Lost Tribes -
A Treatise Against Insular Thinking
Scattersez:[link]http://www.jefflindsay.com/Hmong tragedy.html[/link]
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Well, it’s back to work and away from all that good food, family and friends and into the real world, which is as exciting as it is depressing, challenging as it is frustrating. So before flying out of here to head for some islands, I said, how about a blog or two in between packing , heading for the airport and yes, waiting at the airport(s).
What came to mind was a , what would you call it, a field trip (?) /country run(?) into some accessible piece of American history on New Year’s morning. Going north from where I was on Route 83, the town of Lancaster beamed on the Navigator like some forgotten territory. It came with some road names near it like “Intercourse”(?), “Bird In Hand” (?) and occasionally one would see a horse-drawn carriage coming towards the intersection stopping where the car traffic began, then making a detour. That would’ve easily been just a passing nuance, had it not been for the lady driving the carriage. She was dressed like an early pilgrim, you know, with bonnet and black cape. I looked around curiously for any mobile film crew taking part in a period documentary but failed to see any. I was just told that I was in Amish country.
The Amish were a splinter religious group from the Mennonites, who I learned later, were originally trying to escape religious persecution of Protestants in Europe during the time of Martin Luther and sought out refuge in the US with an invitation from William Penn to settle in what was known later as Germantown. Under their leader, Jacob Mennon, and under the mantle of the new constitution calling for the separation of the Church and the State, they were able to carry their rites of worship and missionary activities ,to include adult baptism, without fear. As the Mennonites grew and their trade activities unavoidably increased, there arose another leader, Ammon Simon, who voiced concerns that involvement of their Church with too many worldly activities might result in keeping them away from worship and corrupt their Faith. For that, he advised a stricter code, hence, the Amish came into being.
To this day, the Amish kept a strict dress and grooming code – separate for men and women, kept education for their followers only up to the eight grade and consciously lived with the barest of comforts, shunning modern conveniences and luxury. It was sort of like what the Taliban was trying to do, only that it was on a voluntary basis and on a regional scale. The Amish tried to be independent on their basic needs and produced their own clothes, basic foods and home utensils ; made world-class jam and apple cider, I might add.
It did remind me of some other tribes I encountered early on like the Bataks of Palawan, an island southeast off the coast of China and southwest of the Philippine archipelago. They lived on hunting and fishing, wore loin clothing, and the other tribe we found, the Tasadays, who were cave-dwellers. There were also Vietnamese boat refugees who settled in the same island in a place called Vietville. Even the Hmong people from Laos some now settled in Wisconsin (Link) one of whom is in deep sh_t due to this shooting frenzy while deer-hunting , now comes to mind.
There are many other places in America, that, although, outwardly may not appear as island tribes, but inwardly, in their thinking, are just as “insular”. By “insular “ or island-type of thinking, I mean like nobody else exists on the planet, man. They are mentally trapped with the thinking that the world revolves around them – football, Hollywood and MacDonald’s. Insular Thinking make these people fearful of change, having lived for so long relatively insulated from the goings-on in other parts of the globe and used to solutions their fathers and father’s father used. They have difficulty adapting to change, as probably that Hmong man had, so that in a way, by using this fear, they can easily be manipulated. (Pity). So, you get catchphrases like “Fortress America!” “With Us or Against Us” or even “Foreigners Out!”or “ The US Doesn’t Owe A Thing to the World” that simplify life’s choices for them.
In a fortuitous way, when this oddball of a tectonic movement nudged a plate from the Pacific Rim that was jutting out into the Indian Ocean and sent tsunami waves crashing unexpectedly into what was considered earthquake-free regions, this catastrophe of “biblical” proportions sort of opened the doors of another world to these island-thinkers.
Whether it be a divine hand or not, something else, aside from the War on Terror, Hollywood and football was being etched on the mental images they saw of Sri Lanka (? where’s that ?) , Sumatra (?) and Phuket ( that’s on the tourist brochure). It was suffering of loss they saw on 9/11 exploding exponentially before them that dwarfed what they had experienced. What made it worse was, they couldn’t even get back at it. What could they do – declare a War on Tsunamis – or a War on..God ?
There was only one thing left to do and that was to help. Helping opens many doors, not that we help because of an ulterior motive. But it does open doors in our minds. It made us aware that the most populous Muslim nation in the world is not in the Middle East but in Southeast Asia (Indonesia). It even teaches us something about the Politics of giving Relief Aid. Did we know that many in the Indonesian military are wary about US presence because of East Timor? Do we even remember what happened in East Timor? (Where is that darn place?). See what I mean ?
So, before we can expect to deal correctly with the world and this planet, we have to get out of this mental trap of insular thinking that says that we are the center of the world and face instead the reality that we’re just part of it. We have to realize that our future lies not in dictating where and how the world should go, but in discovering the rest of the world and finding out how best we can contribute to it. Better sooner than later, lest we find ourselves as near-extinct as these lost tribes.
