New Age Ghost Dance
Intercontinental Cry
Painting by Juarez Machado
By Jay Taber
Apr 6, 2013
It’s interesting that the New Agers who extoll energy conservation and green energy are oblivious to the amount of energy they waste on moral theatrics like social forums, marches and protests. It’s analogous to the desperately romantic efforts of the Plains Indians, expressed through such mediums as the Ghost Dance, when their world was collapsing around them. While the Indians recovered and became eminently pragmatic, the New Agers seem trapped in a magical thinking mode, where they believe passion and purity can overcome the perversion of expediency.
In his December 2011 post at Fourth World Eye, Rudolph C. Ryser likens the climate change talks in Durban to a ghost dance. As a glaring example of the failure of modern states to meet the needs of humanity, the death of the Kyoto protocols signals the beginning of a new dark age.
As we come to terms with the ravaging of Earth and every living being in order to satisfy the insatiable appetite of Wall Street, we will need new tools and ancient wisdom to see us through. Abandoning faith in modern states and Free Markets is a good first step.
[Jay Taber is an associate scholar of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, an author, and a contributing editor of Fourth World Journal. Since 1994, he has served as the administrative director of Public Good Project.]
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