#ndnatheist

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Does God exist?

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I am happily married to a cunt, everybody hates her, she’s bold, cunning, and insensitive. She speaks her mind, unafraid of judgement or criticism. She’s well known, her ancestors were labelled heretics, freethinkers, nonconformists, apostates, pagans, heathens, and atheists. No holds bar her words cut to the core. Ironically, every once in awhile she would change history, with discoveries such as the Big Bang Theory, Plate Tectonics (geology), and the Theory of Evolution; all of which undermine mythological doctrines in the mainstream (Christianity, Islam, etc) and the minority (Indigenous origin stories). She doesn’t give a fuck if it offends peoples beliefs or worldview, she tells it like it is and I love her for it. Her name your wondering? Oh I’m sure you’ve guessed it, that’s right; throughout history society called her blasphemous, sacrilegious, and impious, but her real name is truth.

Til’ death do us part

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Tribalism: A Postmodern Indigenous Perspective

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines tribalism as "behavior and attitudes that are based on a person's loyalty to a tribe or other social group." This is synonymous with conformity (Schaefer & Haaland 2009 3rd Ed.) and groupthink (Feldman & Dinardo 2009 3rd Ed.) ;within the context of reservations, institutions, and society we see examples of this everyday. More specifically the unequal distribution of power in the existing Chief and Council (CC) system; which is intended to serve the people. However, tribalism, conformity, and groupthink are top-tier values in this bureaucratically corrupt system. The offspring is the unwritten policies of nepotism, oppression, and discrimination distributed to those who fall outside the ingroup, deviate from the norm and you will be punished (often unjustly). This double dose of positive and negative punishment manifests itself through gossip, shunning, unemployment, and especially a lack of access to Band resources. CC preaches the value of education, yet when an educated individual (deviant) initiates proposals designed to help the community, they are denied. Why? They are a threat to power; a symbol of truth that would expose corruption and tyranny. This cadre of hypocrites must be crushed under the weight of skepticism and rationality.

Enter The Dragon

How does one reconcile the prevalent issues in First Nations (FN) communities as mentioned above within the ideological paradigm of the Anishinaabe 7 Grandfather Teachings? Advertisements of this hypocrisy are abound; websites, posters all preaching an ancient ideal in a postmodern time. In practice, they evaporate and are replaced with a set of commandments:

The Anishinaabe 7 Commandments

Thou shalt play bingo

Thou shalt take children in vain

Thou shalt scorn the unbelievers

Thou shalt rule unjustly

Thou shalt judge for eternity

Thou shalt speak with forked tongue

Thou shalt waste the land

These cogent codes of conduct are embedded in the form of memes, a linguistic mind virus passed from generation to generation. Sneer, scorn, and scowl take place backstage, behind closed doors; crows chirping the commandments. Reinforcement is validated by social conformity and adherence to group norms. Individuals are primed to believe this counterfeit belief system, a colonizing intelligence imbued with confirmation bias.

Indigenous Enlightenment

The purpose of enlightenment is to transcend the darkness, to be enlightened is to see and speak from a position of strength, wherein purified truth claims reign supreme. There are provisional moral truths (Shermer 2011) that base their foundation on reason, logic, and evidence. Countless studies attest to the benefits of kindness on the mind (brain), yet it`s rarely seen on the reserve. Such sentiments are viewed as weak, or in the words of one Councillor, "kissing ass." I strongly disagree with this statement, one must distinguish between a genuine kind act and false sincerity, because there is a difference. All we have to go on within this context is our subjective compass, people intuitively know  when another is genuine or if it`s just "bullshit" (same Councillor). In practice, nuerological synaptic connections light up and are positively reinforced in both the initiate and the receiver. Therefore, the first provisional moral truth here is,"kindness is practiced because of the reciprocal benefits it has on individuals, and in turn strengthens social relations, period."

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Indigenous Elitism

Within academia there’s been a rise in prominent Indigenous scholars, in particular Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Daniel Justice, and Leanne Simpson, the four horsemen (aka Indian Horsemen) of an intellectual apocalypse--drudging a teleological facade unimpeded by skeptical inquiry. Careers built on perpetuating a utopian decolonial occupation where inherent rights reign supreme. These delusional constructs defy any basis in reason, rationality, or logic and are fed to undergraduates as doctrine. The pedestal of Indigenous elitism must be obliterated with seasoned skepticism, their ideas buried in the existential graveyard with Jesus, Buddha, and Nanabush. This cadre of political academics tyrannizes the scope of Indigenous scholarship, idolizing a lost and forgotten cultural identity that no longer exists, the headdresses are gone and deer flaps aren’t in fashion. 

These metaphorical connotations towards a complete decolonization is riddled with paradox. While I agree with Taiaiake’s criticisms against the settler-colonial stronghold on Indigenous soveriegnty (see Alfred & Tomkins 2011, pg.3), I disagree with the necessity that “...fishing, hunting, or picking medicines...”(Alfred & Tomkins 2011, pg. 15) is the proper initiation to Indigenous identity. A postmodern analysis of reality indicates a trend towards diversity in identity politics wherein outdated mechanisms of survival and passage are blasphemous. The Indian Horsemen’s feeble attempt to resuscitate tribal identities in bona fide fashion depicts sustained ignorance in the face of actuality.