We are nothing more than domesticated animals. We obediently do what we are told by our masters and in return, we are provided with the means to obtain food, shelter, etc, but we no longer know how to obtain these necessities for ourselves (which all of our ancestors were adept at). Thus, we are wholly at the mercy of our masters.

This process of domestication can be seen occuring in real time in the tribal societies which still exist in regions such as the Amazon. We, in the West, the domesticated NWO-culture ones, look upon their ways as backwards, as we are conditioned to do so, but they are infinitely superior. This is because they live in a harmonious society, in which they use both sides of their brains; a balance between the masculine (left brain) and the feminine (right brain) [I will go back to the masculine vs. feminine later].

They do not perceive the world as we do. We, of the domesticated West (which ironically that encompasses most of the world), look upon the world and see through the lens of pure logic (or attempt to). We see a set of rules, causal relationships, and we perceive purely the physical nature of things. The natives also see the world this way, but their reality also involves spirits and the supernatural. We are conditioned to scoff at the supernatural, which is also so named "super"-natural meaning "beyond"-natural, which roughly translates to unnatural, which we then in turn believe to be impossible. However, the natives do not have this separation between natural and supernatural; all is natural. Spirits are just as real to them as the trees of the forest. But it is because they are real, but not in our western sense of "spirits". Think of them as forces. We cannot see or detect forces, but we accept that they exist because we can detect their effects.

When one got sick, it was believed to be due to evil spirits, sometimes sent by the shaman of another tribe. The shamans are held with high regard and are feared as well. A good example of this is from the nonfiction book entitled Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice by Mark J. Plotkin, PhD, detailing his accounts as he traveled to and lived with various tribes in the Amazon to learn of their healing plants over the course of a decade:

It was August 1985 and I was back in Kwamala for a month to collect more plants. I had been in the village only a few days when Kamainja appeared at the door of my hut one evening literally shaking with fear. "It is not safe for you here at the edge of the village," he said. "Take down your hammock and sling it in my hut. The witch doctor of the Wayanas has put a curse on our village."
His alarm was contagious, and I quickly gathered up my belongings. Once I was safely in his hut, he told me what was happening.
"Last year," he began, "the son of the Jaguar Shaman went east to the Sipaliwini savannas to hunt parrots. One morning he woke up terrified, claiming that he had been cursed by the witch doctor of the Wayanas. [...] As proof of the curse, the Jaguar Shaman's son showed us three small, pointed sticks he had found in his hammock."
[...]
"Three days later, he put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. This evening his younger brother found the same types of sticks in his hammock, here in Kwamala. And tonight several hunters returning to the village saw an apparition of the Wayana at the edge of the river."

Later on in the chapter, Plotkin visits the Shaman of the Wayanas to learn of his medicinal plants. At one point, his elbow began to ache horribly due to having aggravated an old football injury, a condition which western medicines had never cured for him; only temporary relief was provided. He asks the shaman to heal him. At the end of the ritual (which worked):

The next thing I remember was him waking me gently by tapping me on the cheek with his fingers. He helped me to my feet; I felt a bit dazed and rather unsteady. The Wayana led me down the path toward the village by the light of a full moon, which gave the jungle an eerie iridescent silver glow.
"Wait here!" commanded the medicine man as he stepped off the path. In a moment he returned, his right fist in a ball. Slowly he uncurled his fingers to reveal three small, sharp, pointed sticks.
"Yolok peleu," he said. "The arrows of the evil spirits." He closed his fist and opened it again. There was nothing there. I was too frightened to ask any questions.

We all have heard about the idea of spirituality, though many in the West do not believe in this, or even embrace it. Spirituality isn't believing in a god or Jesus or any of that stuff. It is a connection with nature, the All.

My point: the society of the natives are a harmonious balance of the masculine and the feminine, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, the left brain and the right brain. Thus they live in a harmonious manner. They do not conquer the rain forest but rather live as a part of it, and their lives are rich and full. What is more is that THEY ARE CONTENT WITH WHAT THEY HAVE! In their culture, if one admires something that belongs to you and expresses want, you must give it to them (without them even asking). Nobody takes more than what they need.

Somehow, in our culture, we can accumulate as much wealth and material goods as we want, and yet somehow always yearn for more.

Before I continue, I will have to break down the characteristics of the Apollonian and the Dionysian:

The Apollonian is associated with the masculine, and its qualities include: law, order, religion, rationality, man the creator, the doer, the observer, perfection, sobriety, boundaries, man makes art, civilization, matter
The Apollonian is associated with the left brain
The Apollonian makes things happen
The Apollonian god is Order (Fate)

The Dionysian is associated with the feminine, and its qualities include: lawlessness, chaos, spirituality, man the partaker, the experiencer, no boundaries, intoxication, instinct, man is art, nature, energy
The Dionysian is associated with the right brain
The Dionysian lets things happen
The Dionysian god is Chaos (Chance)

(continued)

[edit on 27-9-2008 by italkyoulisten]

It is glaringly obvious that our Western domesticated society is Apollonian dominated to the extreme. We need both the Apollonian and Dionysian ways for harmony. For example, play is a Dionysian event, and after having worked (an Apollonian event), one would naturally want to basically balance themselves by doing something fun. Parties are also Dionysian events (obviously). Anyway, in our society, there is not enough Dionysian outlets as everything must be dominated by logic, which only allows us to perceive and understand half of the world: the physical. Science is the epitome of the Apollonian, and it is held in our society with the highest regard; science can only uncover truths about the physical. Spirits, ESP, and other "supernatural" phenomenon can be explained through the Dionysian spirituality, or connection with the All. The right brain is the home to "intuition", or the act of knowing without the means to. Usually, the first impression is the correct, and the logical left brain begins to overthink and muddies the truth. Spirituality is the work of the right brain: intuition mixed with creativity.

