Document compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein in May 2020.
This document is intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work. If you haven’t engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now. Feel free to circulate this document on social media and with your friends, family, and colleagues.
A civilization or culture is defined as a set
of customs, traditions, ethics, values, language, music, dance, gastronomy,
clothing, religion, and social and political organization of a people, ethnic
group, tribe, or nation.
British scholars of the 19th century classified the peoples and races as
Civilized, Barbarians and Savages, based on their respective
“evolutions.” Such classification was based primarily on three factors:
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution;
the Industrial Revolution in the
beginning of industrial capitalism; and
the Reformation of the Catholic Church,
the schism from which Protestantism arose.
False premises that led to false conclusions.
Such a classification made the field fertile for the appearance of a
Capitalist/Protestant ethic, which would produce today’s capitalist system.
The Theory of Evolution (not a science, but a theory) postulates
that only the most capable, among the various species of living organisms,
survives and evolves. Darwin labeled his theory Survival of the Fittest.
This competition for survival and evolution would be in genetic, biological,
adaptive and/or mutative terms, in relation to the environment from which they
would have evolved and where they would live. Human beings have been labeled Homo
Sapiens, representatives of the supposedly most evolved species–the most
apt. The civilized, barbaric and savages represented an attempt to hierarchize Homo
Sapiens.
To speak of capitalist ethics is to incur a contradiction in terms as
capitalism does not have an ethic, but a single overriding value: profits. On
the other hand, a Protestant ethics is based on the Old Testament of the Bible
and on the doctrine of Martin Luther that God, a supposedly elderly, male,
white entity, distributes His blessings in the form of material wealth, power,
good life to those most deserving and for whom He feels greater affection. The
subtext is that the poor are poor because they are sinners. And Jesus, the
messiah son of that God, was a white Jew. The pieces fit together historically.
In the Civilized category would be the European,
white and Christian colonial empires, with Anglo-Saxons being the
civilized par excellence.
Labeled as Barbarians would be Asians (yellow
skinned, in their classification), nomadic peoples, Arabs and North
Africans, Eskimos, all non-Christians (pagans), as well as all
dark-skinned races that were not in the category of savages, such as the
Indians (from India).
Finally, the Savages would be the inhabitants of
black Africa, the Indians of the American continent, the so-called
primitives of the Pacific Islands: Aborigines, Maori, Polynesians,
Melanesians, Micronesians, etc., and cannibals.
The only two other civilizations respected by this novel Western
Civilization were the Greek and the Roman, their progenitors–not very civilized
to be sure, built and sustained by wars, conquests and slavery.
There were also the Slaves, captured like animals from the Savage group, who
in the 19th century came predominantly from the native peoples of sub-Saharan
Africa and the Americas. Christians believed that these savages, like animals,
did not have a soul. Hence the legality and morality of their objectification
by Christians who sold them as merchandise. Arabs also exploited the slave
trade, a major source of investment/profits.
A corollary of such doctrines and beliefs were attempts to ‘civilize’
barbarians and savages through Christian missions that would take European
religious organizations to evangelize the African, American and Asian
continents, as well as the Pacific Islands. Such missions gave rise to
genocides and exterminations of nations and native peoples who refused to be
‘evangelized’ and ‘civilized’. Spain (Corona de Castilla) is an
extreme example of this in South and Central America where its conquistadores
decimated the Inca, Maya and Aztec civilizations among others. The religious
missions exist and persist today, albeit in derisory numbers and without much
influence and credibility.
From the First to the Third World
The 20th century witnessed a change in the English classification, with the
advent of Communism in Eastern Europe. The conceptualization of the divisions
was then redefined as First World, Second World and Third World.
Within the First World, were grouped the
most affluent capitalist societies that were economically, politically
and/or militarily dominant, and whose citizens were Jewish-Christians of
white color.
As Second World, were labeled all those
countries that adopted the Communist/Marxist-atheist ideology/economy.
And the Third World was left with
everybody else: poor, destitute, barbarians, savages, all people of color,
etc.; the majority of earth’s population.
God remains a white entity who rewards material wealth, and civilized Anglo
Saxons and Judeo-Christians remain His chosen people.
After WWII, the divisions were renamed by the International Monetary Fund as
Developed, Developing and Underdeveloped countries (IMF country classification.pdf). These labels remain in
effect with the prejudices intact in the world’s deep culture/structure.
In this new characterization, all non-economic considerations were then
discarded. Japan and the Soviet Union, for example, were accepted into the
exclusive Developed Club of the First Civilized World, although the Japanese
were Eastern, non-Christian and non-white, and the Soviets were Communists and
atheists.
The North American empire claimed world leadership from the British empire
and the Capitalist/Protestant ethics, with Anglo-Saxons always at the helm,
acquired an irresistible and unstoppable momentum, with science and technology,
the planet’s riches and resources becoming servants of the lords of capital.
The outcome of WWII was the determining factor for the definitive
establishment of the capitalist market economy globally. It overcame
Socialism/Communism and today stands above all the governments of the planet
whose armed forces, police, and intelligence services are manipulated and used
against anyone and everything that dares to challenge the Free Market
Capitalist Economy whose foundation are the banks, central banks, financial
institutions, hedge funds, and so on. A Mafia–by definition–getting what they
need/want through lethal force, sanctions, Machiavellic manipulations,
bullying, threats, and so forth.
