Resistance Is Not Futile Part 2 : Power and Protest

Photo editing by Charles Garrett

"The strong man he will kneel down

Whilst angels strip him of cloak and crown

Through bitter lips come vile breath

He is the last one to confess

There will be no pity for him

We must kill him where he stands

No there will be no mercy for him

Nor for any of his clan..."

~ Sixteen Horsepower ~

In the early 1970's, my parents kept one of those large, off-white, leather-bound, illustrated, coffee-table edition, family bibles, with a picture of Jesus on the front cover, in our living room.  Curious, and an avid reader, I poked my nose into it often, particularly when it served the dual purpose of garnering an approving reaction from Mom.  The heft and feel of the big volume gave the tome an undeniable air of importance in my small hands, and the illustrations were vivid, fiery replications of classic religious paintings.  The texture of the thick pages, and the thumping noise that they made when large sections of them would fall together, stay with me still, like when you smile and no one is around... 

After skipping about for a bit and looking at my favorite pictures, I would normally settle in and start reading at the beginning.  The thrilling stories contained within the Book of Genesis never failed to hold my rapt attention.  Tales of Creation, the Garden of Eden, and Noah's Ark, all provided mountains of imagination fodder...but, it was the saga of the Tower of Babel that truly fascinated me.

Wikimedia Commons

Genesis 11:1-9 ~ New International Version (NIV) ~ The Tower of Babel:

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

**Author's Note: To my young mind, there existed no extra-biblical sources of information beyond the country pulpit.  We had five television channels, Mom and Dad, relatives, older-siblings, and friends, from which to draw further inspiration and information.  I didn't know one iota about the history of the Middle East, existence of apocryphal texts, Masoretic texts, the Talmud, commentaries, other religions, etc.  When reading the text, my brain was processing it all in the most literal, exoteric manner possible.**

 Wikimedia Commons

These nine verses have historically been pondered and debated for many reasons, including the Tower's possible location, the penalty for hubris, structural feasibility, the identity of God's apparent companion(s), and the origin and migration of people, language, and culture.  While these topics and concerns are interesting, it was verse six, which resonated greatest with me as an imaginative youth. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."  

That was heady stuff!  Humans could accomplish ANYTHING, when working together in harmony.  The fact that God felt threatened enough to act, in order to stop them, was all the evidence I needed. It all seemed to hint at some hidden power.

Over the course of my life, I have continued to contemplate Genesis 11:6, and consider the nature of human power throughout each experience, including parent/child/sibling/friendship dynamics, employer/employee relationships on both sides, street fights, sporting competitions of all types,  hunting various species in various environments, testing myself against nature, romantic relationships, military service, running a large sales force,  public speaking, entertainment, and trying to quit smoking, among a myriad of others.  I've often heard it said that, "Knowledge is Power."  Although I will concede that knowledge is potential power, or a type of power, in a broader sense I disagree.  Rather, it's the definition of power in Genesis 11:6 that has proven reliable through my 52 years:

Power = Organized Effort

Remember that time a country about the size of the State of Oregon nearly conquered the world?  Gandhi (pictured below) promoted the Hindu concept of ahimsa, and through organized passive resistance, eventually achieves complete independence from British rule.  Lech Walesa (pictured below) spearheaded the concept of Solidarity:  an independent trade union movement in Poland that developed into a mass campaign for political change and inspired popular opposition to communist regimes across eastern Europe during the 1980s.

Furthermore, it takes but a moment's consideration to realize that this concept operates on multiple levels and existential planes.  The power dynamic that concerns us most today, of course, is the relationship between the super-rich, ruling elite class, < 1%, their governmental mouthpieces (one and the same in many instances), versus the great majority of the human population, > 99%.

When you consider the question, why does the majority consent to this tiny minority, ruling and controlling them in ways they find undesirable and less than optimal, you must realize that more than mere money is necessary to accomplish this on a continuous basis.  This type of incredible power and perpetual control by a select few requires an extreme level of organized effort.  How could it reasonably be otherwise?  Consider the behind the scenes shenanigans in the 2016 general election as a tiny sample, from coordinated 'fake news' campaigns, to possible international, and inter-agency collusion.

So, while particular 'conspiracy theorists' may well be crazy (and surely offered up for your consumption as such), and specifically inaccurate, in premise they are not wrong.  In virtually every power situation, conspiracy of some form is required, by definition.  It may be likened to 'uninformed consent,' but maybe misinformed is more accurate.

Many institutions (as we have recently witnessed), like the electronic media, are used to promote continual disharmony and confusion,  Often, you will see this disguised brilliantly, but falsely, as freedom of choice and promotion of diversity (rather than the false dichotomies/false dilemmas they are).  It's Republican or Democrat, Black or White, Christian or Muslim, male or female, gay or straight, tastes great or less filling, Coke or Pepsi, and we're all part of it. Our language gets involved in a big way, of course.  For example, when the War Department changes its name to the Defense Department, when protections are called regulations, or taxes are called incentives...it's all part and parcel of the process of control.  "Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Power wielded in the form of organized effort has been observed more recently, in the case of the non-violent Native American protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the non-violent (global) Women's March on Washington (both pictured above).  The first has thus far succeeded in delaying construction of the proposed pipeline, and the second reportedly incensed all the right people (if possibly for all the wrong reasons...these particular protests were so important on so many levels, that they require separate posts to properly deconstruct, coming soon).  Regardless, make no mistake, as in the Genesis 11:6 example, our earthly 'lords' understand extremely well how outnumbered they are, and they are desperately afraid of something.  "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."  

