NOVEMBER - EPISODE XI: FALL 2019

WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE XI: FALL 2019

Hello People of the World;

You know what? This whole time this year, I thought the Presidential elections were supposed to happen, with all the debating going on. Imagine my surprise to learn that they are still a YEAR AWAY! Geez. Politics are the stupidest thing that mankind ever invented.

Man, this year flew by quick, didn’t it? It’s cold and rainy and Minneapolis got hit with a blizzard last week when we were up there. Who can predict the weather any more? I hurt my back as well.

 All right, let’s get going:

1:[ Native American Month always seems to end once Thanksgiving is done. Weird. I also noted that a lot of Land Acknowledgements were going on, on Twitter the like. Thanks man, that sure makes up for the attempted genocide. What ever akes your turkey taste better I suppose.

2:[ My Bonnie and I traveled up to Minneapolis to retrieve Char for the holiday weekend. We spent a day and a half there as a mini-getaway. We went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) to see my cousin Ernie’s sculpture. It was very cool to see in person. We stopped at a coffee shop within the museum for a coffee and hot chocolate.

I hate being in crowds. I am an introvert. The reason I hate being in crowds is my introvert’s brain of shifting frequencies of other peoples’ conversations. My brain moves like a radio dial tuning into one inane, stupid, selfish conversation to another and it bugs the hell out of me.

At the MIA a dude that appeared to work there sat next to us with what looked like a high school or first-year college student and they were talking about how race is getting all mixed into the Metoo movement. It did not hear the connection, but it was bad that Louie CK and them were caught up in it. But the stupidest thing I overheard this guy telling the student was “Like Ari Aziz, they were having consensual sex, until she said “Stop”, and uh, then, uh, …I mean, it was CONSTENSUAL.” I had to leave. But I said under my breath, “If she says ‘Stop’ it’s not consensual.”

God, I mean, this guy worked at the MIA and was yakking this shit to a student….

3:[ I saw this video, which is to be the start of a multi-part video series on Indian Reservations by CP Grey, a YT channel I subscribe to. This Episode 0 of the series was basically about why CP Grey will use the term “Indian” when describing the over 560 tribes of the US in their video series. To me, the reason came off as Intellectual Laziness. It is also a form of reductionism. They admit that they need to discuss the reservations but want to do it without having to list the tribes individually. See? Lazy.

One of the points that they make in using the term is that we still use it. But a lot of tribal people would rather be called by their tribal names. Also, they make a point that Natives still living on reservations use the term, mostly out of expedience, and because of this “consensus”, CP Grey will also use the term. The further away from the reservation, they state, the less likely you will use the term “Indian”. But this does not include the fact that about 72% of all Native people in the US do NOT live on reservations. Most live in urban areas so, this “Consensus” does not exist. It just seems to me that CP Grey does not want to do the intellectual heavy lifting when it comes to representing Native Americans accurately. Again. This is common. It all seems like an excuse to keep calling us “Indians” and not change with the times. Here is the video for your perusal.

Plus, I am sure a whole lot folks from India might have something to say about misrepresentation….

4:[ I saw a whole lot of movies recently and I will give short reviews here:

Jojo Rabbit: it was okay. Not as funny as I thought it would be.

Princess Mononoke: Great film and animation. Though I hate the trope of the strong-willed woman needing to fall in love.

Harriet: Very good film. I just hate that they gave her superpowers.

Knives Out: Fun little mystery. Enjoyed it a lot.

5:[ In Minneapolis, I caught part of a show on the fricking SCIENCE CHANNEL, called Strange Evidence. Here, some security guards were making a big deal about spooky figures on CCTV monitors. They had quasi-scientists try to explain the thing away but always gave the idiots the last word. If you know how CCTV recording happens then you know they spectral figures they saw walking around were just recorded-over images of themselves walking the grounds. That’s all. Man, were are we as a society when this dreck is on the Science Channel?

6:[ I hurt my back, again, so I spent Thanksgiving alone…

That is it for this month.

As always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I write here. I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I write here and I will see you in a month.

Until next time, remember “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”

2019 Ernest M Whiteman III