Peer into this child’s eyes at your
own risk. They have haunted me for 18
months. Every few weeks I look at this
poignant image and try to decipher the message that those enormous brown eyes are
sending to me - and to you - and to the world.
I found this photo at Google Images
and used it to accompany my final essay of 2013. It is of a little gypsy girl in Romania who
has just received a Christmas present from an aid worker. It leapt out at me even though there were
hundreds of other pictures. Why did this
particular one tunnel into my heart of hearts and speak to me so
powerfully?
I have pondered this at least 20 times during the
ensuing months. But before sharing my
conclusions with you, I would like you to pause for a few minutes and study
this young girl. I’d even suggest that
you left click on the photo to enlarge it. Now, what is she saying to you personally with those focused eyes and that enigmatic smile?
*******
Look carefully at this pale, brown Madonna as she
clutches her Christmas present. Do you
see the gratitude, the sadness, the muffled joy, the wisdom beyond her years,
the hope, the resignation, the innocence, the wonder, and the precocious
awareness of just how strange and unjust human life is?
I do. It is all there - and more.
Imagine what she has already experienced in her 5 or 6 years in a gypsy family, banished to the margins of society. She probably lives in a 30 year old motor home or just a large, battered van. She already knows how much more difficult her wandering life is – especially when compared to other little girls her age who live in the normal world. She survives on hand-me-downs and hand-outs. But the charity that her family receives is tiny when measured against the animosity that they endure.
Hopefully, her parents lessen these hardships by
emphasizing to her that they lead a life that is far freer than those who scorn
them. They probably remind her that
their vagabond path keeps them closer to Nature and the authentic rhythms of
life - rather than ensnared by the human-built, artificial ones. And they encourage her with the knowledge that
as a member of the Romani, she is part of a tradition that extends back
thousands of years.
*******
Now burrow deeper into those yearning eyes and you
might recognize that they are pleading – that they are silently screaming a
message to the grown-ups of the world.
And what they are saying is:
“HOW CAN YOU
ADULTS NOT DO BETTER THAN THIS?”
How can you allow so much suffering and injustice and violence
to continue on a planet that is so lush, so beautiful, and so abundant? How can you be so selfish and greedy that you
will tolerate obscene opulence for the few, while billions endure hunger,
disease and hopelessness? How can you
worship your possessions so reverently in a world where so many are
dispossessed?
How do most adults brush aside such incriminating
questions? They just shrug their
shoulders and say, “That’s just the way that it has always been.” But they are wrong – profoundly wrong! The injustice and degradation and oppression
that dominate our modern world are actually a tiny aberration from the last 10,000
years. For about 500,000 years prior to
the Agricultural Revolution, when humans lived tribally, most of the ills that
infect today’s society, did not exist
The change began when humanity veered away from tribal
and nomadic living to civilized and settled living. The turning point was the shift from
hunting/foraging to agriculture – or as Daniel Quinn more accurately defines it
– to Totalitarian Agriculture. When the
Paleolithic people rejected their Neolithic heritage, they did not realize that
as they domesticated their animals and crops, they also domesticated
themselves.
*******
Even as I write these words, I can already hear the
cries of protest as people attempt to defend the worldview that has been so relentlessly
and effectively drummed into them. Their
typical response is usually worded like this:
“So, Ray, do you expect all of us to go back to living
in caves and eating grubs and spiders and wooly mammoths?”
No, I do not.
But I do expect us to be mature enough as a species to examine what
those who came before us did better than
us. If those tens of thousands of
generations made it through to pass along their genetic line even in a natural
world that was far more hostile, then we should learn what they can teach us. Here are some of the foundational principles
of their social blueprint that we could adapt for modern usage.
·
Horizontal is better than hierarchal – Equality was a hallmark of hunter/gatherer
societies. It was essentially “all for
one and one for all.” There was no rigid
social stratification. It wasn’t long
after the arrival of Agriculture, that hierarchy reared its bejeweled but ugly
head. Suddenly there were a few rulers
and a great mass of people who were ruled.
As social awareness
advanced through the centuries, the domination by elites lessened. God-Kings were deposed by regular old Kings
who were displaced by elected rulers such as Presidents, Premiers and Prime
Ministers. This is certainly progress in
the right direction, but it has proven erratic and often regressive. For a few decades the regular people will
seem to rise up and achieve genuine improvement in their working and living
conditions, only to have a new tyrant arrive and halt the progression towards a
more equal and just society. So, it is
ironic that a worthy goal is to aspire to the level of egalitarian living that
the so-called primitive tribal people enjoyed over 10,000 years ago.
·
Possessions were not revered – they were resisted – For nomadic peoples, who needed to be highly mobile
for their very survival, unnecessary stuff was excess baggage. This remains the situation amongst the few
dozen indigenous tribes who still survive.
Some are hunter/foragers and some are small-scale agriculturists. But none of them are weighed down by superfluous
possessions.
The hollowness of the
modern Cult of Consumerism has led to enormous societal dysfunction. People work meaningless, unsatisfying jobs
just so they can support their addiction to THINGS. Survey after survey indicates that almost
nobody who has bought into the worship of gadgets actually finds fulfillment in
them. What they provide instead is a
temporary distraction from a tragically empty life. How
sad is an existence where one’s only friends are iFriends? In a world where pets have jewelry and
innocent children starve, would it not be wise to learn from the tribal model
of voluntary simplicity?
·
Co-operation trumped competition – In tribal bands almost everything was shared equally,
so there was no incentive to “get ahead.” Everyone flourished together or failed
together. The competition that did exist
was playful – such as games or dancing.
But competition has become the foundation of modern, industrial-techno society. This is not accidental, it is deliberate. It allows those at the top – who I like to refer to as The Malignant Overlords – to justify their ascendancy. They claim that their success is strictly a result of the fact that they are better competitors. Thus, they can ignore the other factors such as an accident of birth or powerful connections or pathological ruthlessness. So, as they trample the poor and disadvantaged on their way to the top, they can do so with less guilt. Therefore, the primitive embrace of co-operation over competition is another lesson that the civilized world should heed.
*******
One last time, I implore you to look
into the eyes of that beautiful little girl. Can you not see how innocent but
troubled they are? Can you not discern her desire to joyously embrace
all of the magic of human life without being fearful? Can you not understand that even at such a
young age, those eyes tell us that she
already knows?
She realizes that we adults could do so much better –
and yet we rarely do. We could sculpt a
world of happiness and health and harmony.
We could solve the big problems of war and income inequality and hunger
and clean drinking water and disease and resource depletion and prejudice. We could be so much better. We could do so much more.
We could even cleanse all of the sadness from those tender brown eyes - and replace it with Joy and Hope.
