From: jimruttshow8596
Tyson Yunkaporta, an academic, art critic, and researcher, and a member of the Apalech clan of Australian Aboriginal people, offers a profound critique of Western civilization through an indigenous lens in his book Sand Talk [00:01:06]. He views the concept of civilization as a significant part of the challenges in current civilization methods and systems [00:10:07].
Defining Civilization: A Growth-Based Imperative
Yunkaporta defines civilization as a community that “must be constantly growing or it will collapse,” relying on the “importation of resources” [00:15:10]. He argues that this “growth based imperative” or “growth based paradigm” is “impossible” and “a denial of reality,” even calling it a definition of “evil” [00:15:26]. This constant need for expansion ultimately leads to civilizational collapse and sustainability issues [00:15:13].
This growth is typically manifested in the construction of cities, which all civilizations build [00:18:52]. In contrast, Aboriginal people historically did not have permanent cities, instead managing large estates defined by bioregions and moving seasonally [00:18:57]. An example of the Barker G mob’s experiment with a sedentary lifestyle led to near wipe-out when they could not “move with” the Earth’s inevitable changes [00:19:34]. Even sophisticated Aboriginal structures, like stone houses in Victoria, were still part of a system of seasonal movement [00:20:25].
The “Increase Paradigm” vs. the “Growth Paradigm”
Aboriginal culture operates on an “increase paradigm” rather than a growth-based one [00:16:17]. While the size of a system is not meant to grow, the “relationships within the system” and “the exchange within the system” are meant to “increase” infinitely [00:16:56]. Yunkaporta likens this to gaining intelligence not by growing a bigger brain, but by making “more neural connections” [00:17:08]. This focus on relational increase is a form of “micro growth,” in contrast to “gross growth” or “macro growth” that tears up the Earth [00:17:35].
Self-Termination and the Fermi Paradox
The inherent self-terminating nature of the growth paradigm is evident in historical examples like the Fertile Crescent and North Africa, which were once productive but are no longer [00:39:27]. This unsustainable pattern raises concerns about the future of civilization and societal challenges, especially given the current global population and dependence on advanced technology [00:40:24].
Yunkaporta connects this to the Fermi Paradox, suggesting that “maybe the reason all the powerful instruments pointed the sky have not yet been able to detect high-tech alien civilizations is these unsustainable societies don’t last long enough to leave a cosmic trace” [00:45:01]. This concept aligns with the “great filter” argument, suggesting that the filter for advanced civilizations might be ahead of humanity [00:45:32].
Narcissism: The Ancient Seed of Imbalance
Yunkaporta argues that the “stories that define our thinking today describe an eternal battle between good and evil springing from an originating act of sin” which are metaphors for “the relatively recent demand that simplicity and order be imposed upon the complexity of creation” [00:46:40]. This, he says, is “sprouting from an ancient seed of narcissism that has flourished due to a new imbalance in human societies” [00:47:04].
He explains that Aboriginal cultures are fundamentally designed to hold narcissism in check, recognizing that everyone can be a narcissist from time to time [00:48:26]. When narcissism gets out of balance, societies break down, systems fail, and ecology is damaged, leading to a rise in “defectors,” “freeloaders,” “sociopaths,” and “predators” [00:49:00]. The “original sin” is the thought “I am greater than” [00:49:26].
In indigenous cultures, wisdom keepers will “withdraw if they sense narcissism” [00:52:22]. Rites of passage, experienced by both men and women around age 14-15, are designed to teach the “most important lesson in the world which is I’m not special” [00:54:16]. This initial devastation leads to the realization that “no one else is special either,” fostering a “heterotic imperative” [00:54:36]. Ultimately, it leads to the understanding that “we belong to something special” together, emphasizing profound interconnectedness and interdependence while still maintaining strong individualism [00:54:57].
The Problem of Safety and Domesticated Humans
Yunkaporta highlights that modern Western society’s “obsession with safety and security” and the idea that it’s a “human right to be safe” is a new concept [01:01:51]. Aboriginal languages, for example, have no word for “safety,” but they have words for “protection” [01:02:26]. Protection implies agency and responsibility for one’s own safety and the active protection of others, fostering a distributed sense of security [01:02:38].
He argues that the “agency of violence has been taken away and monopolized and concentrated into the hands of a few people,” leading to negative consequences [01:03:18]. In contrast to today’s school fights which are “horribly violent” due to a lack of “codes of conflict,” Yunkaporta describes how boys in his community, or Jim Rutt’s youth, would engage in ritualized fights with unwritten rules that prevented serious harm [01:06:44]. Violence “demands expression,” and in Aboriginal culture, negative emotions and transgressions are dealt with immediately and publicly through rule-governed conflict, which prevents severe damage [01:08:43].
Yunkaporta observes that Western femininity has been “twisted and mutated into these weird weak and soft little things” through a “cloistered life” and disempowerment, which he calls an “absolute crime against nature” [01:14:10]. He notes that “civilization” domesticates humans, making them “utterly dependent” on its support apparatus [01:14:40]. This leads to a loss of natural knowingness and an unnatural “fight or flight” response, which is not characteristic of humans integral to their ecosystem [01:15:20].
Yarning: Distributed Cognition and Truth-Seeking
The concept of “yarning” is a crucial aspect of Aboriginal culture [01:22:25]. It is a modality for distributed cognition and governance, where “every different story, every person’s story must be heard” [01:23:17]. The “truth lies in that aggregate of all those stories,” including “outliers” that don’t conform to consensus [01:23:23].
A yarn is a dynamic, overlapping, and often ritualized conversation, involving acting things out or drawing images, with the goal of “arriving at a loose consensus of what the reality is” [01:23:52]. Unlike formalized “talking circles” where everyone takes a turn, a true yarn is more complex and allows for a fluid exchange of information and perspectives, similar to how a group of deer hunters collectively share observations and historical knowledge to make informed decisions about hunting [01:26:00].
Yunkaporta suggests that indigenous ways of thinking are humanity’s “factory settings,” our “human baseline” [01:30:15]. While civilization can twist and domesticate individuals, elements of this indigenous wisdom can be found within oneself, containing the “pattern of the whole” [01:30:40]. The goal is to incorporate these deep, real human things into a new, more wonderful civilization [01:31:52].