White People Are Crazy

"White People Are Crazy!" Means "Your 'Civilization' Is Not Very Civilized"

Every Native American nation referred to itself as “Human Beings.” That is what the names of the various peoples meant. Lenape means “Human Being.” Because they were human beings, they behaved humanely toward each other. Because they were humane, the Lenape had no money, and therefore, they had no poverty. Stealing was rare because if someone needed something to survive, it was given to them. There was no sense of private ownership of property or land. Families and people often occupied a set place and had certain possessions, but they were theirs to be used for their needs, understanding that their needs and the needs of the whole community where intertwined. Lenape had no concept that land could be owned, traded, or sold.There were no homeless because homes were shared in necessary. People knew their roles, they knew what was expected of them and they did it. They had no prisons because the shame of not being humane was punishment enough. 

Europeans came to Turtle Island, not calling themselves “Human Beings,” but calling themselves, “English,” or “French,” or “Dutch,” or “Spanish,” or “Italian.” They made no claims to be human beings, so it is not surprising that they behaved in ways that were inhumane. It is no surprise that the “civilization” that they have imposed on Turtle Island continues to be inhumane. 

The point is that you can see the humanity of a people, not by watching how they deal with "others" who are "foreign," but by how they treat their own. If they are willing to let their own starve, or go homeless, or continue in illness, or wallow in poverty, then how can they be trusted to deal with others in good faith? If the will abuse their own for profit, if they poison their own, pollute their own lands and water, force their own to live in unsafe conditions, what will they do to others? The mistake the Native peoples made was to trust those who were inhumane to themselves to be be humane to them. But it is not their fault. The had yet to see the long train of atrocities and inhumanity that the Europeans were willing to inflict upon others. The native peoples expected Europeans to be "civilized," which was supposed to mean "humane."

It is inhumane to hoard food that you cannot eat while those around you starve. It is inhumane to hoard billions of dollars while those around you are poor and cannot buy what they need to live. It is inhumane to impose a system of money on a people, determining that all things must be bought and sold, and then deny people access to that money. It is inhumane to impose structures that ensure that those who have more than enough get even more, while those who do not have enough lose what little they have. It is inhumane to destroy the planet, and to destroy natural resources and to destroy peoples' homes and health for any reason -- to do it for profit, for money, is the height of inhumanity. It is inhumane to spend more money on weapons and means to kill than on food for the poor, health care for the poor, housing for the poor. It is inhumane to heal for profit. It is inhumane to reserve health for the rich. It is inhumane to treat animals without respect, even those animals we eat. It is inhumane not to honor and respect all life. It is inhumane not to honor the spirit that is in all things -- plant, animal, human. It is inhumane to destroy land and pollute land that produces food. It is inhumane to pollute, poison, and contaminate water that is used for drinking. It is inhumane to destroy habitats of others living beings. It is inhumane to drive living things to extinction. It is inhumane to devise more efficient ways to take life. 

Europeans brought all these things because they were “civilized.” Because they were “civilized,” they did not call themselves human beings or behave humanely. Because they were not human beings, the resented when the people who called themselves human beings did so, so the Europeans changed the names of the human beings. Lenape became Delaware; Dine became Navajo. All the human beings were given new names so they could no longer call themselves human beings because the Europeans stopped being human beings long before and they resented those who were still human.

Civilization is designed to take away our humanity. It forces us to participate in systems that are inhumane. It forces us to justify our inhumanity. It forces us to impose this inhumanity on others, and when they do not comply, they are killed, and told it is their fault for not being “civilized.” If only the “civilized” people would remember their humanity, then maybe their civilization would be civilized at last. But as long as everything is dead to them but profit, then everything will be destroyed to get profit. Only when they have destroyed every living thing, every plant, every animal, every person, every bit of food, every drop of clean water, only when they have destroyed everything for the sake of their profit for a tiny few, will they see their insanity, and it will be too late.