Okay. gotta go.Link
What came to mind was a , what would you call it, a field trip (?) /country run(?) into some accessible piece of American history on New Year’s morning. Going north from where I was on Route 83, the town of Lancaster beamed on the Navigator like some forgotten territory. It came with some road names near it like “Intercourse”(?), “Bird In Hand” (?) and occasionally one would see a horse-drawn carriage coming towards the intersection stopping where the car traffic began, then making a detour. That would’ve easily been just a passing nuance, had it not been for the lady driving the carriage. She was dressed like an early pilgrim, you know, with bonnet and black cape. I looked around curiously for any mobile film crew taking part in a period documentary but failed to see any. I was just told that I was in Amish country.
The Amish were a splinter religious group from the Mennonites, who I learned later, were originally trying to escape religious persecution of Protestants in Europe during the time of Martin Luther and sought out refuge in the US with an invitation from William Penn to settle in what was known later as Germantown. Under their leader, Jacob Mennon, and under the mantle of the new constitution calling for the separation of the Church and the State, they were able to carry their rites of worship and missionary activities ,to include adult baptism, without fear. As the Mennonites grew and their trade activities unavoidably increased, there arose another leader, Ammon Simon, who voiced concerns that involvement of their Church with too many worldly activities might result in keeping them away from worship and corrupt their Faith. For that, he advised a stricter code, hence, the Amish came into being.
To this day, the Amish kept a strict dress and grooming code – separate for men and women, kept education for their followers only up to the eight grade and consciously lived with the barest of comforts, shunning modern conveniences and luxury. It was sort of like what the Taliban was trying to do, only that it was on a voluntary basis and on a regional scale. The Amish tried to be independent on their basic needs and produced their own clothes, basic foods and home utensils ; made world-class jam and apple cider, I might add.
It did remind me of some other tribes I encountered early on like the Bataks of Palawan, an island southeast off the coast of China and southwest of the Philippine archipelago. They lived on hunting and fishing, wore loin clothing, and the other tribe we found, the Tasadays, who were cave-dwellers. There were also Vietnamese boat refugees who settled in the same island in a place called Vietville. Even the Hmong people from Laos some now settled in Wisconsin (Link) one of whom is in deep sh_t due to this shooting frenzy while deer-hunting , now comes to mind.
There are many other places in America, that, although, outwardly may not appear as island tribes, but inwardly, in their thinking, are just as “insular”. By “insular “ or island-type of thinking, I mean like nobody else exists on the planet, man. They are mentally trapped with the thinking that the world revolves around them – football, Hollywood and MacDonald’s. Insular Thinking make these people fearful of change, having lived for so long relatively insulated from the goings-on in other parts of the globe and used to solutions their fathers and father’s father used. They have difficulty adapting to change, as probably that Hmong man had, so that in a way, by using this fear, they can easily be manipulated. (Pity). So, you get catchphrases like “Fortress America!” “With Us or Against Us” or even “Foreigners Out!”or “ The US Doesn’t Owe A Thing to the World” that simplify life’s choices for them.
In a fortuitous way, when this oddball of a tectonic movement nudged a plate from the Pacific Rim that was jutting out into the Indian Ocean and sent tsunami waves crashing unexpectedly into what was considered earthquake-free regions, this catastrophe of “biblical” proportions sort of opened the doors of another world to these island-thinkers.
Whether it be a divine hand or not, something else, aside from the War on Terror, Hollywood and football was being etched on the mental images they saw of Sri Lanka (? where’s that ?) , Sumatra (?) and Phuket ( that’s on the tourist brochure). It was suffering of loss they saw on 9/11 exploding exponentially before them that dwarfed what they had experienced. What made it worse was, they couldn’t even get back at it. What could they do – declare a War on Tsunamis – or a War on..God ?
There was only one thing left to do and that was to help. Helping opens many doors, not that we help because of an ulterior motive. But it does open doors in our minds. It made us aware that the most populous Muslim nation in the world is not in the Middle East but in Southeast Asia (Indonesia). It even teaches us something about the Politics of giving Relief Aid. Did we know that many in the Indonesian military are wary about US presence because of East Timor? Do we even remember what happened in East Timor? (Where is that darn place?). See what I mean ?
So, before we can expect to deal correctly with the world and this planet, we have to get out of this mental trap of insular thinking that says that we are the center of the world and face instead the reality that we’re just part of it. We have to realize that our future lies not in dictating where and how the world should go, but in discovering the rest of the world and finding out how best we can contribute to it. Better sooner than later, lest we find ourselves as near-extinct as these lost tribes.
Okay. gotta go.Link