Indigenous = Self-Generating
Douglas Jack on the longhouse economy
For at least a year, maybe the two since I started my Substack, Douglas Jack has been adding comments from the unique perspective of indigenous communities. And this is a membership he extends to all of us! We are all indigenous to the planet. As he explains, the etymology of indigenous is self-generating, a way of life and a way of thinking. It’s also a robust network of small-scale communities comprising 70% of the world’s population living in 50-150 person multihome dwelling complexes—some form of the longhouse.
He’s also added history that’s new to me of Axis alliances for peace before and during WWII, and intranational ways of cooperating for mutual empowerment. I love his knowledge of the roots of words, being an etymology addict myself. And I think there’s significant overlap between my economic system in How to Dismantle an Empire and “the importance of accounting, recording & valorizing collective 'Domestic-Economy' contributions, experience, expertise & decision-making acumen (mostly women) …” Let’s begin with Douglas’ description on how he and indigenous culture found each other. The time stamps link to the comments in context:
THE INDIGENOUS CIRCLE OF LIFE
I started 60 years ago 1963, in solidarity projects with 1st Nations & indigenous people worldwide, living & working with folks & many elders. One earlier overview of indigenous structures in 1972 for me is called the 'Indigenous Circle of Life' came from meeting with Sun-bear aka Vincent LaDuke an Ojibway in British Columbia. Vincent is father of Winona LaDuke, VP candidate with Ralph Nader. CIRCLE-of-LIFE provides interdisciplinary checks & balances in harmony with human & biosphere nature over many 10s of 1000s of years of vibrant, abundant, distributed agency & wealth in loving societies. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/3-indigenous-circle-of-life
The overall www.indigeneCommunity.info website contains a Table-of-Contents list on the left-hand side with some 77 web page sections each with its own URL describing various aspects of indigenous social, economic & biosphere techniques & structures.
RELIGION = TO RELATE
On my last episode of Fiddler on the Truth, Douglas gave his own heritage and how he’s come to regard the stories of this culture:
Coming from mixed Christian, Ashkenazi (some of my family in 3 branches) Jewish & 1st Nation heritage, I now at 71 years old, consider the Torah, Talmud, Old & New Testament & Koran as well as explanations, all to be fake books of colonial propaganda glorifying conquest, genocide & murder by a murderous 'god' designed to indoctrinate subject peoples for acquiescence to these ongoing death-cult policies even more augmented in our time.
Real 'RELIGION' (Latin 'religio' = 'to-relate' not to indoctrinate or dominate) is not a one sided propaganda monologue, but would express both sides of issues. Real religion would give voice to such as the Canaanite, Amalek, Philistine perspective as well as the violent conquering murderous self-righteous Jew. We can consider all the supposed 'People of the book' cults as false 'exogenous' (L. 'other-generated') religions.
This root of real religion corresponds to my sense that it should be a forum for asking the Big Questions, and talking about them with each other. And a means of dialogue between Canaanite, Amalek, Philistine and Hebrew would be a powerful force for peace and mutual understanding.
TRUTH & RECONCILIATION
Indigenous Great-Spirit (god) worldwide cultivates COUNCIL PROCESS enabling dialogue among all sides. Starting 120 years ago, the Palestinians simply asked the Ashkenazi refugee to engage in upon arriving from Europe along with the welcome, economic inclusion & protection which the Palestinians at first provided. Council or BOTH-SIDES-NOW, Equal-time, Recorded & Published Dialogues enables understanding, foster collaborative agreement, working-contracts & Conflict-Resolution. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/1-both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
In the last episode I quoted from Frederich Wiebe’s 1939 Germany and the Jewish Problem, that Germany had meant to solve this ago-old problem by providing membership with no restrictions for the Jews and putting them in key positions. It hadn’t ended well … for the Germans.
I also remember reading that one of the first ships of German-Jewish immigrants to Palestine was blown up by the Zionists, who didn’t want cooperation and welcome.
