Heard more about aboriginal representation in the constitution this morning.
You know what it all sounds like to me?
Like an ambit claim.
Certain power brokers adept and well versed in our way of doing things see an opportunity to create a whole second nation for themselves within Australia.
A nation that would hold immense power = having a say in any decisions whatever that this current nation made.
Without any responsibility whatever.
A nation that they would be the leaders of. Drawing life time benefits from, position, power, wealth.
Without any right to it.
A nation that would have its own bureaucracy, of course, eventually reaching levels of thousands, all lolling around in sinecured well remunerated jobs – all paid for by us.
Without any need for it.
Sinecured jobs the whole aim of which would be to complicate, irritate, obfuscate, block, harass and annoy the workings of our state.
Much the same as a cross between what ATSIC did in its day and what agitators do now.
So in the name of traditional aboriginality we’d have:
A second ‘nation’ of ‘aboriginals’, none of whom are aboriginals in any proper sense of the term but all of whom are part breeds and english speaking urban dwellers.
A second ‘nation’ in the name of aboriginality which exists solely in a western european style, following european habits and fashions in all respects from housing, health, education business and so on.
In the name of aboriginality we’d have something that never, ever existed in aboriginal times:
a nation using money,
a nation using english,
a nation using property,
a nation using wheels,
a nation using machines,
a nation using medicine,
a nation using schools,
a nation using clothing…
and so on.
All paid for by us.
And we’d have to consult them and ask their permission to do anything at all.
When in fact all the aboriginals are dead. All that’s left are mixed bloods without ceremony, without initiation, without understanding, knowledge or desire to live in the old ways.
Nothing wrong with that. It’s the way of the world. It is natural. But there’s this great big fuss going on all the time as though the aboriginals were still with us and they want to live in their old way and we’re preventing it somehow.
No. There’s no one wants to live in the ‘old way’. Why would they? Stone age. No one wants to go back to the stone age.
There’s thousands and thousands of hectares put aside for aboriginal people to continue living in their old way. And it is empty and unused. Unless it is used for the ‘new way’ – cattle stations perhaps.
And in fact it would be illegal to bring your children up that way nowadays. Seen as a cruelty to them.
It’d be illegal to keep your workers in those conditions, contravening health and safety rules.
It’d be illegal to live in such ‘dwellings’ with such sanitation.
And so on.
It is a nonsense.
So there’s literally no question of rebuilding something that once was.
There’s absolutely no question of putting back something that has been destroyed.
There is not something missing that once was.
Quite the contrary, there’s something relatively wonderful and magnificent exists now that never did.
But there’s this constant whinge, this whining and threatening demand for something.
For what? If it is not for what once was what is it for?
It is for something that never existed before.
It is for a duplicate State within this State.
A copy of this ‘Western’ or ‘European’ or ‘Developed World’ or whatever you want to call it social system, social structure. In every respect. Eventually. At fulfillment.
But right now, as the thin edge of the wedge, at the beginning for a duplicate bureaucratic system, a duplicate political entity. The creation of a fictional ‘State’ that is the ‘Aboriginal State’ with its own flag, own laws, own land, own everything – AND a hook into the existing system – called ‘representation’ that gives them a totally disproportionate say – in perpetuity – in anything that is done.
It is breathtaking as an ambit claim.
This is not the aboriginal people. As I say they’re gone. But it is not their descendants, either, they’re living their lives as best they can caught in this bewildering time warp, concept warp of neither aboriginal as was nor australian as is.
No. This is a few clever, manipulative, self seeking, far seeing and crafty individuals who mostly enjoy positions of power, prestige and good remuneration within the current system and understand it well.
Thoroughly ‘westernised’ modern people making a power play for the reins of this nation.
Meanwhile what happens to the descendants of those aboriginal people?
Not allowed to be descendants in the same way as the rest of the Australians from other ethnic and national groups – the Italian, the Greek, the Spanish, the Ukrainian, etc., etc… their traditional culture, heritage, ethnicity absorbed into the mainstream of Australian life and culture they are constantly sidelined, marginalised, set aside for special consideration in many aspects, split off from the mainstream.
Ostensibly all these activities in their interest. But in reality? Their interests not furthered one bit.
Clearly seen in watching the case of any one child from birth to early adulthood.
You’ll see them begin with a total happy acceptance of all the world around them and slowly be transmuted into a grudge carrying partial citizen in a confused state of being, not being wholly here and not being wholly there, anywhere.
Told by the activists that they must cling to their culture.
But what is their ‘culture’?
It was a stone age culture.
Nobody is going to sit around making stone axes, bark canoes, sleeping on the ground etc… so what are they to do to preserve their culture?
Agitate for more money, agitate for special consideration for law, health, housing, education and political representation as a seperate nation.
That’s what’s put before them.
