Koyaanisqatsi or Human Spiritual Paradigms and the Environment - Original Communism vs. Capitalism

7/31/2019 Koyaanisqatsi or Human Spiritual Paradigms and the Environment - Original Communism vs. Capitalism

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The Human Adventure, Dr. Eugene Ruyle, CSULB, Spring 2002By James R. Walker

An Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Copy

Koyaanisqatsi

OrHuman Spiritual Paradigms and the Environment

Original Communism vs. Capitalism

California State University Long BeachMarxismThe Human Adventure

Dr. Eugene E. RuyleBy James R. Walker

March 2002

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The spiritual paradigm of a culture guides and sets into action the way that

society perceives and interacts with the natural environment. "Researchers

emphasizing the sociocultural areas must deal constantly with the interaction of

economic, social and ideological systems and must place these systems m

relation to the natural environment" (Bodley, John H., 2001: pp.11). The shift to

sedentary lifestyle, agriculture and the resulting cultivated food surplus is

conducive to and responsible for, a shift in religious paradigms and concentration

of power into the hands of the few or the one who controls the surplus food and

other commodities produced by the labor of the many. What is more, this

documented cultural shift illustrates and is congruent with the Marxian proposal

that the material conditions of a culture dictates the ideologyspiritual and

secularand hence the behavior of the society. Therefore, I will explore the

inter-relationships between spiritual systems, secular ideological, social and

economic systems, and a culture's adaptation to and impact on nature.

In this light, I will compare and contrast the fundamental concepts

common to the diverse Native American cultures to the present dominant culture

occupying the same continent, the United States. I will illustrate that spiritual

beliefs determine how humans view and behave toward the co-inhabitants,

plants and animals including other humans, and the natural resources of the land

and that these ideas are sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly

incorporated into the collective consciousness, daily activities and governing

body of that society. Furthermore, I will discuss how original communism, as

exemplified by the Native Americans, is conducive to balanced utilization of

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ecological niches and provide evidence that the current capitalistic relationship

with the environment is exploitive and potentially self-exterminating. I will end

the discussion with suggestions and possible alternatives, naive though they

may be, to the current dilemma our contemporary society has created. Let us

begin with a brief history of human society.

Early human groups lived under the influence of the same natural laws as

all other animals. For thousands of years, without scientific intervention, they

experienced the same limiting pressures to population as all life on earth.

Disease and limited capability to procure natural resources maintained

equilibrium between humans and the rest of life on the planet (Wallech, 1999:

pp21-32). These cultures where egalitarian and, as such, were classless hence

communist societies. As the governing forces of the biosphere constantly

buffeted their existence, they created narratives, which imbued the listeners and

tellers alike with reverence for all things in nature. These myths and spiritual

concepts directed the daily activities of the people and moderated their

utilization of the environment around them. "The stories outlined their

relationship to plant and animal life and how taking a life effects them and

describes attitudes and perceptions necessary for balance in the natural world"

(Beck, 1977: pp.106). One such story passed from generation to generation in a

hunter-gatherer culture in regards to their main source of meat and fur, the deer,

relates ecological consciousness succinctly. The deer speaks, "If you do not make

use of us properly, even in times when we are numerous, you will not see us

anymore" (Beck, 1977: pp.107)

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Around 8,500 years ago cultivation and farming began in Mesopotamia and

humans settled into towns and villages (Wallech, 1999: pp.27). As more food

became available, settlements increased in size and complexity. Large center-

place towns developed urban hierarchy approximately 6,000 years ago

representing a major reorganization of society. This settlement pattern

suggested that more authority had become necessary to secure food production

and store surpluses.

Agriculture joined urbanization in an independent evolutionaryprocess that seemed to create a common social event. Also, theconcentration of people on high yielding fields using irrigation

revealed a trap that tied humans to permanent fields. Coupled withthis urban-cultivation pattern, the authority required to maintain therelationship between food production, water management, andhuman numbers encouraged the first systems of social inequality(Wallech, 1999: pp.28).

The change of material conditions prompted a paradigmatic shift in the way

these new societies view nature and impelled a structural change of society.