THE AXIS OF ALLIES
Before & during WW2 OVER 50 AXIS ALIGNED NATIONS joined together (Achsenmachte-German, Polenze dell’Asse-Italian, Sujikukoku-Japanese, Greater-East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere 1936-45) Powers & aligned collaborating governments & >50 nations as part of: Tripartite & Anti-Comintern, Pact-of-Steel Agreements & alliances with: Germany, Italy, Vichy France, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Slovakia, Czechia, (originally) Soviet Union, Romania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece, Crimea, Bulgaria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Spain, Italy, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, West Africa Dakar, Azad Hind India, Jammu, Kashmir, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Inner-Mongolia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_powers
It shocked me to finally tally that the AXIS movement had over 50 nations involved. Organizing that much worldwide concertation in just a couple of decades was truly a remarkable feat. My issue is how, following WW2, with all blame & one sided show trials, all blame was assigned to the AXIS losers & us brutal ALLIED winners have continued on our genocidal mission worldwide, unhampered at an increasingly murderous & destructive pace.
This shocked me also, in an encouraging way. It may seem discouraging that all these countries banded together and still couldn’t end WWII but it reminds me again that the people are not their puppet governments and people want peace. It makes me think that the multipolar world, especially if it becomes a micropolar world, may turn out well no matter what the oligarchs have planned.
ECONOMIC ENGINE OF POPULAR EMPOWERMENT
And the plot (for good!) thickens. Within the 12 primary AXIS countries were methods of participatory corporation laws. And yes, I know that the WEF has usurped the term ‘stakeholder capitalism’. But I notice that the stakeholders of the AXIS countries are not speculative shareholders or ‘investors’. We need to take back the words, as Vandana Shiva points out with ‘regenerative.’
These 50+ AXIS aligned governments & aligned populations were supportive of the Multistakeholder 'Participatory' (L. 'part' = 'share') Corporation laws, constitutions & policies found within the 12 main AXIS powers which required all corporations over 30 employees to convene voting share ownership of all stakeholders (eg. Workers, Founders, Managers, Suppliers, Townspeople & Consumers) in various combinations. Participatory Accounting enabled these countries & collaborator populations to gain local control of their means of production & livelihood, not available in the Oligarch commanded & controlled Colonial Empire extractive & exploitive colonial Allied British, French, Belgium, Netherlands, USA, Canada, Australia countries. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-accounting/2-participatory-accounting
DEPRESSION RECOVERY
Douglas applies this to the puzzling question of how Germany was able to flourish after Versailles and the inflicted ‘hyperinflation’. While Rothschild’s City of London and the Zionists may have funded Hitler’s rise to power, they didn’t payroll the German economy. This idea borrowed from ‘The American system’, developed by the Populists and thwarted by FDR, in concert with Feder’s system. And it’s synchronistic that this was called ‘labour scripts’, similar to Ben Franklin’s scrip:
Success of Germany under the National Socialists derived from issue of LABOUR SCRIPTS or certificates of Labour time & tasks. German, Austrian, Hungarian, Korean, Japanese etc. 'indigenous' (L. 'self-generating') economic background of Participatory Ownership, also involves corporate, institutional & government Time-based, equivalency accounting practices.
Real 'Socialism' (L. 'socius' = 'friend') involves people who know each other operating in control of their local enterprises not the false 'communist' (L. 'com' = 'together' + 'munus' = 'gift-or-service') basically imposed on Russia through Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Trotsky) & Vladimir Lenin. financed with millions of 1917 $ USD & armed by the New York Stock Exchange Leader Jacob Schiff (Jewish) & Schiff's colleague Germany's financier Warburg (Jewish). Both real socialism & communism are defined to be bottom-up people-powered through time-based equivalency accounting in Economic Democracy https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy/8-economic-democracy
As I’ve said, the style of government matters far less than the size. Douglas makes this clear in his definition of socialism. Within a bottom-up economy, any type of government will either work or be replaced. But it’s literally, as is the title of one of my chapters, Too Small to Fail.
DOMESTIC VALOR
From humanity's worldwide 'indigenous' point-of-view in the 'Kaianere'kowa' or 'Great-good-way-of-kindness' aka 'Great-Law-of-Peace' aka 'Constitution', what the AXIS missed out on was the importance of accounting, recording & valorizing collective 'Domestic-Economy' contributions, experience, expertise & decision-making acumen (mostly women) in the Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village where 70% of people lived then & now. Indigenous tradition puts the Domestic economy as the core economy with Industry & Commerce (mostly men) as being subset economies.