Slavery of the Mind and Lack of Ethics
At the same time, unification has developed–complicity I would say–between
economic, military, political, religious, intellectual, media and scientific
elites from all countries in any of the categories. The New World Order of the
third millennium is characterized by haves vs have nots, that is, who
accumulates money vs. who is prevented from doing so. The number of
billionaires grows exponentially with the spread of misery: the famous 1%
against the remaining 99%. The class war that Karl Marx’s foresaw–also two
centuries ago–hitting the bull’s eye. The present rat race is who is going to
be the first individual trillionaire. Money addiction by definition. Keep in
mind that this is all under the same Capitalist/Protestant/Judaic/Industrial
Revolution/Anglo Saxon/Civilized ‘ethics.’
Today slavery is of the mind, conscience, awareness, aided by the Main
Stream Corporate Entertainment Social Media and communication technology. Wall
Street is a Church. The goals–profits, favors, privileges, powers–justify any
means necessary. Armies are their faithful servants. Does this survival of the
fittest have anything to do with that advocated by Darwin two centuries ago? Is
this state of affairs natural, normal? We are destroying the planet–its oceans,
rivers, forests, insects, animals, the atmosphere–for whom or what to be the
fittest? Those who win a nuclear war? Something went definitely wrong on the
way to heaven.
We must extinguish from our collective psyche the idea that human beings are
naturally divided into economic, social, or other spurious classes by birth. We
learned to reason collectively from within the confines of the Theory of
Evolution [a theory and not a science, I repeat], which implies competition
rather than cooperation. The nomenclature has changed and adapted to new
conditions, but the prejudice remains; it must be eliminated. We are not royals
or commoners, slaves, barbarians, savages, capitalists or workers; our primary
identity is humans. Period.
Global finance capitalism is not and should not be seen as a last word. Its
greatest deficiency lies in providing an unequal, unjust and unfair
distribution of wealth between producers/capitalists/shareholders and
wage-workers, consumers. The cruelty and aggression of this system against
nature reached its peak at the beginning of this century, especially among
international elites that, allied, constitute the aristocracy that nourishes
and maintains the royal family of industrialized countries, the most apt among
the Fittest. What a farce! A false, illusory and illogical socio-economic
engineering that is incompatible with the intelligence, compassion, imagination
and nobility of character inherent in human beings and humanity, revealed in
the arts, culture, science, even in the new technologies unfortunately used
primarily to kill, control and dominate for selfish delusional purposes.
The three pillars of high finance and international movers are:
oil,
armaments (legal and illegal),
drugs (legal and illegal).
International capitalism has become hopelessly dependent on the activities of
organized crime, in fact adopting its Modus Operandi.
Government officials are hostage to their complicity with lobbies. The mafia
entered the system and imposed its ethics. This state of affairs is not
resolved with terrorism, but with radical changes not only in the paradigms of
economic, political and social structures, but also and especially in the
minds, in the individual consciences/consciousnesses that are beget in the womb
of reality. We are the builders of our own realities–from the personal to the
collective.
Need for an Alternative
For each Hitler there is a Gandhi. For each Trump there is a Nelson Mandela.
For each Bolsonaro or Boris there is a Luther King. Those who are not part of
the solution are, by necessity, part of the problem in a world with a record
population of 8 billion interdependent beings where everyone affects everyone
and nobody is an island. We represent a colony on earth—not a globalization
construct, not merely numbers, statistics or resources to be exploited.
It is undeniable that societies classified as Civilized, First World or
Developed, led by the USA and the West but spread throughout, retain the reins
of world markets, politics, economics and culture, being the main producers of
weapons, technology, science and atmospheric pollutants as well as wealth (or
poverty, depending on the viewpoint) and materialistic values. As such, they
also retain the greater share of responsibility for the misery that spreads
throughout the so-called Third World. After the fragmentation of the former
Soviet Union, the number of members of the underdeveloped has increased, not
because poverty has expanded, but because the labels have changed places. In
English, there is a rhyme: the West and the Rest.
We need a viable alternative–more benign–to the ‘trickle down’ economy, more
aptly named ‘trickle up,’ which slowly and inexorably corrodes and erodes the
spirit of nobility in everyone’s character, whether labeled or believed to be
civilized, barbaric or savage. We become slaves to the monster we believe in,
our Leviathan. The so-called Capitalist/Protestant ethics is outrageous,
ignominious. God is not the God of the affluent, white people. This is an
incongruity, heretic, unadulterated primitivism.
Our mental paradigm must change, both individually and collectively, towards
cooperation, nonviolence, conflict resolution by peaceful means, and
sharing–with equity and reciprocity–of the planet’s resources, instead of
lethal competition for them; passing through the elimination of sick
nationalisms and sociopathic and homicidal patriotisms that kill legally
en masse. Our mental constructions must be modified by ourselves, by education,
and not by the state. If there were no soldiers logically there would be no
wars as generals do not fight each other. We must achieve a degree of
civilization that does not require authority, police, justice, militarism or
weapons of any type or size for collective control and destruction. Replaced by
social servants, leaders. Utopia? I believe not; if we work for it.
United in our diversity and accepting our differences instead of dividing us
into races, we may, in any future, acquire a Consciousness of Civilized
Beings–and act on it. Without this shift in consciousness any other meaningful
change is unlikely as Darwin’s myopic and ethnocentric theory will continue to
influence our lives, private and public, and our spiritual (not religious)
evolution.
The Trump Administration rescinded the tribal status of the
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe on Cape Cod which is creating a crisis during the
coronavirus pandemic.
Please consider signing the attached statement of support for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe who have had their tribal status in the Federal Land Trust rescinded by the Trump Administration. This is causing a serious crisis for the tribe during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Thanks for taking the time to consider signing the ACTION FORM.
This action is co-sponsored by The Peace Abbey, The Life Experience School and Quakers from East Sandwich Quaker Meeting. The Tribe’s case is being heard on May 7 in Washington DC via teleconferencing. If you care to sign it online, we will print it and mail it to The White House with others.