Now the earth was something that humans could force to produce so the

idea of reverence for the natural world diminished. But some awe for nature was

maintained and consequently, newly created local deities were propitiated to

ensure productive crops. Power was now fully distilled and wielded by leaders

who claimed to be god-kings. The ruling class enjoyed unprecedented affluence

at the expense of the workers. Religious systems developed to legitimate and

preserve the ruling class status and to keep the workers working. Military

institutions were formed to enforce the class order and to conquer and spread

the new social paradigm. The seeds of capitalism germinated and grew to

supplant ecologically sound egalitarian cultures. The indigenous inhabitants of

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our country, being insulated by an ocean, escaped this fate for a long time, until

the Europeans discovered the continent. They did not understand the people

they met there.

There are fundamental distinctions that set Native American cultures and

spiritual views, with all their diversity, quite apart from contemporary American

culture and spiritual views. Those distinctions have to do with basic world-view

and philosophical orientations. They include ideology, spiritual paradigms, social

structure and economic distribution and environmental practices. Marxism

asserts that ideas are born of material conditions. One

cannot have an idea (ideology) unless one has a brain (physical matter). In this

vein lets compare and contrast the ideology of Native Americans to modem

American society.

Society is an ideological phenomenon that is a human product yet

continuously acts back upon its producers (Berger, 1967: pp.3-4). An ideological

construct is elicited from human material conditions; it has no other being except

that which is bestowed upon it by human activity and consciousness. What is

more, it is within these ideological constructs that "the individual becomes a

person, that he attains and holds onto an identity, and that he carries out the

various projects that constitute his life" (Berger, 1967: pp.3). Humans are a

product of society and the ideas and attitudes, which comprise that society, are

shaped by physical reality. This primacy of material condition of a people

constitutes, therefore, the paramount causative agent in shaping human

ideology. As we survey the ideas of Native Americans and the current dominant

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culture of the United States it is important to keep in mind that the spiritual,

social, economic and environmental ideologies are all integral parts of the entire

fabric of life. This deeper understanding of life is an explicit and guiding ideology

of the collective consciousness of Native Americans.

Another concept that North American sacred traditions have incommon is that all things in the universe are dependent on oneanother. Everything, though having its own individuality and specialplace, is dependent on and shares in the growth and work ofeverything else (Beck, 1977: pp.11).

The ideology of the United States, on the other hand, compartmentalizes

various aspects of life, as seen in the numerous disciplines within science. This

eclecticism is a powerful tool for understanding isolated parts of reality. Its

weakness, however, lies in its inability to see the whole and the dynamics of all

the parts working in concert to produce one outcome.

The original communism of the Native Americans embodied an ideology

born of the natural environment. These ideas in turn directed how they availed

themselves of natural resources. The reciprocal nature of the physical world

around them and their collective ideology serve as a self-correcting feedback

loop. For example, as the physical condition in which they find themselves

changes a resultant shift in the group's ideology adapts their behavior to cope.

This domestic-scale culture enables the members to react quickly and intuitively

to harmful effects that may occur due to human intervention. In contrast, the

hierarchical structure of American commercial-scale culture is sluggish m

responding to ecological stressors and lacks a sense of the spiritual in regards to

nature.

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Spirituality permeates all aspects of Native American life. Animism,

Animalism and Vitalism are words used by Western mentalities to approximate a

common observation of American aboriginal spiritual practice. Briefly, Animism is

the doctrine that inanimate objects, animals and natural phenomena are

endowed with a life force or living soul. But this European definition is negligent

of the nuances imbued in the native spiritual construct. Soul, in this context, is

not identical to the Christian idea of soul. It is not necessarily personal property

of the individual and often times has a more universal attribute that not only

succeeds the individual but exceeds the individual as well. What is more, many

natural phenomena and animals could be understood as a spirit itself made

perceptible, perhaps, to enlighten the viewer or guide them through a didactic

vision. European language has labeled this Animalism, that is, the concept of

spirits as animals (Hultkrantz, 1987: pp.22). Additionally, the animal or inanimate

object or phenomena could be seen as truly material within which a soul resides.