Honoring collective Domestic work, such as many women take leadership in, should be front & centre of every economic & social justice & livelihood movement. Any man worth his salt should be empowering female ownership & decision-making on this equal decentralized, distributed cultural fractal basis. Can you imagine if the Axis had formalized Multihome participatory ownership, what a difference would have been made. There most likely would have been no war, regardless of the bloodthirsty war-monger Churchill. Of course to realize RELATIONAL ECONOMY, humanity has to become conscious of its 'exogenous' (L. 'other-generated') programming. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy
How could I not love this? It’s the tonic masculinity of putting children at the center, surrounded by women, surrounded by men. “Relational Economy!” What an excellent term. And ‘valorizing’ women’s work, which is truly what makes the world go round. As a man, Douglas can say “Any man worth his salt …” And to segue into the Biblical: Lot’s wife looking back and turning into a pillar of salt is interesting when salt represents character and wisdom. Is that what we’re doing here, looking back and turning into Pillars of Salt?
THE FRACTAL LIVELY ‘HOOD
70% of people today & all humanity's world-wide indigenous ancestors & 1st Nations live/d in the 50-150 person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village) today within an average of 32 dwelling units = ~100 people. The Multihome is the 1st proximal FRACTAL ('fraction, multiplier, building-block, where-the-part-contains-the-whole') of collaborative 'economic' Livelihood. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/c-relational-economy/1-extending-our-welcome-participatory-multihome-cohousing
20% of Multihome-dwellers are extended-families living intentionally in proximity for social & economic collaboration. Multihome-extended-family contribute 2trillion$ of the most individually appropriate goods, services, sharing caring/year, as Turtle-Island, N-America's largest essential Economic sector, albeit unrecognized by government, education & institutions.
DO-WE-KNOW-WHO-WE-ARE-? http://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/9-do-we-know-who-we-are web-based Community-Circular-Economy software supports individuals, family, extended-family, community recognition of each person & entity's contribution, experience, expertise & decision-making-acumen.
I have a draft episode called Convivial Communities that looks at the 2-block unit of 24 houses facing each other as the building block of the neighborhood, and continues the fractal of expansion. This unit, at 2.5 people per, is around 60 people. A convivial number. And my economic system fosters convivial work within the neighborhood and common projects to make them better.
HISTORY FROM BOTH SIDES
Being on the 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') side of history, one does not accept the Ally or Axis 'exogenous' (L 'other-stealth-generated') programs, but does recognize both have good intentions. Searching out a Perceived Opponent's 'Best-Intentions' is the 1st rule of Gandhian 'Swadeshi' (Hindi 'indigenous' aka 'self-sufficiency' animism & 'Satyagraha' H. 'Truth-search' animism) incomplete but complementary fragments of the whole.
Searching out a Perceived Opponent's 'Best-Intentions' is much like my principle of giving others the benefit of the doubt and finding the reason for what they do. ‘Stealth-generated’ is another great phrase.
Ally oligarch empires (Britain, US, Canada, Netherlands, France, Belgium etc) genocided 25 million people in their colonies during 1920-45. ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY The AXIS nation's 'economies' (Gk 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') were all based in Multistakeholder, Participatory investment, Board-representation & decision-making powers. Typically among the 'Keiretsu' ('family-business') of Japan, 'Chaebol' of Korea, Associative Economies of Germany, Austria, Hungary, 'Fasci' ('United bundle of sticks, which are strong') in Italy & Romania, 'Zadruga' (Slavic 'friend') of Yugoslavia & Ukraine etc empower all stakeholders to invest & progressively own across a Founder, Worker, Manager, Supplier, Townspeople, Consumer etc lifetime. Invested 'share' interest, profit sharing & involvement in decision-making creates individual & collective responsibility as well as a collective intelligence. Hence particularly Germany & Japan are renowned worldwide for their stakeholder integrated engineering excellence. This kind of bottom-up popular unity on the part of AXIS is completely incomprehensible to the totally controlled mind & lives of Empire Allies. Its time to recognize all sides of this human equation we’re in. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/relational-economy/8-economic-democracy
I cite in my book that economy comes from oikos = home, but namein as care-and-nurture is a new and beautiful alternative. Nomos, which I quote, means the rules that support the purpose, logos. That’s also meaningful because you need the accounting system to make things fair, not just Eisenstein’s light-and-fluffy gift economy. And these, for the sheer beauty of the original languages, are some of the names:
International Translated terms for multistakeholder Participatory Companies
German: ‘Mitglieder’ = ‘mit’ = ‘with + ‘glieder’ = ‘joint’, ‘members’, mitgliederversammlung = ‘general meeting’, ‘mitgliederverwaltung’ = ‘membership management’, ‘beteiligung’ = ‘participation’ or ‘arbeitnenmerbeteiligu’ = ‘worker participation’.
