"Rasmussen saw the destruction and the loss of ancient culture; most important, he saw a great loss of freedom in the new world order, in the progression from traditional societies to the market societies, and perhaps a crushing of the spirit...But what would happen when there was nowhere left to escape, when even the fringes were overtaken by civilization? From White Eskimo by Stephen R. Bown.
In 1900 at the age of 21, Knud Rasmussen - the son of a Danish vicar with whom he had spent his first 12 years in Danish Greenland - found that school wasn't for him, and so set forth to be an adventuring free-lance writer. After a gig writing about the Nordic Games held at that time in Stockholm, Knud was able to go north to live for a while with the Sami, or Laplanders, Scandinavia's version of the Eskimo who had lived by herding reindeer. He had missed the freedom and joy that he had found among the Eskimos of Greenland, and hoped to recapture that time. He did, but only in part, for (even over 100 years before our time), the industrial world was eroding the Sami way of life. Many then worked part time for mining companies, and were experiencing the breakup of traditional communities and, as usual, the curse of distilled liquor. The above quote summarized what Knud wrote in his articles - that modern society was swallowing traditional ways of life and, in so doing, cheapening it by an act of one-world sanitation. Joy was being sucked up for profit; and tight-nit communities were broken, leaving the refugees to struggle in their drift into bleak loneliness. And, just as bad to Knud, the machinery of modern expansion would someday absorb all the world, leaving nowhere else to go.
It was this exact concern that led me first to sympathize with the 'back to the land' movement in the 1960's and 70's, and then to go into Anthropology in the 80's. I, too, along with millions of others, felt that the modern race towards world - unification under the aegis of industrial profit, was harming human beings in subtle but substantial ways. At one point, I realized that it was, in effect, a spiritual crises - and thus my present day concerns and this blog.
Now, as unification expands along with unprecedented migration, we find that those in the great working classes of the industrialized world are, to use an old hippie phrase, freaking out. The shock of Brexit is the latest iteration. The people in the middle and the bottom feel that they are being ignored by the ruling classes in Brussels, and are being overwhelmed by immigration, especially by Muslims who they believe are not assimilating, but are rather changing the very core values of their country.
Not really knowing what he was saying, a British expert explained this morning to NPR just how he and other experts had gotten the vote so wrong: (my paraphrase) - "We went with the bottom line on those who were betting on the results of the vote. The overwhelming money was on "stay," and since betters have something to lose, we believed that they had the best inside information. What we found later (just this morning) was that the wealthy had placed large amounts on "stay" but that the less wealthy had bet much smaller amounts on "leave." We looked at the money, not the numbers of betters, which favored "leave" by 60 to 40."
What this tells us is that the people may have it right - that, of course the experts had not looked at the proper numbers, but rather, only at the money. That's what they always do. And that's why people are beginning to revolt against the great World Order that the leaders of western nations are so assiduously pursuing. This may lead to decreased wages, or even to greater possibilities for war, but the people - the lowly masses - are feeling that even what joy has been left after the Industrial Revolution is being taken away by a faceless bureaucracy.
Today, the Sami and the Eskimo live much more dependable lives. Given the state of most governments under which they are found, they will probably never be left to starve to death, as often happened in the old days of tradition. Yet I do not know anyone with any familiarity with these peoples who will tell you that, by in large, they are better off today than before. Alcoholism and suicide are out of control, and few have found themselves on the comfortable side of the social power structures. The story speaks not only to Native Americans in general, but also to all people, including those we refer to as "westerners." What, exactly, is happening? Towards what frightening world are we hurtling?
And so the greatest question of our era remains. This does not involve "if" we are going towards greater world unity - even with Brexit, that will continue- but "how" we are going, and to what end. After decades of thinking about this, and seeing the results of our modern pull, I can only say that the "how" and "towards what" MUST be governed by a tremendous rise in spiritual awareness, which is exactly what the modern pull has been destroying. While it is probable that political solutions such as Brexit will do little to change the overall trajectory, we can hope - and pray - for a greater awareness, not only of cosmic unity, but of the joy that much of modernity has destroyed in favor of uniform rationalization to the deprecation of everything else.