A nonsense. Clearly nothing to do with their traditional culture. Nothing to do with their stone age culture that preserved them for tens of thousands of years.
I maintain they’re being robbed. They had things in that culture that could be considered and preserved and utilised today but those things are totally ignored, buried, lost, devalued, unwanted and unconsidered by their urgers, manipulators.
What are those things?
Consensus.
For instance. They lived by consensus. We currently live by dictate of the majority. We call it democracy. We vote. The majority carries the day. Then we all do what that majority says we should do.
So that typically nowadays as we all flounder around not knowing what direction to take and the political parties grow more and more alike we get the population evenly divided over trivial issues. So that eventually we are governed by only just over half the population.
The voting population.
It comes down to government by the active minority. The vested interest minority. The powerful, influential minority. The pressure groups, etc.
We are dominated by minority interests and it manifest everywhere. Makes us all docile slaves. We are accustomed to it. We expect there to be a dominant minority and we are more than ready to bow to their wishes.
Traditional aborigines were not like that. They considered every man to be equal and nothing was done without a consensus: i.e. all agreed. Everyone had to agree on everything, anything.
This makes a tremendous difference to the nature of a person. His perception of reality, his own reality the nature of existence. It makes the difference between a free man and a slave man.
This is a valuable notion, valuable concept, valuable idea in the context of creating finer human beings.
Should be known, preserved, taught to the children.
And a sudden aside: the mixed heritage should be taught. Recognised, accepted, embraced, taught, came to terms with.
The ‘aboriginal’ children of mixed heritage. They have a considerable measure of European blood. They have both aboriginal and European blood. They have two heritages if you like. Their heritage is twinfold.
This should be accepted. Be known and accepted. Made much of in fact because it is a valuable thing, a good thing, a strengthening thing. They are in a position to reach back far into mankind’s natural past and to embrace mankind’s future. They are the stronger, the better for it.
And they’re not unique, lonely, forlorn, different because of this, of course. There’s many peoples in the world of mixed heritage. They should know this. The biggest thing about this whole aboriginal thing is the marginalising of them, setting them apart, telling them that they don’t fix, don’t belong, are somehow ‘other’. Bludgers making money out of exploiting this.
Well the embracing of mixed heritage shouldn’t lead in any way to any of that. The mixed heritage is in fact the norm for the human race. It would do them well to understand that.
Very topical nowadays with DNA analysis uncovering movements of tribes and people’s across the face of the earth throughout millenia.
Absorbing such information as young aboriginal children in today’s context would in fact give them a head start on the other children around them – because they’d become relatively au fait with this aspect of the human race.
So that was an aside.
Back to the main thread where I was saying their social organisation was built on consensus rather than minority rule:
Another aspect of stone age peoples is their lack of money. This means more than just being without money, what that means to us. It suggests a completely different mindset.
Consider: our whole mindset is that ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ relate to money. Or turn it the other way: our whole idea of rich or poor relates to how much money we have.
We can kill ourselves, suicide, because of perceived loss of riches or failure to attain them.
We can – and often do – spend our whole lives trying to achieve ‘riches’ in the shape of money.
It is the perpetual endless obsession with the majority of us: how much money do we have? Have we got enough to meet necessities? Do we have enough to afford some desirables? Do we have enough to give to our children? Do we have enough to consider ourselves if not ‘successful’ then at least ‘normal’ ? Are we ‘losers’ or are we ‘doing alright’?
Can we have self respect?
We will kill for money and many do. We cheat, lie for money. Spend years in tasks we hate, for money.
On and on it goes. There’s no end to the ramifications of having money as part of our society, our social organisation. You can hardly think of anything, anywhere, it doesn’t have an effect.
Yet the traditional aboriginal society: No Money.
What a difference is this! To measure your worth without using money. To measure the worth of your neighbours, your friends, your enemies, your world, without money! To have plans, dreams, hopes, aspirations all without the concept of money!
To not have to eat your heart out all the time worrying can you get a job, can you keep a job, are you doing alright in the job – for money.
To do things for yourself, for your family, for your friends, with no thought, no possible thought, of money.
This needs much exploration. Much consideration. What is human society like when the money imperative is removed?
It must be, by definition, more closely the purely ‘human’. And therefore ‘worthy’ if only for that. To identify and understand the more purely ‘human’ is very worthwhile quite obviously. Know your starting point. Know the material you are working with. We are losing, have lost for a long, all connection with who we really are. This is an excellent starting place to find it again.
Next: This money thing leads naturally into the next big difference:
Property. They had no property. No concept of property. Ownership of hoards, collections, stockpiles,
Notes for future expansion of this thread:
Right To Exist: always got a home in/on the land.
Vision: scientifically recognised much sharper more detailed.
Manufacture: making parts, joining together, planning for function..
Science/Logic: maths, theorising, experimentation, data collection
Politics/Nations/War:
And so on… more later.