The Unsettling of America
One of the issues for the white people in America is that we never looked upon the land as a homeland. While there are exceptions, the settlers were interested in moving forward for silver, or better land, or whatever.
In America, established cultures and communities have been the victims of exploitation. The Indians, small farms, small craftsman, etc. have all fallen victim to exploitation.
We need to rethink the terms conquerors and victims and replace them with exploiters and nuturers. Most people are a combination of both. Page 39 gives a good description of the difference. The first casualties of the exploitive revolution are character and community. Exploitation is very evident in the trend towards huge farms and their care for the land.
The first principle of the exploitive mind is to divid and conquer. And, as a culture, we are “ominously and painfully divided”. All the divisions have much to do with our attitude toward work. Work has become something to escape, but is work something we have the right to escape?