A Basic Call to Consciousness

On Independence Day, a different point of view. This is from a book called "A Basic Call to Consciousness," a collection of papers delivered by the Haudenosaunee (or, the Iroquois people) to the Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1977. To what extent is capitalism predicated on the depletion of natural resources? What did Winona LaDuke mean when she said that "a society built on conquest cannot be sustained"?

Here's what the Haudenosaunee said in their discussion of their (non-Christian) version of "liberation theologies" and "liberation technologies":

"Liberation theologies are belief systems which challenge the assumption, widely held in the West, that the earth is simply a commodity which can be exploited thoughtlessly by humans for the purpose of material acquisition within an ever-expanding economic framework. A liberation theology will develop in people a consciousness that all life on earth is sacred and that the sacredness of life is is the key to human freedom and survival. It will be obvious to many non-Western peoples that it is the renewable quality of the earth's ecosystem which makes life possible for human beings on this planet, and that if anything is sacred, if anything determines both quality and future possibility of life for our species on this planet, it is that renewable quality of life.

"The renewable quality -- the sacredness of every living thing, that which connects human beings to the place which they inhabit -- that quality is the single most liberating aspect of our environment. Life is renewable and all the things which support life are renewable, and they are renewed by a force greater than any government's, greater than any living or historical thing. A consciousness of the web that holds all things together, the spiritual element that connects us to reality and the manifestation of that power to renew which is present in the existence of an eagle or mountain snowfall -- that consciousness was the first thing which was destroyed by the colonizers.

"A strategy for survival must include a liberation theology ... or humankind will simply continue to view the earth as a commodity and will continue to seek more efficient ways to exploit that which they have not come to respect."