Chapter 16: Science or Opinion
"I would like to plead for my right to investigate natural phenomena without having guns pointed at me. I also ask for the right to be wrong without being hanged for it." - Wilhelm Reich
I had a Native American friend who accused me of trying to masquerade as an Indian. He said that my ideas are nothing more than a mixture of popular new age delusions, the kind that bored middle class white men invent. I told him that middle class white men are not the only ones who have back to nature dreams. The Shawnee Indian Prophet had similar concepts. My friend then said that he comes from an old tradition. Parts of this tradition are values that can only be understood by a member of his tribe. I asked him to tell me a few of his values. So he did. Unknown to him, these values were actually developed by a bored white man name Neihardt. My friend does not really know much about his people. He dresses like a Sioux Indian, feathers and all. But he actually comes from a tribe that lived in Ohio. His people wore turbans and stockings.
Some people search for an authentic traditional culture that has not been corrupted by outside influence. There is no pure culture that is uncontaminated by outside influence. Holy men have a tendency to adopt ideas from other cultures. I noticed while growing up in Brazil that traditional African culture was influenced by European spiritualist literature. This does not make the tradition any less true. Cultures that exchange ideas will discover all kinds of fun. Anime is considered a Japanese form of art, but American artist influenced the first anime artist. Clint Eastwood's character "The Man with No Name" is considered a typical American icon, but the story was developed in Japan form ideas they borrowed from America. The Italians made "The Man with No Name" films. He is man with no culture who was invented by many cultures. He makes his own laws. He appeals to people in any culture, because the individual is important everywhere. Movies made by the Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa had a big influence on me while I developed my ideas.
Neihardt's ideas appealed to some member of the Native American community. They adopted his ideas and eventually assume that these ideas were part of there own tradition. Perhaps they were right. Perhaps some Native Americans had values similar to Neihardt before any of them read Neihardt. It is wrong to assume that one point of view is typical of any culture. Every culture will produce people with many different opinions. Neihardt's best book was made in collaboration with a Sioux Indian named Black Elk. Both men developed their ideas before they met each other. Both were influence by Christianity. Both were attracted to the philosophical ideas that appear in the New Testament. Paul and Jesus who were influenced by Greek platonic philosophy developed these ideas. It is hard to tell who is really doing the talking in the book "Black Elk Speaks."
I never pretended to be an Indian. Occasionally I will use a historic fact about Native Americans to try support my ideas. Few of us in western civilization have the luxury of being born into a nature loving culture. To reconstruct a nature loving culture we have to scavenge ideas from other cultures. Some Native American cultures lived close to nature. I assume they understood nature and this understanding could be found in their legions and ceremonies.
I was born in Brazil and have no idea what my ethnic background is. Parents from the United States raised me. Most people think that I am a middle class white American. Then there was that strange vision that I had. Something is out there. A large number of people think that a real Shaman has to be born into a traditional native culture. That might be true. It might also not be true. I believe that the core of my ideas might have its own value. At least I hope it does. Some new age Shamans are nothing more than con artist who astonish ignorant people and take their money. I am not that kind of Shaman. I believe that all great prophets have a one thing in common. It is a kind of purpose or law hidden in every sacred object. In fact every object is sacred. Black Elk described the Sacred Pipe of his own culture, and then said, "This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true." He was not just talking to a few traditionalist Native Americans. He was talking to everyone. Cultures come and go but the hills and rivers and Sun remains the same. That important truth never dies.
I say my ideas as if they were true, because I want them to be true. I have always admired men like Edward Abbey, Nietzsche, Malcolm X, and even Jesus, men who stood up and said what needed to be said. Perhaps these men sometimes twist the truth a little, but they said their ideas the way they needed to be said.
I have never lived as part of a primitive society that lives as part of Nature. Almost all primitive cultures are now dead. The few who survived have been absorbed by other cultures. Many of these people are now part of the lower class, which is what has happened to all primitive cultures that civilization has absorbed. The old ways are dying everywhere. Some of their cultural heritage remains, but it is not the same as when they actually lived wild and the forces of Nature actually surrounded them and made them act like savages.