The most important aspect of the Dionysian that we lack is spirituality. We no longer have the connection with Nature and the All, not because we are unable to, but because we no longer know how. I bet if you ask anyone, they will consider "nature" as untouched by people, or think that people are apart from nature. In reality we are all a part of nature. We have just lost the connection, because we were conditioned to allow the Apollonian side of us take over.

We in the West are missing the Dionysian component. This is why we always feel that there is something wrong and something missing. We attempt to fill in this hole with material goods, but we will never succeed. We will constantly seek to expand and control until we eventually destroy ourselves and the world. This is a tool in the New World Order arsenal. We are essentially empty. Order is our bodies, our outer shell. That is the Apollonian. Chaos is our souls/minds. That is the Dionysian. That is why our minds obey no laws. We can think up anything, and there are no boundaries. But most of us in the west are just empty shells.

The reason that the natives were content with what they had already is because they already had all that they needed: a harmonious balance between the Apollonian and the Dionysian.

However, their culture is quickly dissipating. As missionaries force their way into their tribes, and force them to wear western clothing, showing them western hollywood videos as "proof" of the Christian god, giving them western medicines (which cure diseases that they brought themselves), the natives are relinquishing their old ways. The harmony of their societies are destroyed. The youth no longer show interest in plants, and the shamans can no longer find apprentices to pass on their herbal and spiritual knowledge. They trade their handcrafted bows and arrows for western shotguns, and soon they will trade their homegrown foods for western packaged foods.

And thus they are unknowingly becoming domesticated. They become dependent on the system, the masters, and will eventually not be able to provide for themselves, because they will have forgotten how. When that happens, they will become slaves to the Powers That Be just like the rest of us. They will relinquish their spirituality and accept religion and will lose their connection with Nature and the All, like we, the conquered West already have. They will be Apollonians just like us one day soon, and they, too, will suffer from the insatiable thirst for more material goods (due to a general dissatisfaction that they do not know how to express, or why they feel it) and will fit in quite nicely into the system of which there is no escape.

[edit on 27-9-2008 by italkyoulisten]

I can see where you are coming from and you have put a lot of time into this. However this little Utopian non-domesticated native society you speak of is nothing more than an idealistic fantasy.

I have studied tribes in South America and New Guinea. In my experience this “harmonious balance of the masculine and the feminine,” you speak of is a myth.

Indeed, the woman in these societies are little more than second class citizens. Women are sold into marriage (usually using pigs as currency) and are forced into back breaking labor. In fact a pig holds a higher status in the village than any woman does. Not what I would call Dionysian or a “balanced”.

Moving on to the missionaries controlling and enslaving them. Trust me I have no love for missionaries but they are doing nothing less then the local shaman. The shamans control and manipulate the villagers on a daily basis. That is how they survive. Shamans do not hunt or gather food. They rely on the generosity of the rest of the tribe. Sound familiar? They behave exactly like priests do in our modern world.

Finally, you state that “They trade their handcrafted bows and arrows for western shotguns”. Well of course they do. Their lives are really hard. They are like any other human in that they will take the course of least resistance every time. For example, if it took me 1 whole day to chop down a tree with a stone axe, or I could cut down the same tree with a modern steel axe in 1 hour – what am I going to choice? It’s a no brainer. Just because they are “natives” does not mean they enjoy back breaking hard work. The opposite is true. In fact, going back to their poor suffering wives. The woman work like slaves all day, every day while the men do a lot of sitting around. Men may go and hunt once or twice a week and the rest of the time they sleep or sit around gas bagging!

Unfortunately you have allowed your thought process to be tainted with the “new age” fantasy that all native populations are more spiritual than the rest of us. This is nonsense. When was the last time you had an anxiety attack because a neighbor put a curse on you?

You are obviously a bright person however you need to get a little more critical in your thinking.

Originally posted by WatchNLearn
I have studied tribes in South America and New Guinea. In my experience this “harmonious balance of the masculine and the feminine,” you speak of is a myth.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing when I read that. He is imaging it is a utopia. I don't know much about the south american tribes but it is the same way in Africa (the men sit around and the women do all the work, especially since in agricultural societies there is not any hunting going on).

Originally posted by Sonya610

Originally posted by WatchNLearn
I have studied tribes in South America and New Guinea. In my experience this “harmonious balance of the masculine and the feminine,” you speak of is a myth.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing when I read that. He is imaging it is a utopia. I don't know much about the south american tribes but it is the same way in Africa (the men sit around and the women do all the work, especially since in agricultural societies there is not any hunting going on).

Actually, the work is fairly evenly divided. The men have their things to do, and likewise the women. The men are responsible for providing food, protection, and crafting goods. The women are responsible for taking care of the children, carrying water, and cooking. The women build the gardens and the men tend them.

It just sounds to me like you see everything as the evil "west" and the beautiful "anti-west".

That is not really accurate. I guarantee you there are places where the Dionysian is alive and well, and chaos most certainly reins. There are places where the Apollonian mindset is far secondary, and every disease or bad event is attributed to magic (that belief is not limited to tribes in the amazon). That mindset typically causes a lot of conflict and violence (as everytime someone gets sick there is someone else to blame).

Sheesh even in THIS country there are elements that live the lifestyle of lawlessness, chaos, no boundaries etc...on a frequent basis generation after generation. Many of these individuals find that society will impose a period Apollonian control on them via the prison system.

Then you have the devout Muslims. While their society certainly has a lot of rules, their views regarding spirituality are often very deep, and many do see the will of God as being paramount, and the ability of humans to control things as very much secondary.