very contagious and rapidly-spreading disease. It is spread by the wétikos themselves as they recruit or corrupt others. It is spread today by history books, television, military training programs, police training programs, comic books, pornographic magazines, films, right-wing movements, fanatics of various kinds, high-pressure missionary groups, and numerous governments.
Native people have almost always understood that many Europeans were wétiko, were insane.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 02:33 am (UTC)did you get these snippets from the dj forum? i must not have looked close enough because i didn't see them.
i am so absolutely excited for his next book about parasites and decay and shit and wetiko and all that. i think they talk mostly about that in the interviews i posted above, although i didn't get to listen to it all yet.
excited for the new printing of columbus and other cannibals also!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 01:56 pm (UTC)i haven't listened to the link yet, but will.
i like the term "wetiko". it's a useful label, ya know.
are you in dj's reading club? his shit book is all in there. i don't get to spend enough time on line to be able to go there and read, although everything is downloadable. i'll have to wait for it to come out in print and then wait til i have a clear enough head to read it. but i will!!
the subject is very dear to me, that of death and decay. aren't we the only animals that have to wipe our own arses? i watch other animals, and they all have a retractable bum hole built in. i wonder what point we stopped having that? i can't believe we have always had to use something to wipe with. that seems like an important deviation in evolution. the inability to just poop and continue. seems like it would be a cornerstone on the path of our extinction. almost like it's the first tool.
i dunno. i'm rambling. it's early and i need more coffee hehehe.
xoxo
no subject
Date: 2007-11-08 02:10 am (UTC)as for the radio interview, since you and i have dial up, it would take a long time to load it so you could listen to it, thats why i did it at work. but its really nice to hear his voice:) but he said something in there (and maybe this is in the book too, i dunno) about our body being a gift to earth when we die and he said: when i die, and things come to eat my body (animals, mushrooms, etc) suddenly i get to experience being a bear, and a vole, and water and plants and soil and all the other things that will consume me.
this is how i've long looked at death/our dead bodies... we become other things. i'm so glad he said it out loud- he has a way with that doesn't he?: saying things that we thought only we had in our mind but were afraid to voice.
as for wiping our ass, i remember reading in urban scouts blog about that- when he eats a wild, unprocessed diet, he doesn't need to wipe anymore. and if he starts eating agricultural grains or whatever, he starts having to wipe again.
and hey, i'm all for rambling!!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 04:04 am (UTC)i didn't read that bit in scouts blog. that's interesting, though. and makes sense. it's all well and good using leaves, but what would non-civilised folk do in winter? makes sense that they don't have to *do* anything.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-08 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 03:57 am (UTC)i don't know much about korean history, but china and japan are pretty much up there with america and england in well practiced colonialism, empire, capitalism, and just all around oppression.