I have met a few individuals who reject civilization and prefer a wilder lifestyle, but these few men are isolated individuals and are not really a society. They do not experience the tribe that was an important part of the savage lifestyle. A few groups of people have tried to leave civilization, but there is not really anywhere they can go to get away from the system. These people end up back in civilization, because the pressures of civilization catch up with them. They are not in the wild long enough for their culture to become natural. Now, there are no more savages, which is sad. The little of Nature that is left is set-aside for campers, who are out for the weekend and bring along their portable electronic entertainment systems.
People accuse me of having a false image of primitive people. How do they know? Where is this accurate report that I supposedly missed? Could they believe false stories? Some people tend to accept the opinions of the experts rather than use their own brains. What if the experts are idiots? Whenever knowledge is limited to a few people, we end up with few people to correct mistakes. Without outside opinions the specialist can get used to repeating the same old mistakes. Many lies circulate, and few people know how to correct these lies. Test opinions. Do your own research.
Unfortunately, books about humans are unreliable. The study of humans is difficult, because the scientific method does not work on us as well as it does in physics. In physics you can discover yourself wrong, if your ideas do not fit observations. Few psychologists or sociologists have ever proven themselves wrong; instead, they have found unlimited support for any ridiculous idea. One researcher may believe that liars smile; another may think that liars never smile. Our kind is so dynamic that both researchers may find evidence that supports their contradictory conclusions. In the study of humans the specialist has just as little knowledge as the guy down the street.
Often, primitive cultures had no way to tell their own story to outsiders. Any outsider will change the story to fit the way he thinks it should be. During the Victorian Age it was thought that the Indians were evolving from a primitive thinking to more advanced consciousness, scholars gathered information that supported this conclusion. Most of this information was speculation not supported by fact. To support this speculation, they invented words like fetish, fertility, and taboo. They studied these words rather than real cultures. During the mid-20th century it was thought that all mythology came from the same model in the unconscious mind, and scholars found myths to fit this model. They were able to get it to fit by ignoring parts of stories that did not fit, and they exaggerated the parts that did fit. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, some people thought Native Americans had a higher Zen consciousness that conservative, right-wing, Midwestern America had forgotten. More recently people have reviewed the old reports and found that scholars sometimes translate and change the wording of a narrative to fit their own interpretation. It is better to study what people say in their own words.
Unfortunately, even a person who is a member of the tribe might not know what he is talking about. A tribe member may have lived with civilization so long that he has lost all contact with his people. His report consists mostly of what he read in books. His picture of his people is merely a copy of civilization’s lies. Good, truthful reports on primitive people are hard to find. There are a lot of books I used to think were true, only to later find were false.
A researcher might not understand a custom, so the people give him an incomplete story. All cultures have their own secrets, and sometimes, people find it funny when an anthropologist does not understand. Sometimes, people must keep these secrets, because the civilized authorities would freak if they knew. Their small culture is surrounded by the larger civilization, which has complete power over them and can persecute them at any time. Anything they say will be misunderstood and used against them. The larger society can dominate social organizations and make anyone who does not conform an outcast in his own hometown. Christians have had people killed, just for following harmless traditions.
Some psychologists and sociologists have a really difficult time understanding Native American trickster stories. They think that the stories are idiotic, though they do not use the word "idiotic." They prefer to use those technical, psychological terms, which mean idiotic, but seems more scholarly. These scholars think that the stories say something about the maturity of the culture, which invented these stories. Similar stories exist in all cultures, even our own. Ever watch Bart Simpson? Or how about Beavis and Butthead or South Park? Tricksters often have a kind of insight that some people do not understand, and other people enjoy. Not all Native Americans appreciate the trickster stories. other Native American accept the trickster as a sacred person in their religion, because they let people with a good sense of humor add fun to their culture. Christians invent boring religions, because boring people dominate their culture. Psychologists and sociologists who cannot understand the trickster stories are probably no fun. They might even think of a more civilized, less obscene clown to replace Bart, someone who benefits their civilization by being a good role model. They are quick to condemn what they don’t understand and replace it with something they think they understand.