Vitalism dictates that life processes contain a nonmaterial vital principle and

cannot be explained entirely as physical or chemical phenomena. This world-

view imparts imminence, respect and reverence for all things in nature that is

deficient in the Christian world-view. Lame Deer asserts, "All living creatures are

my relativeseven a tiny bug." (Deer, 1973: pp.22). Ruth M. Underhill (1965:

pp.41) explains that this meant treating everything around them with courtesy,

not exploiting them and embodies a concept of reciprocity with nature. Reverent

environmental policy is intrinsic to their spirituality. From this perspective the

environs of the earth are regarded as shrines, temples or places of worship:

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There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature.Being a natural man, the Indian would deem it sacrilege to build ahouse for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious,shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom ofvirgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock, andyonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky! (Eastman, 1911: pp. 5)

For Native Americans from the beginning of time spirit was wedded to matter,

and matter

to spirit. "Matter received the impress of spirituality and was sanctified. Matter,

because

the spiritual moves upon its face, was thereby rendered holy" (Zaehner, 1963:

pp.44).

Therefore, all human food and resources garnered from the earth are seen as

consisting

entirely of souls.

All the creatures that we have to kill and eat, all those things wehave to use or strike down and destroy to make clothes forourselves, have souls, souls that do not perish with the body andwhich must therefore be [pacified] lest they should revenge

themselves on us for taking away...to do so would be an insult to thesouls (Beck, 1977: pp12-13).

Their sacred traditions are based on cosmologies, which included land, the

waters, the sky and all creatures. Taking and destroying the physical world

without gratitude or reverence represents unselfconscious destruction of what is

sacred. This demonstrates their intuitive and implicit understanding of the

balances that exist in all natural systems, or ecology, and reflects their

"knowledge that the world operates according to strict, ordered relationships"

(Beck, 1977: pp.99). Karl Marx recognized the importance of ecosystems but

there are those who would disagree.

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Marx, we are told, ultimately failed to address the exploitation of nature

and adopted instead a Promethean view, which encourages ecological

exploitation beyond the limits (Giddens, 1981: pp.53-60). Although Marx has

been criticized for a lack of ecological concern, it is now abundantly clear that

this does not fit with the evidence.

Marx denounced the spoliation of nature before a modembourgeois ecological conscience was born. From the start Marx'snotion of the alienation of human labor was connected to anunderstanding of the alienation of human beings form nature"(Foster, 2000: pp.9).

Marx's materialism sets "humans as social creatures who are required, by

biological necessity, to interact with the material environment of nature" (Carver,

1987: pp.93). John Bellamy Foster quotes Marx m the Economic and Philosophic

Manuscripts of 1844, "Man lives from nature, i.e. nature is his body, and he must

maintain a continuing dialogue with it if he is not to die" (1995: pp.108). Implicit

in Marxism is an ecological ethic with the potential to sustain the basis of all life,

the earth. Clearly, the Native Americans sensibilities embody the same ethos.

The spiritual sensibilities of the United States guides environmental concerns

quite differently.

American bourgeoisie, while maintaining a superficial religiosity, discarded

all reverence for creation and, dispensed with God: he was no longer relevant.

Man thereby became the central phenomenon of the universe because he alone

could bend his environment to his will (Zaehner, 1963: pp.45). The Ideology of

Baconian dominance of nature, the Christian dictum that earth was created

solely for human use and the resultant dichotomy between humans and nature

and finally, the capitalistic belief that resources must be harvested and mined

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vigorously work together to form a cultural paradigm that encourages ecological

disaster.

Capitalism's tendency to despoil its natural environment isconstituted in the basic relation of capitalist exploitation and thecorresponding value form of the products of labor and nature.When bounded by any given time period, the quantitativelimitlessness of the goal of capital accumulations leads topressures toward short-termist calculations and decisions that areoften anti-ecological"(Burkett, 1996: pp.332, 345).