Japanese: 系列 pronounced as Keiretsu noun for ‘family’ (a community of stakeholders becomes a family) business
Series シリーズ, 直列, 系列, 連続, 級数, 叢書 systemシステム, 系, 方式, 制度, 系統, 系列 order succession系列
Korean: ‘Chaebol’ from ‘Chae’ = ‘wealth’ + ‘bol’ = ‘clan’ or ‘clique’. The associated term ‘Zaibatsu’ means ‘family’ owned conglomerate.
Serb-Croat: Zadruga from ‘za’ = ‘with’ + ‘druga’ = ‘friend’ meaning ‘United front for common cause & prosperity to humanity with peace & love’ aka ‘All-for-one & one-for-all’.
Shogi (Columbia 1st Nation) ‘Aini’ = ‘innate-responsibility for personal sharing-co-operation’.
Its time all individuals, families, society, government, media, education, religion, finance, industry & justice get back to humane roots of considering both-sides of all situations with Both-sides, equal-time, recorded & published dialogues on all but private issues. Otherwise we are more than just ignorant. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/structure/both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
THE 3P LONGHOUSE
As I was just finishing up, Julius Skoolafish posted in the YT comments:
Douglas Jack has made some most excellent comments here and elsewhere. Looking forward to this.
And Greg, who writes as Walking the Dog, has been having an appreciative exchange with Nefahotep:
Nefahotep, Your writing and perspectives are an amazing contribution to the level of these writings of Tereza. It's nothing short of a blessing to have happened to crash into this simply amazing group of readers/writers/commenters.
And Nef replied:
Everyone here in Tereza's circle are precious; like you, we are all seeking truth. When there is nothing left to see, I would rather just see truth. And it's so much more sweet when that honor is shared. I've been reading some of your comments, it's clear you are doing a great deal of diligence.
I wrote that these comments brought tears to my eyes and, while I wasn’t sure if I was doing everything right, I’m definitely doing something right to have this culture of kindness, especially with deep inquiry into emotionally loaded topics.
I’m grateful to Douglas for reading and bringing his legacy of wisdom into my convivial comment community. We are certainly a fractal, a part that contains the whole. And what a holy whole we are!
In The Dawn of Everything, Davids Graeber & Wengrow tell the story of Kandiaronk, or the muskrat, the Wendat stateman who ran circles around European politicians. They also show why Jared Diamond and Yuval Noah Harari are unduly pessimistic about the ability of humans to invent and reinvent their own social structures. I add Chris Hedges to this doom and gloom trio and explain why blind obedience has it backwards. The three essential freedoms are listed, that every person NOT trained in obedience took for granted. My theory, that money has been 3500 years of obedience training, is expounded. I end with Kandiaronk view of money and the question from the Daves of 'when did we stop imagining that we could reinvent our social relations?'
In a recent essay on The Rings of Power, Charles Eisenstein differentiates between feminine power and 'honorary men.' The Dawn of Everything by anthropologist David Graeber and archeologist David Wengrow tells the creation epic of The League of Five Nations and the Jigonsaseh, or Mother of All Nations. As we enter our dark winter of the soul and look at the cult of immaturity in so-called leadership, they show us why we are orphaned by our culture and deprived of the feminine power of all of us.
Douglas Jack has a lot of insight. I will read further, it's quite interesting what he is saying about the Axis Alliances. This adds new detail to my view of how Germany was essentially targeted from early on.
The etymological way he describes words is similar to how we have been doing it so far; you are right about taking our words back. I still think of "Religion" as Re-Legion after the Roman Legions. ;-)
As Language of different societies became infiltrated, words were repurposed for the infiltrators use. I think the etymology study should trace the original meanings of words back across multiple languages.
I had not heard of the WWII-era Axis alliances for peace either. That's quite a truth bomb! Does it remind anyone else of today's growing BRICS axis?