Still, that is only an ephemeral hope. It may be that political solutions are the only way to go, disturbing as that might be. But one thing I feel is certain: "Spirit" will not allow us to lay dormant and half-dead in a world unified by profit and rationalization forever. It will find a way to break free, for in it lies our core. That we do it ourselves, in personal change, before large-scale and perhaps destructive solutions are inevitable, is the only hope we may have to avoid the consequences of personal and cultural suppression. In the end, it is up to us all to decide how we solve our greatest problems by realizing, as Rasmussen did, that they ultimately are problems centered on spirit. FK
In 1900 at the age of 21, Knud Rasmussen - the son of a Danish vicar with whom he had spent his first 12 years in Danish Greenland - found that school wasn't for him, and so set forth to be an adventuring free-lance writer. After a gig writing about the Nordic Games held at that time in Stockholm, Knud was able to go north to live for a while with the Sami, or Laplanders, Scandinavia's version of the Eskimo who had lived by herding reindeer. He had missed the freedom and joy that he had found among the Eskimos of Greenland, and hoped to recapture that time. He did, but only in part, for (even over 100 years before our time), the industrial world was eroding the Sami way of life. Many then worked part time for mining companies, and were experiencing the breakup of traditional communities and, as usual, the curse of distilled liquor. The above quote summarized what Knud wrote in his articles - that modern society was swallowing traditional ways of life and, in so doing, cheapening it by an act of one-world sanitation. Joy was being sucked up for profit; and tight-nit communities were broken, leaving the refugees to struggle in their drift into bleak loneliness. And, just as bad to Knud, the machinery of modern expansion would someday absorb all the world, leaving nowhere else to go.
It was this exact concern that led me first to sympathize with the 'back to the land' movement in the 1960's and 70's, and then to go into Anthropology in the 80's. I, too, along with millions of others, felt that the modern race towards world - unification under the aegis of industrial profit, was harming human beings in subtle but substantial ways. At one point, I realized that it was, in effect, a spiritual crises - and thus my present day concerns and this blog.
Now, as unification expands along with unprecedented migration, we find that those in the great working classes of the industrialized world are, to use an old hippie phrase, freaking out. The shock of Brexit is the latest iteration. The people in the middle and the bottom feel that they are being ignored by the ruling classes in Brussels, and are being overwhelmed by immigration, especially by Muslims who they believe are not assimilating, but are rather changing the very core values of their country.
Not really knowing what he was saying, a British expert explained this morning to NPR just how he and other experts had gotten the vote so wrong: (my paraphrase) - "We went with the bottom line on those who were betting on the results of the vote. The overwhelming money was on "stay," and since betters have something to lose, we believed that they had the best inside information. What we found later (just this morning) was that the wealthy had placed large amounts on "stay" but that the less wealthy had bet much smaller amounts on "leave." We looked at the money, not the numbers of betters, which favored "leave" by 60 to 40."
What this tells us is that the people may have it right - that, of course the experts had not looked at the proper numbers, but rather, only at the money. That's what they always do. And that's why people are beginning to revolt against the great World Order that the leaders of western nations are so assiduously pursuing. This may lead to decreased wages, or even to greater possibilities for war, but the people - the lowly masses - are feeling that even what joy has been left after the Industrial Revolution is being taken away by a faceless bureaucracy.
Today, the Sami and the Eskimo live much more dependable lives. Given the state of most governments under which they are found, they will probably never be left to starve to death, as often happened in the old days of tradition. Yet I do not know anyone with any familiarity with these peoples who will tell you that, by in large, they are better off today than before. Alcoholism and suicide are out of control, and few have found themselves on the comfortable side of the social power structures. The story speaks not only to Native Americans in general, but also to all people, including those we refer to as "westerners." What, exactly, is happening? Towards what frightening world are we hurtling?
And so the greatest question of our era remains. This does not involve "if" we are going towards greater world unity - even with Brexit, that will continue- but "how" we are going, and to what end. After decades of thinking about this, and seeing the results of our modern pull, I can only say that the "how" and "towards what" MUST be governed by a tremendous rise in spiritual awareness, which is exactly what the modern pull has been destroying. While it is probable that political solutions such as Brexit will do little to change the overall trajectory, we can hope - and pray - for a greater awareness, not only of cosmic unity, but of the joy that much of modernity has destroyed in favor of uniform rationalization to the deprecation of everything else.
Still, that is only an ephemeral hope. It may be that political solutions are the only way to go, disturbing as that might be. But one thing I feel is certain: "Spirit" will not allow us to lay dormant and half-dead in a world unified by profit and rationalization forever. It will find a way to break free, for in it lies our core. That we do it ourselves, in personal change, before large-scale and perhaps destructive solutions are inevitable, is the only hope we may have to avoid the consequences of personal and cultural suppression. In the end, it is up to us all to decide how we solve our greatest problems by realizing, as Rasmussen did, that they ultimately are problems centered on spirit. FK
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