This was a really powerful and layered exploration of settler colonialism across continents.
I especially appreciated how you tied together different histories through the unifying theme of "land as life," while still respecting the distinct experiences of each.
As a species our leadership has faled us since currently, most of the population is against this ideology.
Hence we need a new kind of leadership that will ensure the best decision collectively is made.
My proposal is a merit based online direct democracy but this would be hard to implement since people aren't used to it.
So I am developing an app that will allow online communities to earn money and use it through an online direct democracy.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the app and concept.
I left the link to the post in your inbox you can check it out when you have time and we can have a discussion afterwards.
Hi Simp! Many thanks for reading and the lovely comment. Yes indeed we can explore the subject of direct democracy, post-decolonization, in this new emerging world, and the corresponding project of yours (the app). I will check the link and revert soon. Best to you!
"Not much can be said about people who wish to replace one nation with another, like some people in the past who violently replaced one type of existence with another—to acquire land, riches, and establish dominion."
This sums up much of human history - indeed, the very nature of humanity itself. Homo sapiens replaced other human species in much the same way, driven by expansion, survival, and competition. Across time, tribes have expanded, splintered and fought, always reaching further into nature to exploit more, driven by the same impulses.
Even among our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, we see mirrored behaviors—tribal aggression, territorialism, and dominance struggles. These traits are not anomalies; they are deeply embedded in the biological inheritance of our species.
What you're describing isn’t a rare anomaly - it’s base human nature. To truly transcend it would require removing the vast majority of people from the planet, leaving only those who are awake—not “woke,” but awakened. Those few who see themselves as one with nature, who live not as a mind cut off from the body but as a unified being—free from the need to dominate, to accumulate, to chase unending desire or gold.
Even within your essays examples, this pattern was alive and functioning.
As long a humans can be bought, bribed or promised future riches to be gained from others 'not of their tribe', this cycle will continue.
Hi and thanks for reading and your comment. We can agree to an extent that "Homo sapiens replaced other human species... " Yet the aspect of settler colonialism (post 1500CE) and it's relationship with the indigenous is something unique. Indeed forever human beings have waged wars on each other, claimed land and tried to decimate the so called enemy. However in certain cases those conflicts / invasions did not entirely wipe out a given population nor did it practice eugenics and depopulation - instead the invaders and invaded, they modified, integrated, absorbed and even co-existed over time.
What I am trying to explain in the story is a small part of a very big body of scholarship - Settler colonialism history. Check out the works of Patrick Wolfe, Ward Churchill, Roxanne Dunbar and David Stannard to name just a few. Plus Chimpanzees don't make atom bombs nor do they travel far and wide planting crosses and creating mountains skulls. Be careful how you generalize difference species.
A really fascinating and richly packed read with so much knowledge synthesised together. Reading some of these colonial fantasies of connection to somebody else's land, somehow reminded me of those enshrined US writers like Thoreau and Emerson with their fantasies of an idyllic nature transposed on the realities of colonising other peoples land. I call for an end to colonial delusion and ignorance in our lifetime!!!
hi SQ many thanks for reading. Earlier I too was deluded. Yet I am trying to understand and form a grounded opinion about this fundamental relationship of the indigenous with their land. Land is life as a starting point. Then comes the conflict / past viz-a-viz present of settler colonialism and genocide, again and again.
I like this idea of land being life - the way we are rooted in a place, and all that implies. The invasion of land therefore becoming an invasion of the indigenous and their identity. This equation is fundamental tot he settler colonial project everywhere. to dispossess people. Interestingly, they then create a sterile and disconnected "culture" that yearns for some kind of connection, and achieves this through cultural appropriation - whether thats wearing red Indian logo's or ethnic beads. It's honestly a joke.
Yes indeed, the logic and natural sense outlined by Patrick Wolfe - “Land is life—or, at least, land is necessary for life. Thus contests for land can be—indeed, often are—contests for life.” As you said " to dispossess people." only to repossess them with new myths, lies and false identities. Thanks for the add.