The new, ecologically and politically correct intellectuals think that primitive people actively maintained their fragile ecosystem. Occasionally, older, well-established agricultural communities, called first people, will have what looks like a harmony with their environment. We should ask if this harmony is really maintenance of the ecosystem; it seems to me to be interference with the ecosystem. These communities have found a way to preserve the interference. These communities are nonprogressive civilizations. They are fighting a war with Nature, but have hit a temporary stalemate. Progressive civilization is the one that keeps advancing and beating Nature.
These first people do not live in a real a natural ecosystem, and their life style is not natural. Such communities have to struggle to keep this harmony. Their life becomes a constant fight to patch up the wounds they keep making in the Earth. They might be able to make the dessert bloom in an unnatural way, but a natural dessert has its own value that these people have lost. In the long run this harmony of theirs might actually lead to all kinds of civilized problems.
Hunter-gatherers maintained Nature mostly by not interfering with it. Their influence was small compared to civilization’s interference. The idea of active maintenance allows progressive people to believe that civilization could one day maintain the ecosystem. This latest breed of civilized intellectuals are inventing lies just as the old ones did. Even those who see the destruction that progress has caused keep a faith in progress by inventing new, progressive thinking.
Socialists generally want to replace capitalism with a bureaucracy, which would control people's lives even more than capitalism. Socialist want to restructure society by dominating the news media, and do not want people with different ideas to get any publicity. Some socialists have become ecologists in order to blame capitalism for the world’s ecological problems. I think the problem is too much industry. Industrialized Socialist countries, such as Romania, have also ruined their ecosystem. The ecologist-socialists hate people who believe that Nature severs its own purposes, because they think that everything should serve their political dogma, including Nature.
When I tell a socialist that I care more about Nature and freedom than their politics, they accuse me of being insensitive to starving people in Africa. I do not know how to solve the over-population problems in Africa. Maybe people in Africa would solve their own problems, if other countries left them alone. This world has enough bureaucracy interfering with peoples lives.
Some people accuse me of wanting a world where disease, war, and famine would control the numbers of blacks in Africa. I do not feel that way at all. Disease, war, and famine do not control human population; instead, misery causes populations to increase. Populations stabilize, when a society is stable. Africa was stable till western civilization started to exploit the people. Also one average rich white person uses more of the Earth’s resources and causes more ecological damage than several hundred poor blacks.
Our natural social instincts create stable societies. Perhaps small separate tribes are better than large governments. In a small tribe the individual’s contribution is important. In a large government the system rules over the individual, and the individual instincts are not allowed to create a stable, natural society.
Some people have told me that we need governments to protect the wilderness from developers; I refuse to believe that. Governments are not trustworthy. Groups of people protect Nature. Governments only act, if these groups push them. Rather than go to Washington, why not just protect Nature yourself? We should not need governments for anything. I see an age of people who understand Nature, who live as part of it. They know what it means to be human. To try to fit a person in civilization is like trying to fit a round peg in a square hole, it only works if you break the peg. Civilized people are broken people. I would rather break the hole and destroy civilization. If you do not like civilization, destroy it. There is no law. I recommend that you find a group of friends, go out, destroy some machines, and have fun. Become a warrior. Teach your enemies how to fear you. Laugh at civilization. Celebrate your victories.
I have compared a lot of books and end up having to invent opinions, only loosely based on what might be fact. I have a lot of faith in my species. It seems to me that humanity is good and should be free. I build my opinions on this assumption. I do not claim to be a scholar. Half the time I do not even know what I am talking about. I have tried to free myself of civilized lies. This book gives a few of my results. Many civilized people do not understand, because they have never considered what to them is unthinkable. Someone who has questioned civilization and has tried to rediscover Nature might find this book worth reading.
