a column by Colleen O’Brien
The point of war? Now and throughout history, the purpose of war has been to break the harsh rule of an invading power or of a capturing power or of a colonial power (these are the same thing). Humans have gone to war to stop a grasping power – think Hitler. Often, leaders go to war on the backs of their citizens because they dislike some other religion. That is often a subterfuge for getting more arable land, all the gold, all the forests, rivers, ports, you name it. War has to do with greed.
War has been an attempt at freedom to rule oneself, and it has worked. Thirteen English colonies in a fresh new part of the world little known to Western Europe waged war against their former ruler, the greedy King of England, George III. The British colonists on this newly “discovered” continent had had it with George taxing them beyond reason and treating them as a source of income, not as the British subjects they were. So, they rebelled, declared war and won! The world was surprised. The United States of America was the first, and lucky. Many a colonized people has tried it since and devolved into internal greed.
We called our fight against tyranny the Revolutionary War, and the instigators of it, at least a few of those colonial leaders, became interested in a democracy – to some extent; their interest did exclude blacks, women, people who didn’t own property. They managed to cobble together a democracy that took hold.
This happened on a continent where there was already a long history (since the year 1142) of a participatory democracy going on with the natives.
Benjamin Franklin came across this because he talked to those natives, who, he learned, centuries earlier had come up with the idea of a union of several warring tribes. Ben thought we could adopt a few of their democratic rules, which we eventually did, translating into English their peaceful, consensual idea of governing.
For us, an “idea,” not a practice, as it turned out.
From a document thought up by a leader who brought together five sophisticated Indian tribes of the northeast – the Oneida, Mohawk, Anondaga, Cayuga and Seneca – those colonists wrote a somewhat similar constitution and then proceeded to get rid of as many of these tribes as they could.
The goal of the Iroquois Confederacy was to hone and honor service to others, not to bow to and worship material gain by fighting others. The rules for Iroquois declared that their leaders must act as “proof” against anger, offensive actions and criticism. They wrote into their constitution behavior for its future chiefs (which included women): “…your heart shall be filled with peace and goodwill and your mind filled with yearning for the welfare of the people of the Confederacy.”
Wow.
Think Mitch McConnell.
Think Ted Cruz.
Think of a recently defeated President.
There are more you can think of on your own.
We are a representative democracy under assault from some of our leaders who are as dismissive of peace and goodwill as they are of representing the people who elected them to act thusly. Our reps devise gerrymandering, institutionalize voter suppression (getting worse by the day statehouse by statehouse), allow foreign interference with our electoral process…not to mention accepting frontal attacks from friends and family tearing apart a national building where Law is made; as well as allowing news outlets and the recent advent of a form of communication called social networking to jabber away and encourage lies – rising up across the country against the truth of an election just passed.
We’re not the oldest democracy on the planet, and we may be just one more short-lived one. Even though a country led by its people is the best for all, including the wealthy, some folks are bent are destroying it.
Pity.
Western Europe moved to a land where benign rules of the natives had been in place for centuries. We tried a few of them and apparently decided they weren’t for us.
C’est la vie. Such is life.
Even though, late in the game – a mere two hundred years later – in 1988, the U.S. Senate paid tribute to the Five Nations’ political ideas by proclaiming “The confederation of the original 13 colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy, as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the constitution itself.”
This is an instance of “talk’s cheap.”
As, apparently, are constitutions.
We are now a nation at war with ourselves; peace be damned within our very borders. The division has arisen from greed, from injustice. No inclusion going on. No goodwill involved. “…minds filled with yearning for the welfare of the people”?
Not yet.
