Taking The Red Pill (Chapter 13 From The Book, American Myths & Madness) Text Only

Renegade American History

Taking The Red Pill (More Enduring Myths)

In the Matrix movie, Morpheus offers Neo a “Red Pill” to awaken him to the reality of the real world. This essay continues our exploration of cherished American myths, discussing how the miracle of writing often preserves and encourages errors and misinformation; preserving the status quo and protecting a point of view rather than pursuing clarity and understanding. We end with a discussion of how those myths encourage the continuation of the way “White Men think”, along with our appraisal of some of the dangers inherent in this perspective.

"Our contemporary western society, in spite of its material, intellectual and political progress, is increasingly less conducive to mental health, and tends to undermine the inner security, happiness, reason, and the capacity for love in the individual...who pays...with increasing mental sickness and with despair hidden under a frantic drive for work and so-called pleasure.” Dr. Erich Fromm

“Experiments have shown that simply repeating a false statement over and over leads people to believe that it is true. Likewise, when we repeatedly think or talk about a past experience, we tend to become increasingly confident that we are recalling it accurately.” Daniel L Schacter

Vine Deloria Jr. once described history as: "a series of events, circumstances, facts, theories, or personalities, which break down under closer scrutiny but which, by artifice or design, are covered up and given an academic status that is simply accepted by historians (or publishers) and which, after time, becomes accepted as fact."

(We like to say that, for many human beings, it is ‘time’ that seems to validate their beliefs, rather than their belief's innately trustworthy or truthful nature.)

Satayana said, "History is always written wrong, and needs to be re-written".

As Vine Deloria pointed out, since most historians' expertise is in only one period or event, in any compilation of subjects, errors will occur. Rather than examining all new evidence or information on the subjects in a compilation, most compilers will simply take what has previously been recorded and re-issue it. So, an error made in one century may be perpetuated in succeeding ones.

Perpetuating And Elaborating On The Myths

Americans have even created their own myths about myths. Often we find that the authors of previous periods took extreme liberties with the truth and often creatively constructed their own. Being a new Nation, we have continually created original myths through time. George Washington's cherry tree, wooden teeth, and starving military at Valley Forge have long been exposed as historically false. Yet, many Americans, and American history texts, cling to them religiously. Veneration of the Flag, the Betsy Ross myth, and the false history of the Liberty Bell both began late in the Country's short history. Truth takes a long time to filter in through the barriers of myth, especially in a written history. Just as painters, authors, and later—filmmakers were the culprits responsible for creating many of these myths; one of the most enduring perpetrators of American myth is the educational textbook system. Looking for standardized, sanitized, and non-controversial accounts, the compilers and publishers rarely examine the issues to see if new information is available. Should they discover newer historical versions, they are loath to make significant changes that wipe the board clean, presenting new facts. While scholars may be radically changing their views and perceptions of the past, publishers, and pseudo-historians remain largely ignorant of their efforts.

Irvine Makes His Contribution, “The World Is Flat”.

Washington Irvine is to be held accountable for the long-standing belief that Europeans in the days of Columbus perceived the world as flat rather than round, and that it was Columbus who expounded upon, and demonstrated, the truth. But knowledge of the egg shape of our earth has existed since ancient times and was common knowledge to any educated person of the day. So, in effect, Irving created a myth that gave birth to a second myth, that Columbus "discovered" something, and that that discovery made him more than the mercenary, murderer, and despicable man he was. In reality, new research indicates that beyond the present day evidence of a Viking presence in North Americas pre-Columbus, even Basque sailors may have preceded the Columbus voyage, giving lie to the idea that the Americas’ were unknown and uncharted.

Flag Myths

Worship of the American Flag is strictly a modern development. The original Founding Fathers and Constitutional Congress needed a flag only for identification during naval battles. In Congress, discussion of the flag was described as a “trifling business which ought not to engross the attention of the House…” Many of the flags of the period, even after the adoption of a standard symbol, were different. Even a year after its adoption, Ben Franklin and John Adams described it as having thirteen stripes of red, white, and blue. No land battle of the revolutionary war was ever fought under an American Flag. Only one Naval battle was fought with the standard present. Not until the Mexican-American War was the standard raised. The U.S. Marines did not adopt the flag until 1876, and the U.S. Calvary did not carry it until 1877.

No American Flag accompanied Custer to the Battle at Greasy Grass. Schools didn’t fly the flag until 1890. Pledging allegiance didn’t come about until 1892. The original flag salute was remarkably like the Nazi salutation, and did not begin until 1898. (It was changed to a hand over the heart during WWII.) There was no Flag Day until 1916. The flag code was not approved by Congress until 1942 and not adopted into Federal Law until 1976.

American Flag Rituals were not developed until the late 1800’s when fearful Americans decided that the immigrant hordes needed rituals and symbols to identify with, and swear loyalty to. Ironically today, it the descendants of those same feared immigrants who are most vocal in their support of the Flag as a symbol of patriotism, not realizing that the rituals were designed as a measure to control and manipulate their ancestor’s loyalty. The original Flag was created as a modification of the Union Jack. Contrary to the Boy Scout Handbook, the creators of the Flag did not attribute any particular meaning to the colors, stars, or stripes. And though the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner were composed by a third-rate poet, Francis Scott Keys—the song was stolen from the British tune ‘To Anacreon in Heaven’! Keys was suspected to be tone-deaf and was reported to not even recognize the song when he heard a rendition of it in later years with different lyrics.