I know I use bad grammar. Give me an "F" in English. I could hire a grad student to rewrite this book, so that it would look scholarly. I could even have him include quotes from highly respected Ph.D. guys. None of those additions would make this book any truer. I say what I feel to be true, and say it the way I want to say it. Plenty of people with good grammar cannot see their own lies. I was raised surrounded by salesmen, all of whom were good at selling anything. Their grammar was very effective, but the stuff they made you buy was crap.
I would listen to a bum who is yelling in the subway under Times Square, if he has something true to say. All those business people who pass him by would rather worry about unimportant facts, like who is president or how the Dow-Jones is doing. I got off that boat, and now those concerns no longer matter to me. In a civilization full of lies what is important is whether you yourself, are for real. Do not worry about me or my bad grammar.
Science
The scientific method is a useful way of weeding out untruths. Some idea might seem to make sense but are not actually true. For example substance A mixed with B could equal AB, but we would not know if AB really happens until we actually mix the substances and observe the results. Sometimes the results are different from our expectations. The scientific method is used to test theoretical models under specific condition. Careful descriptions of both the model and conditions must be recorded, because what works in one situation might not work in another. The results from conditions containing the variable have to be compared to similar conditions that do not have the variable. The experiments must be repeatable to confirm the results. Since the foolishness of one person can affect the results, more than one person working independent from each other should perform separate test. An idea can be supported but no conclusion is final. Nothing is ever proven. The results could have been misinterpreted. Plausible alternatives need to be considred as new variables are tested and retested. When done properly, the scientific method can help to filter useful information from misinformation.
Someone who claims to be an authority on a subject who does not verify his ideas using the scientific method will have unreliable information. A degree from an accredited University is sometime given to people who do not use the scientific method. Governments and institutions will sometime accept the opinions of such people as fact. The institutions will collect huge volumes of unreliable information and publish intellectual rubbish. This intellectual rubbish can be used to promote political objectives. Politicians who do not have the skill to deal with real issues invent fake issues to scare people. They claim to be dealing with these fake problems to get people to support them. People are paid to collect information that supports what their boss wants to find. They collect huge volumes of data and pretend that this mass of data makes their opinion true.
An example of government misuse of information can be seen in the war on drugs. The government exagerates the problem. They try to show that their policy will benefit society. They ignore the consequences of their own action. The war on drugs was never tested to see if it would produce good results before it was forced on the whole world.
Drugs do have bad effects on some people, but government’s interference on society is more destructive than any drug. The government spends huge anounts of money to keep this war going. The police ruin millions of lives. The governments violate peoples right to free choice while claiming that they are doing what is best for people.
The war on drugs fills our prisons with women whose children will have trouble fitting into society. This creates a class of outcast and future criminal. The government started passing drug laws back in the early twentieth century. They ended up turning a large section of society into a ghetto. Ghettos happens when governments knock people down. Governments should have stayed out of peoples lives.
The war on drugs makes people turn on each other. Law enforcement encourages people to spy and snitch on each other. This breaks up families and friendships. Innocent people become suspects. Government drug treatment programs are not helping the people. Instead these program steal from the poor. The war on drugs is an example of what civilization has become. We need to stop this.
Progressive people might have grand visions as to how they think other people should live. When these visions are forced on society one persons dream can become another person’s nightmare. No one should be forced to live another persons dream. The misuse of information happens whenever groups of people think they know what is best for other people. No one knows. It is pure arrogance that would cause anyone to assume they do know. A judges will sit in his high chair in a black dress pretending that he knows what he is talking about. He gets a perverted pleasure form manipulating people lives.
I think drugs are a waste of time, but no person should ever be prosecuted for trying drugs. Freedom involves an element of risk and people have a right to make mistakes. People have the right to choose the way they wish to correct these mistakes. Most people who occasionally use drugs do not have a drug problem. We do not need a government watching over everything we do and making every choice for us. You might one day notice your neighbors being arrested and assume that it is not your problem. What if they will come for you.