Capitalism, by denying any intrinsic value of earth:

...Maximizes the throughput of raw materials and energy becausethe greater this flowfrom extraction through the delivery of thefinal product to the consumerthe greater the chance ofgenerating profits. And by selectively focusing on minimizing labor

inputs, the system promotes energy-using and capital-intensivehigh technologies. All of this translates into faster depletion ofnonrenewable resources and more wastes dumped into theenvironment (Foster, 1994: pp. 122-3).

This exemplifies Foster's construct of a "rift in the metabolic interaction between

man and the earth" (1999: pp.380). He emphasizes that long distance trade

generates alienation between our acts upon the earth and the effects of these

acts. The original inhabitants of our country, however, directly experienced the

effects of their acts. What is more, they never separated matter from spirit

despite criticisms to the contrary.

In an attempt to dispel a superior spiritual-environmental model, some

critics allege modern humans created idealized Native American archetypes. In

The Invented Indian, it is claimed that New Age principles have romanticized and

spiritualized the Native American relationship with the earth; that these ideas

have been superimposed upon the first inhabitants. The argument hinges on one

Native American's words in 1885 portraying an Earth-Mother image; his name

was Smohalla.

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During the last 100 years it has gradually developed in the writingsof some of our most eminent scholars, specialists in the study ofculture. Smohalla's single statement provides almost the only citedevidence on which to base the story. Most remarkably, the story isnot about native American beliefs at all; it is not even about nativeAmericans (Clifton, 1990: pp.131-135).

However, Chief Seattles speech of 1854/55 not only pre-dates the above but

also corroborates it. Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my

people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hollowed by

some sad or happy event in days long vanished (Seattle, 1854/5). Moreover, in

The Sacred, I found many references to various concepts of earth as a sacred

entity to be respected and honored. One such account describes a male earth-

spirit:

A power we call Sila cannot be explained in simple words. A greatspirit, supporting the world and the weather and all life on earth, aspirit so mighty that [what he says] to mankind is not throughcommon words, but by storm and snow and rain and the fury of thesea; all the forces of nature that men fear. But he has also anotherway of [communicating]; by sunlight and calm of the sea.... (Beck,1977: pp.7).

Woven together, spiritual paradigms legitimate and inform social structure.

Native American domestic-scale culture is egalitarian and postures its members

to be in tune with the environs around them. As each member has equal sway in

directing the decisions and activities of the group and a slightly different yet

immediate experience of their material condition, swift and effective behaviors

can be enacted in response to changing conditions, "...in a tribal, or use value,

economy, producers are directly involved m production decision making and are

immediately concerned with both the environment and the social consequences

of production" (Bodley, 2001: pp.55).

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Conversely, snug in their offices insulated from the adverse socio-

environmental effects of their policies, the capitalistic United States alienates

people from nature as they seize at alarming rates raw materials from distant

lands.

The worldwide expansion of capitalism has undermined thehistorical foundations of spirituality by scattering families,destroying established communities, replacing traditionswith consumerism, and alienating our relationship tonature. Marxists need to take seriously the de-spiritualization of society, and themselves, under capitalism(Brentlinger, 2000: pp.178).

Moreover, capitalism encourages, perpetuates and increases inequality.

Surprisingly Adam Smith, although in opposition to communism, admits the roots

of corruption lie essentially m the inequality of society.

This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and thepowerful, and to despise, or at least, to neglect persons of poor andmean condition,.. .is the great and most universal cause of thecorruption of our moral sentiments (Smith, 1759: pp.61).

Inequality gives rise to poverty. Impoverishment was once believed to be the lot

of the original Americans.

Traditionally, early societies were viewed as laborious and destitute; its

wretched members worked continuously just to survive. This is not the case,

however, as original communism afforded affluence without tedium or surplus.

The traditional dismal view of the hunter's fix is pre-anthropological. It goes back to the time Adam Smith was writing,and maybe to a time before anyone was writing. It will be

extremely difficult to correct this traditional wisdom. Perhaps thenwe should phrase the necessary revisions in the most shockingterms possible: that this was.. .the original affluent society. Bycommon understanding an affluent society is one in which all thepeople's wants are easily satisfied; and though we are pleased toconsider this happy condition the unique achievement of industrialcivilization, a better case can be mad for hunters and gatherers.(Lee, 1968: pp.85 86).

