Harmonious Ends

The metaphor of a collision course could be improved on. The capitalist system has been devouring the natural order for centuries; the human and environmental disaster is not something over the horizon.

More importantly, the only alternative social system with a track record of success in achieving harmonious or holistic ends preceded capitalism by thousands of years, and is reemerging within the World Indigenous Peoples’ Movement. As evidenced by the recent conference in Bolivia, the principles, practices and laws of the natural order are not new or incomprehensible, but have been continuously articulated and pursued by indigenous societies on all continents from time immemorial to the present.

The roots of all humanity are governed by these relationships, even as many have been led astray by the temptations of consumerism. As explicitly enumerated in the communications from Cochabamba, as well as in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the mysteries of the universe and all living things are governed by these relations or laws like generosity, conservation and reciprocity; we violate them at our peril.