We MUST continue to put love of one another first, to support and celebrate each others' successes and failures, to take advantage of the cultural momentum, organize our efforts, wield our power effectively, and move together in a direction that leads to a better, more inclusive, sustainable world.  It's undeniable that we have the cultural momentum, and we must keep it.  As Cory Panshin astutely observes,

"...one thing I think yesterday's marches show us is that protest is about to go beyond the stage of spectator sport -- the made-for-TV 1960s model with parades, chants, colorful costumes, and occasionally giant puppets -- and become a participatory event.  

Call it the cosplay model, if you will. Everybody wants to be Princess Leia or Captain America. Everybody's grown up on movies and comic books that tell us the most satisfying thing in the world is to dust some Nazi-vampire-zombies. And even the tiniest towns are just raring to get into the act."

Protest had better stop being a spectator sport.  If you can't protest, support protesters.  The alternative:  those earthy lords and their loyal hordes will do everything they can to 'scatter us across the face of the earth.'

RM

Arid Lands: "A Landscape of Irony and Controversy"

Arid Lands:  "A Landscape of Irony and Controversy"

Arid Lands, by Grant Aaker & Josh Wallaert, is a captivating and provocative film, which chronicles the cultural and geographical transformation of the people and land of eastern Washington’s Columbia Basin.  Excellently crafted, the film remarkably maintains objectivity and balance without voice-over narrative or reflexive intrusion.  Instead, testimonies from 27 interview participants intelligently and thoughtfully weave the story of a “landscape of irony and controversy.”

The documentary opens with a history lesson on America’s ‘progressive’ conquering of the Columbia River.  First the Rock Island Dam was constructed in 1933.  Ten years later, construction began on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation as part of the Manhattan Project, and home to the first plutonium production reactor in the world.  Plutonium enriched at Hanford was used in the very first nuclear bomb, and in Fat Man, the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, which effectively ended World War 2.  Enrichment continued and expanded until the end of the Cold War.  

Today, the Hanford site represents two-thirds of the nation's high-level radioactive waste by volume.  Poor containment and cleanup procedures have resulted in large-scale contamination of surrounding ecosystems.  Subsequently, Hanford is now the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup.  In recent years, the federal government has spent about $2 billion annually on the Hanford project.

Population in the area has boomed.  Starting with the influx of the 50,000 workers at Hanford, and increasing as the cleanup funds continued to pour in.  Simultaneously, others migrating to the region around Hanford took advantage of the irrigation potential provided by the hydro-electric dams, and the desert scrub of southeastern Washington soon became an agricultural paradise; much to the chagrin of local small farmers, who suddenly found themselves in competition for water resources.  Most of the modern residents seem nonplussed concerning the dangers of radioactive contamination.  They are primarily concerned with the ultimate fate of the region when the cleanup cash stops coming in, and are attempting to turn the area into a tourist attraction.

Concerning the site itself, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and its first reactor was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 2008.  Due to the contamination, and its classification as an historic place, the acreage surrounding the site has been virtually free of further human development/alteration, and the landscape has reverted back to its pre-contact state.  This has rendered the area invaluable for the study of the geology, flora, and fauna by scientific interests.

Arid Lands spotlights a region embroiled in paradox.   While the Department of Energy continues its environmental cleanup efforts, agricultural and real estate development are forever altering the landscape.  Water rights continue to be disputed.  Migrating salmon are forced to re-route past giant hydroelectric dams, and everyone from Native confederations to modern fishermen is pressing for their rights.

From the perspective of visual anthropology, I am impressed by the filmmakers’ ability to present a variety of perspectives in an unbiased, balanced manner.  Rather than inject their personal ideology, take sides, or obviously attack or blame one interview subject over another, they manage to present all of the subjects as sensitive, intelligent, sincere individuals with stories that need to be heard.  Seen through the eyes of everyone from sport fisherman to displaced Native Americans, this approach makes the viewer realize that there are no simple answers to this situation.  The audience is left with a myriad of questions about the immediate situation in Hanford.  When will the cleanup money run out, and what will happen to the area when it does?  What are the long term effects of the contamination on the ecosystem?  Is tourism the answer for Hanford in the future?

In addition, I found myself contemplating larger cultural and anthropological issues after viewing this film.  How do we balance ecology and technology?  What are the true human costs of America’s focus on land development and large scale agriculture?  How much of a role did irrigation originally play in the development of civilization in general?  What are the rights of the original Native inhabitants of the area, now and in the future?


I won’t even pretend to be unbiased here. This film is amazing.  Frankly, I would recommend that it become part of the required public school curriculum at the high school level. Everyone older than that, in my opinion, should watch it as soon as possible.

RM