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Careful studies reveal that, "even the most technologically simple peoples were

able to satisfy all their subsistence requirements with relatively little effort"

(Bodley, 2001: pp.57).

Capitalism's predilection toward constant accelerated rate of accumulation

of wealth manifests in, what Marx called fetishization of commodities.

Just as capitalism leads to production for the sake of production, sotoo it leads to consumption for the sake of consumption. The greatbourgeois maxim 'grow or die' has its counterpart in 'buy or die'.Marx's famous notion of the 'fetishization of commodities' finds itsparallel in a 'fetishization of needs' (Bookchin, 1997: pp117).

In the United States we experience this as the constant bombardment of

advertisements that serve to create a market for a product that may not be

needed or necessary. Clearly, this kind of economic model precludes

egalitarianism and reduces the biosphere and humans to commodities open to

exploitation.

The ecological viability of the two systems is diametrically opposed. The

United States government is well aware of the scope and degree of the endemic

hazards intrinsic to the current socio-economic paradigm. In an Environmental

Protection Agency report conducted by the Science Advisory Board entitled,

Ecosystem Management: Imperative or a Dynamic World, the conservative

conclusions regarding the environmental problems that continue to present high

risks to ecological systems were prioritized as follows: A) global climate change,

B) habitat alteration and destruction, C) loss of biological diversity, D)

stratospheric ozone depletion, E) accidental or misguided introduction of exotic

species terrestrial and aquatic, F) persistent bioaccumulative chemicals, metals,

pesticides and chemical fertilizers and finally, G) over-exploitation of natural

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resources (Environmental Protection Agency, 1995). I would have asserted the

last item as the primary source of all our woes. We must remember, however,

that this investigation was conducted under the auspice of capitalism. In keeping

with this tone, Gregg Easterbrook uses all the environmentalists buzzwords to

clothe the wolf (profit driven industry) in sheeps clothes. He states that,

Roughly half of U.S. forests are privately held. But even for all thei4r failings,

market forces and a self-interest stake in forests are the best system for assuring

responsible behavior, as they confer voluntary reasons to protect the land

(Easterbrook, 1995: pp.402-403). On the other hand, the Club of Rome, a group

of thirty individuals from ten countries, sponsored two ecological studies

comprised of scientists, educators, economists, humanists, industrialists and

national and international civil servants (Meadows et al, 1974: 1992). The group

came to conclusions graver than the EPA or Easterbrook had claimed.

Historically, soulless capitalism responds reluctantly and slowly to these harms.

The urgency of the situation needs stringent measures.

The despiritualizing effects of imperialist capitalism have initiated a chain

of ecological events with the potential for annihilation of humanity. The lust for

increased surplus wealth has dehumanized all but those few able to resist. The

long-term success of original communism in early societies is a resounding

testimony, to those who are listening, that spirituality need not be independent

of social, economic and environmental ideologies; that these are entwined into

one fabric and that we must, therefore, consider the whole and that the whole is

greater than the sum of its parts. We must-needs incorporate this ancient

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wisdom into our mentality and socio-political practices. Perhaps the current

paradigmatic arrogance of capitalism could learn poignant lessons from the few

domestic-scale cultures still extant. In light of the enormous disaster

accumulating and confronting us, we need more sweeping, insightful and soulful

knowledgescientific and socialto redirect our misguided way. We must

reconstruct our approach to the dire problems posed by the apparent

contradictions between nature and society. What we can and must do is expand

our sense of self to a greater connectedness; a connectedness to each other, to

the earth and to the universe. We must realize that the universe and everything

in it has intrinsic value. Finally and most importantly, we must admit to our

indiscretions and move, albeit with trepidation, to realize our full potential. I will

close with a concept captured in one Hopi Indian word, Koyaanisqatsi, which

means a state of life that demands another way of being.

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Easterbrook, Gregg. 1995.A Moment on the Earth. Penguin Books Ltd.:Middlesex, England.Eastman, Charles Alexander. I9II. The Soul of the Indian. Lincoln, London:University of

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