The Standing Rock resistance actions in North Dakota have been an inspiration to me just as they have been to millions of allies and supporters around the country and the world. We've had friends go up there a number of times, and we wish we could go too, to stand in solidarity with the Water Protectors and Grandmother Earth Defenders, but it's not an option for us at the moment due to age and infirmity in my case and Ms Ché's intensive class schedule in hers.
So we support them how and when we can. It's an obligation on the one hand; a blessing on the other. Part of the inspiration for me is that those on the front lines are sticking together no matter what comes their way. They are strong in spirit and they stand united against the Black Snake; that's the key to their ultimate victory which I'm more convinced that ever will come, regardless of whether the Black Snake eventually tunnels under the Missouri River-Lake Oahe it is poised to violate.
Indigenous resistance around the world has gathered strength from the resistance in North Dakota, but at the same time, the Standing Rock resistance gains strength and power from indigenous resistance movements in the rest of the world. It's a circle, and it is a circle that is spreading ever outwards as the Dominant Society flies apart.
That's what it looks like to me. Many observers have been trying to "make sense of" the rise of Rightist-Racist National-Populism throughout the Euro-American cultural sphere. What's going on? Why is it happening? And why the focus on it, when there are other powerful movements in the rise as well?
To me, it's a sign that the Dominant Euro-American socio-economic and political experiment is coming apart, nearing its end. It's been bankrupt for some time. The opposition to its unfettered continuance has reached a tipping point. Repent and all that.
I've been seeing more and more commentary that says the EU is dead and cannot be resuscitated. Other commentary suggests the crisis election in the United States will lead to... something, call it an end to the 40 year long experiment in neoLibCon rule and potentially the break up of the US into regionally autonomous units. Self-determination and independence movements are growing and spreading everywhere, and the United Empire (US and (primarily) its European allies) has shown itself to be highly vulnerable to these movements wherever they crop up and regardless of their ideological or religious foundations.
The United Empire has been engaged in -- indeed, has provoked -- what amounts to Endless War against shadows and internalized fears for over fifteen years. It creates its own enemies, fights them, supposedly defeats them, then wonders why they keep coming back. How can that be? Who are these "enemies?" Why are they always there?
They're shadows. They're fears. They don't go away. They can't be defeated, they can only be denied. But by denying them, they are strengthened. It's the most amazing thing.
Fear can be a useful and normal state of mind in some circumstances. It can goose the adrenalin to enable remarkable bursts of strength and feats of daring. But it can't be maintained over the long term without causing serious physical and psychological damage.
Those who live in fear all the time, as our governments do and as they and their propagandists try to induce the People to do, are crippled in spirit and in strength. The fight or flight mechanism is meant as a temporary expedient, not the central fact of one's existence, but in the Dominant Society, it is becoming the only thing.
It's obvious that since the (s)election Americans have been whipsawed between abject fear and despair, and some sort of wan hope that It (eventually) Gets Better. The efforts to normalize what's happening are ongoing, but the Chaos merely grows -- regardless of what "side" one is on -- and as it grows, the fears take over. As I've said, it's a classic Shock Doctrine tactic for control of the masses, but it's a risky one, too, as its results become less and less manageable and predictable.
This is one reason why positive and active resistance is necessary. The Water Protectors and the Grandmother Earth Defenders are the example of what resistance can and should look like. There are all kinds of other resistance movements, many of which look nothing like the Water Protectors, and they act nothing like them, either. Direct attacks on the Empire generally won't succeed, but a Butterfly Effect can cause the course of Empire to change. Not necessarily for the better, however.
We hear all the time that the Empire is on its last legs, collapsing, yadda yadda, and I've never believed it. With every turn of the screw, the Empire is strengthened. It's doing fine, and it will survive the lot of us. This widespread return to White Rightism/White Supremacy within the Imperial construct is a defense mechanism, deeply ingrained in the psyches of Euro-Americans, that they can never truly escape. They're defending the Empire (of the mind) against the Savage Hordes of Dusky "Mud People" at the gates. It's been that way for thousands of years, and I don't see it changing for the better any time soon.
The Water Defenders in North Dakota include the feared "Savages" -- but they also include a broad cross-section of non-Indian allies on the front lines as well as in every other possible venue they can find in the US and around the world. Soon, a contingent of US military veterans will converge on the Standing Rock Reservation to protect the Water Protectors from the violent repression of the Pipeline Protectors.
The Vets may number in the hundreds or thousands, who can say. But they will appear like the wild bison appeared during one of the law enforcement "engagements" with the Water Protectors.
Every time this happens, the pipeline protectors lose some of their courage (not that they had much to begin with, they have shown themselves to be cowards through and through) and some more of them leave the fight against phantoms they've been assigned to battle.
Of course should they choose to use "overwhelming force" against their phantom foes, the consequences may be "victory" in the immediate case, just the opposite over time. The Water Protectors are using their spiritual strength to stand firm against the physical violence and repression being used against them to protect the pipeline, but in the end, Power will have to yield. The coward will yield to the brave.
The Standing Rock resistance represents the largest gathering of Indigenous nations in modern history, perhaps ever. The unity of purpose and spirit at Standing Rock is unprecedented though it is inspired by Native Resistance movements everywhere and is part of them.
As long as they stand and stay together, they will succeed.
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