The war on drugs is not the only war where politicians spread lies. Sometimes politicians invent enemies. They then send troops out to attack empty caves. Sometimes politicians claim that the enemy has a weapon of mass destruction that must be stopped. Do not be surprised if such weapons do not exit. Because of such lies thousand of innocent people are bombed. Perhaps the biggest danger of declaring a war on terror is that anyone can be declared an enemy for any reason.
A guy might kill hundreds of people. One politician might call this guy a terrorist and ask for retaliation. Another politician might call the same guy a heroic freedom fighter and ask people to become like him. Both of these politicians are lying. The guy was just crazy. There is no need to kill more people because of him. Sometime politicians want to use torture to make people give information. The politicians say this information will help protect the public from terror. Torture is not used to collect the truth. Torture is used to make people say lies.
Do you want to live in a paranoid culture of fear, mistrust and lies? Let me tell you the myth about the four castes. In this myth all civilizations are divided into four castes. The highest caste consists of those who try to manipulate what people believe to be true. This caste is the brains of the operation and has the fewest members. It may have a smaller inner council who keeps secrets form everyone else. The ultimate secret is that they have no ideas what is really happening. The next caste is the police who act as though they believe the lies. The muscle of the cops is brought down on the people to keep them in their place. Cops get sadistic pleasure in hurting people. The next caste is the merchants who think supporting the lies is good for business. The lowest caste is the poor who make up the majority of the population. The highest caste claims to be helping the people. Instead the lowest caste is made to suffer to make the false claims of the higher cast seem necessary. Laws are invented to support the caste system.
Do you think the myth of the four castes is true in any way? The inner council does not exit. What does exit is combined stupidity from people in all levels of society. It is this stupidity that makes a parasitic government possible. Before you pass a laws make sure that the law is necessary. Consider the reasons you make these laws and consider if these reasons are valid. Do not pass laws that make the situation worse. Consider if we would be better off without these laws. Beware of laws that reduce the rights and liberties of people. All people have the right to make mistakes and do not need you to fix the situation for them.
Sometime politicians will deny people certain rights if they fail to fit certain requirements. Governments should never be allowed to take peoples rights away. Sometimes laws are set up to limit the power of government, such as the United States bill of rights. Unfortunately Politicians will find way reinterpret these laws and use them to reinforce the government. The solution to this problem is to have less government. People need to take the control of their lives back. We must become warriors again.
The modern military has become hateful and paranoid. They forget a very important feature of being a warrior. This is to be a gentleman and not abuse your power. Not all wars end with one winner. Sometimes war creates more war until both sides lose. Sometime more can be won with kindness than meanness. It is important to know when to fight, but it is also important to know when to stop. Beware of politician who wants you to kill someone you do not know. Do not be afraid to turn your weapon against the politician.
We live in a global police state. Police intrusion in our lives is getting worse as technology gives them more ways to probe and track us. Someday we will all be monitored by something every minute in our life. We might not be able to prevent the monitoring. What we can do is stop building government agencies that collect and use this information. They are not using this information to help you. Everything they record can and will be used against you. Most people who get arrested by the police did not commit a crime that endangered anyone. Instead the police are arresting them for something minor that could easily have been ignored. Most of these crimes are harmless stuff people do every day. Law enforcement tends to attract people who want to hurt you. Imagine what they will do when they can see everything you do. We need to stop them now. Institutions that collect information about a person without the consent of the person must be closed immediately. No government should ever be allowed to use personal information from any person for any reason. Go down to your local government office and tell them that you want all records they have about you deleted immediately. The government will not respect your wishes.
Politicians might consider themselves right because they have men with guns to enforce their view point. Might makes right. Truth is determined by victory in battle. Someone who stands up against them might be out numbered a billion to one. I still refuse to surrender. They only control you if you let them. They want you to fear them and submit.