The Mythology Of Capitalism

The concept that laissez-faire capitalism and business is a traditional institution in the U.S. is another significant myth. American business has a long history of asking for help from the government and getting it. The nineteenth century is rich with examples of government aid to business. Early business was dependent on government aid. Huge land grants and protective tariffs were given out freely. Though it goes against conservative ideals, early nineteenth century state governments owned and operated myriad businesses. Arms factories have always been a lucrative favorite of the Federal Government. A clear majority of early American leaders believed in vigorous government action. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. concluded that the Founding Father’s legacy “was rather a blend of public and private initiative known in our own day as a mixed economy.” Jefferson’s distrust of central government authority never prevented him from proposing social improvements. He actively involved the government in promotion of science, education, and transportation.

The early farmer not only welcomed government aid, but demanded it. The government has always been there to aid American business in need. The only time that a laissez-faire economy has come close to existence in the U.S. was after the Civil War. The 1887 Interstate Commerce Act, the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and Teddy Roosevelt’s 1907 intervention ended the experiment during a financial panic. Roosevelt announced, “Every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate it to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.” Even today however, American businessmen cannot give up their cherished romantic myth that “businessmen stand alone.”

Enduring Myths About Us

Long have our Peoples endured the myths and legends created about us by American historians, scientists, and the entertainment industry. Number One at the top of big myths, after the Hunter/Gather Fantasy, is the story of our Bering Strait migration over a land bridge between Asia and Alaska. Every day more and more evidence is presented that brings these "facts" into dispute, yet every day it is presented as indisputable scientific history in the classrooms of America. We are in agreement that science has some evidence of a cometary great extinction in North America thirteen thousand years ago but we believe that there were survivors and that there was a continuity to our history. While some of our northern Cousins may, or may not, be related to Asian Indigenous Peoples, there is no proof yet that determines whether they went from here-to-there or vice versa. Other, less-Asian appearing peoples either were here from the beginning or who may have come by other routes and methods. One thing is certain, we have been here a very long time. In at least one Native Nation we know, singers still remember the songs they sang to, or about, the dinosaurs!

One of the distinguishing features of any kind of science is that truth changes as rapidly and predictably as the Earth herself. What is indisputable today becomes laughable tomorrow, only to become indisputable again! Recently discovered archaeological sites have caused a significant re-evaluation of the "land-bridge" theories. Indians have been here many thousands of years more than scientists had previously believed. This challenges the timeline they have created for their "migration" theories, among other things. So the facts may reflect only how far back in time you draw them from, and since all humans may have originated in one place and dispersed over tens or hundreds of thousands of years—where might their timelines to be drawn signifying their homelands?

None of our creation myths speak of a land bridge, though often journeys are mentioned. Vine Deloria Jr. wrote eloquently on this subject in his book, Red Earth, White Lies. He also discussed the topics of evolutionary timelines and evolutionary theory, as well as the supposed destruction of the mega-fauna by our ancestral relatives. Even with the atlatl, Natives had no reason to wipe out the mega-fauna of the continent, and as all homicide detectives acknowledge, motive is the name of the game.

Deloria points out that American science loves these theories because they fulfill a desire to justify the Anglo-American migration here, at the expense of Indigenous Peoples and the environment, by asserting that "others" before them committed similar acts of migration and destruction. These pretensions arise from the same state of mind that causes contemporary Americans to raise their flags in pride, reveling in the glories of American heritage and history, while allowing them to overlook the moral turpitude's and wrongdoings committed by those same historical figures and government.

Science Grows Up—The Importance Of Anecdotal Evidence and Observation

Traditional knowledge passed down orally through our Native generations has, since the 1800’s, been deemed to be lacking in verifiable documental evidence. Lacking grounds for conventional analysis, the oral histories of our Nations have remained virtually unconsidered in any of the contemporary (scientifically accepted) historical contexts—even though disciplines of memory and exact recitation have been vigorously adhered to. But recently, scientists are rethinking their judgements on our ability to contribute to these discussions.

