Western Culture Needs to Rediscover its Roots

I spoke to an esteemed friend recently about the state of affairs and our nation's history.  This person is more involved and invested than I.   We share many beliefs but have had dramatically different perspectives based on our experiences.  She is female and Native American and I am male and white.  It was the kind of conversation that I relish and tend to walk away from with new ideas.One key question that came up was to ask what is at hand when humans are inhuman to others?  We spoke of how our economy can lead people astray with profit motives and exploitation.  We touched on how our laws can and have kept marginalized groups marginalized.  We pondered whether it was in the nature of humans to be inhuman to each other.Thanks for reading GreenMang Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.I see that last statement as true.  However, how is it that certain nations, groups, cultures have been more violent.  The friend gave context by reminding me that community creates safety, boundaries, meaning and shared struggle.  And thus, conversely, a lack of community and a direct connection to one's heritage is perhaps what's at hand when we see so much destruction, exploitation, violence and hoarding of resources.  A society unmoored and rudderless. And I believe that what is missing from Western Culture is the connection to its roots.  Unlike aboriginal cultures, modern western culture has been disconnected from its aboriginal roots, its ancient traditions and its sense of community.  It is more than coincidence that this culture has been behind so much political upheaval, environmental destruction, war, consumerism and a kind of mindless yearning for distraction.How do we reclaim that birthright of community, tradition and yet still embrace the new and the modern?  There are lots of ways.  Some friends of mine are involved in Permaculture and natural building seminars.  Others learn and teach about herbs and forestry.  I hope we can find a synthesis of the old and the new.One way I've envisioned healing that fabric of a spiritual link to our ancestors is via shamanic practice.  Almost every tribe across the planet has systems to divine spiritual information.  Usually it's some version of journeying.  And most commonly they use drumming or sonic driving to attain a light trance and journey to get spiritual information, power and soul fragments.  Certain groups use psychedelics and/or drumming and/orr songs.This system has served indigenous cultures for 10s of thousands of years.  I think the tribe and its customs are sorely missing in Western Culture.  Shamanism offers direct revelation instead of dogmas handed down through books and intermediaries.I believe direct spiritual experience would imbue more lives with more meaning, more purpose, more clarity and more of a sense of groundedness and connection to something greater than ourselves. And I am all for people practicing organized religions or being atheists or curious or anywhere in between.  Being free to choose is the common denominator.  Religions can offer solace and guidance and yet can be distorted into a tool of oppression and genocide.When we look around at our political state of affairs, the fragile and burning condition of our biosphere, the sickness of our culture's racial and sexual violence we must sadly come to the conclusion that our civilization is only so in name.  It shudders and lurches towards unknown destinations in a sea of disinformation and polarization.  The skirmishes across the world intimate war.We don't have time or the resources to waste on war if we want to save earth's habitability.  This is not a test.  It's not hyperbole to say that the next election could be our last.  As I see it, we are at the precipice of the most consequential election ever in any country.  Beyond this, the moment is the turning point for our planet.  Do we fall into the black hole of a fascist death cult and thus forego even attempting to save our fragile biosphere?  Or do we begin to wake up from Civil World War 3?Each nation has a choice.  Each individual does too.  I don't know what it will take.  But I sense that disconnecting from whatever this (social media)  is and whatever it does to me and you is a foundational first step. Even for a day, a week or whatever it takes to make the conscious choice to reconnect with the intranet within and the worldwide web of life.  And I see journeying among other behaviors like meditation as a means to accomplish this revival.But we first must see that we have choice and believe that achieving these lofty goals is possible.  What's the other option again?Thanks for reading GreenMang Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit greenmang.substack.com/subscribe