Conviction
Civilization was forced on us. I never signed a social contract. I want the option to say no. In the process of refusing to cooperate with civilization I have collected all kinds of legal troubles. Most of what I have said about the courts comes from personal experience. The police, prosecutors and judges have managed to keep me busy. They now spend a ridiculous about of time and money trying to make me conform rather than going after murderers. Then they accuse me of wasting their time. All they have to do is let me go. I never committed any real crimes. All I have ever done was refuse to cooperate.
After that night on the beach I spent a lot of time searching for something, but I was not sure what it was. I was in South Dakota in some sleazy backdoor club, where I had just drunk a few bottles of Cisco when I met a sacred prostitute. He had apparently done a few Ciscos himself, and was the drunkest Indian I had ever seen. We started arguing incoherently, till he started bragging about himself. Most of his bragging was sexual, about how much he can take and how much every man in town wants his flesh. I called him a fag and mostly made fun of everything he said, till he talked about walking in the way of his Animal. My mind was opened; I found what I was looking for. I realized that what I wanted was something that would support my religion, more than books, more than my imagination. The guy in front of me was the real thing. In his culture he is God on Earth. He is the word made flesh. He must have been able to tell that I just realized something meaningful, because he tore a page out of a porno magazine, gave it to me, and said, "Keep it, because now you know the shit." I left the bar and began to walk north. My shoes were worn, so I took them off. The Earth felt good on my feet, which had been bound in a civilized garment for so long.
I am a Prophet who can feel the next age coming. My visions are all strange distortions of what I really see, but I can see it clearer now. Aquarius is a male concubine, who pours the waters of life. Like it or not, that is the age which is about to begin. You might say that I am decadent and that I have allowed myself to fall into chaos and corruption. You might be right. I tend to dislike the orderly and lawful light. I prefer primal darkness. Most people are secure in their protected civilization and have no need to face the horrors outside. I tend to be attracted to the sleazy underworld. Some people think that Mankind has struggled to rise above the primal slime. I seem to want to slide back into it.
What is the light you follow? What is the darkness you reject? Am I really so evil compared to you? I neither contribute to civilization, nor do I expect anyone to serve the system. Do you? Exactly what is it that you support? Just for the hell of it, take a walk around any civilized city. You might see some not-so-pleasant sights. A progressive thinker might think that carefully well-thought-out progress could one day solve some of these problems. He might even think that civilization is still better off than the uncivilized person. Are any of his opinions true? Does his faith in progress prevent him from seeing the truth? Remember, no one tested to make sure if civilization was the best way to live before they forced it on us.
Some philosophy students claim that empirical investigations cannot give us answers to ethical questions. This may be true if you’re only interested in defining ethical principles. What we can observe is what happens when we apply ethical theories. I think civilization is wrong because it does wrong. I believe that a proper scientific investigation into what civilization does to the world will demonstrate that we are happier living as part of nature. People who develop an ethical system that values civilization support their ideas with wrong information.
If you could see events as I see them, you would see a completely different picture. Now, try to doubt progress. Let the illusion disappear and see events as they really are. Try to see the way someone as decadent as me sees. I let my biological feelings tell me what to see. I think my way is the natural way. By accepting Nature, I have received an ever-more-profound understanding of the mystery that is its essence. I hope to find ways to make my thinking even more wild.
While I was walking down the road, a cop drove up next to me. I was close to the state line. The other side was beyond his authority. He gave me one of those cop-attitude looks, as if I was supposed to submit. Physically I am bigger than the Cop. In a fair fight I would have the advantage. I have to consider that he has an entire civilization supporting him. Even before I was born, civilization was my enemy, its institutions ready to domesticate me. Many people are scared. They want a safe place to hide. They cage themselves in. They want freedom from sufferings. They fear the beast within who wants to leave the cage. They want freedom from the beast. I want freedom to be my Animal. Say yes to life. Don’t fear. Let all Hell break loose. I looked at the cop and said, "I walk where I want to walk."
The End