Charles Wohlforth (in his book, The Whale And The Supercomputer), wrote that, in 1977, the International Whaling Communication ordered the Inupiat whale hunt stopped in Barrow, Alaska when government scientists predicted the extinction of the bowhead whale. Scientific estimates of the population were a meager 1300. Inupiat Elders insisted that the whale populations were more plentiful than that, and were healthy and increasing. John Craighead George was the man who became responsible for a new whale head count. Elders explained why the government’s statistics were wrong. Scientists had a grudging respect for the Inupiat’s practical knowledge of the ice, but considered the people lacking in a fundamental understanding of their practical expertise. This is the same bias we observed in our chapter on world science, where modern western scientists gave other cultures credit for discoveries but denied that they had any real understanding of the underlying mechanics of their finds. George himself remained skeptical. “We weren’t sitting on a thousand years of traditional knowledge, and we frankly were taught we were scientists and we were doing stuff scientifically, carefully, and the other information was anecdotal.” By 1985, George and his team had the facts to re-estimate the whales at six times the previous numbers. A byproduct discovery was that the whale’s life spans were between 130 to 150 years of age, with one living well over 200. By 2002, the official number had grown to ten thousand. “The Natives were vindicated,” George said. “They were right. They were right about all these things.” As Wohlforth observed, “Researchers…had to accept that there was another valid way of knowing complex facts about the environment.” A second incident strengthened that perception. Oil industry explorers want to use loud sonar sounding to measure seismic readings on the seabed. Scientist insisted that whales would be affected at a distance of four miles—Inupiat Elders asserted that the distances would be found to be much greater than that. Eventually, them distance was proven to be twelve miles or more.

Wohlforth says that George was convinced that the Inupiat skill of observation and collective communication was the key to their vast storehouse of environmental knowledge. Wohlforth personally observed that the communities seemed to share information all the time. Inupiat were expert observers capable of processing an enormous data set for making useful decisions. George “compared the community to a giant machine gathering and crunching data.” He said, “They’re taking in massive amounts of data and processing it like a computer.” Responsible science needs collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach. So many scientists rush to publish their facts and findings that their only hope of keeping up is to pursue a narrow specialization in their field. Responsible scientific development requires a context within the human connection, a community to share and contribute to the advancement of the work.

Mythology, Brainwashing And The War For Minds

Selective mythology, in patriotism and science, is driven by a convenient fatalism about the nature of man and government. American pundits are eager to accept the mythological "glories of our past" as important and relevant while discounting any evidence of immoral improprieties, genocide, and irritating oral histories. Any refutations of the “Divine Purpose” that have supported this mythology project have been discounted as inconsequential by-products of the time. Even today, our textbooks and educational system, not to mention our “good old boy” societies of science and politics, continue to refuse to consider any facts that do not support their pretentious point of view—declaring them irrelevant or stridently shouting them down.

American myths accomplish their purpose of providing the American people with a simplified historical past, perspective, and identity so that they will remain true to Anglo-Saxon ethics of a dispersed puritan Protestant morality, economic avarice, consumerism, and technological manifest destiny.

That identity, now generously offered to other American ethnic groups and Third World Peoples, has at its heart a premise that man holds, or should hold, absolute dominion over the earth and all its life forms. That belief has previously been most successfully promulgated by Roman Catholic colonization throughout the world. Those who hold to that premise are still convinced that it gives them a right to obscure the true facts of the past in order to specifically focus on their "superior" culture and its supposed achievements.

What if we were to discover that some Peoples migrated from this continent to others rather than the other way around? What if there were movements back and forth over the millennia? Why should we not feel unified pride and excitement in the knowledge than Human Beings from all over the world have made astonishing journeys? Why must we hold to the belief that only Anglo-Europeans were capable of such feats, or that somehow their accomplishments were more meaningful?

The answer lies in the continuing war for people's minds. A war is being waged to keep people convinced that this is the world's first advanced civilization, and that European-American technological advances evidence superiority to any previous cultural and technological accomplishments. This supposed superiority is used to justify and validate any action taken that resulted (or continues to result), in the destruction of Indigenous Peoples and natural resources.

For Native Peoples, these myths represent a premeditated effort to convince new generations to view our treaties as outdated, and our tribal sovereignty as discriminatory politics in favor of one specialized type of citizen. Some of the descendants of the original Anglo-Saxon Americans don't like the idea of anyone having an advantage among them, especially antagonists whom they believe they have already conquered. With written history whitewashing the past and watering down the immoral and racist heritage of their ancestors, some Anglo-American citizens will feel less and less inclined to honor what is left of the commitments of their grandfathers. These institutionalized educational falsehoods represent a dangerous attack on our Nations. Until we begin to write, and teach, our own versions of history, our children will continue to be educated to subjective versions created to justify the North American Holocaust, salve the consciences of succeeding generations, and promote a continuing push for dominion over the earth at any cost. While colonials term this “revisionist history”, the necessity to write other versions of our past is a necessary and important contribution to a society that would see itself as moral, responsible, honorable, just, and free.

Challenge Everything

There is power in the truth—healing power. Should mainstream America, and its government, ever break free of a blind acceptance of its myths about science, technology, and history—the possibility of healing will increase. There is a sickness all around us. It is a sickness born of selfishness, greed, and abuse. People recognize deep in their hearts that our civilized systems are corrupt and destructive, despite their pretensions. Having progressed to a point of awareness that acknowledges racism, pollution, hatred, and violence as undesirable traits, our inability to break free of their constraints is causing a spiritual illness throughout the civilized modern world. It can only get worse.

We know that as more Indian historians, scholars, and teachers master the arts of English and contemporary education, we will begin challenging the legends and stereotypes that American science and academia have presented, unchallenged, for a century or more.

History is not one of those sacrosanct areas we should tiptoe around. We should be ferociously analyzing and detailing our differences in order to keep our view of the past as accurate as possible, for all Americans to cherish, with liberty and justice for all.