This was a really powerful and layered exploration of settler colonialism across continents.
I especially appreciated how you tied together different histories through the unifying theme of "land as life," while still respecting the distinct experiences of each.
As a species our leadership has faled us since currently, most of the population is against this ideology.
Hence we need a new kind of leadership that will ensure the best decision collectively is made.
My proposal is a merit based online direct democracy but this would be hard to implement since people aren't used to it.
So I am developing an app that will allow online communities to earn money and use it through an online direct democracy.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the app and concept.
I left the link to the post in your inbox you can check it out when you have time and we can have a discussion afterwards.
Hi Simp! Many thanks for reading and the lovely comment. Yes indeed we can explore the subject of direct democracy, post-decolonization, in this new emerging world, and the corresponding project of yours (the app). I will check the link and revert soon. Best to you!
"Not much can be said about people who wish to replace one nation with another, like some people in the past who violently replaced one type of existence with another—to acquire land, riches, and establish dominion."
This sums up much of human history - indeed, the very nature of humanity itself. Homo sapiens replaced other human species in much the same way, driven by expansion, survival, and competition. Across time, tribes have expanded, splintered and fought, always reaching further into nature to exploit more, driven by the same impulses.
Even among our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, we see mirrored behaviors—tribal aggression, territorialism, and dominance struggles. These traits are not anomalies; they are deeply embedded in the biological inheritance of our species.
What you're describing isn’t a rare anomaly - it’s base human nature. To truly transcend it would require removing the vast majority of people from the planet, leaving only those who are awake—not “woke,” but awakened. Those few who see themselves as one with nature, who live not as a mind cut off from the body but as a unified being—free from the need to dominate, to accumulate, to chase unending desire or gold.
Even within your essays examples, this pattern was alive and functioning.
As long a humans can be bought, bribed or promised future riches to be gained from others 'not of their tribe', this cycle will continue.
Hi and thanks for reading and your comment. We can agree to an extent that "Homo sapiens replaced other human species... " Yet the aspect of settler colonialism (post 1500CE) and it's relationship with the indigenous is something unique. Indeed forever human beings have waged wars on each other, claimed land and tried to decimate the so called enemy. However in certain cases those conflicts / invasions did not entirely wipe out a given population nor did it practice eugenics and depopulation - instead the invaders and invaded, they modified, integrated, absorbed and even co-existed over time.
What I am trying to explain in the story is a small part of a very big body of scholarship - Settler colonialism history. Check out the works of Patrick Wolfe, Ward Churchill, Roxanne Dunbar and David Stannard to name just a few. Plus Chimpanzees don't make atom bombs nor do they travel far and wide planting crosses and creating mountains skulls. Be careful how you generalize difference species.
A really fascinating and richly packed read with so much knowledge synthesised together. Reading some of these colonial fantasies of connection to somebody else's land, somehow reminded me of those enshrined US writers like Thoreau and Emerson with their fantasies of an idyllic nature transposed on the realities of colonising other peoples land. I call for an end to colonial delusion and ignorance in our lifetime!!!
hi SQ many thanks for reading. Earlier I too was deluded. Yet I am trying to understand and form a grounded opinion about this fundamental relationship of the indigenous with their land. Land is life as a starting point. Then comes the conflict / past viz-a-viz present of settler colonialism and genocide, again and again.
I like this idea of land being life - the way we are rooted in a place, and all that implies. The invasion of land therefore becoming an invasion of the indigenous and their identity. This equation is fundamental tot he settler colonial project everywhere. to dispossess people. Interestingly, they then create a sterile and disconnected "culture" that yearns for some kind of connection, and achieves this through cultural appropriation - whether thats wearing red Indian logo's or ethnic beads. It's honestly a joke.
Yes indeed, the logic and natural sense outlined by Patrick Wolfe - “Land is life—or, at least, land is necessary for life. Thus contests for land can be—indeed, often are—contests for life.” As you said " to dispossess people." only to repossess them with new myths, lies and false identities. Thanks for the add.