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Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again
To recreate a whole and sacred America, it is important to piece together the forgotten fragments of history that are currently keeping the country divided. Just as a traditional Native American potter begins a new pot with shards of old pots—honoring the ancestors, bringing the energies of the past into the present—Original Politics re-constellates the nation as a whole out of the seemingly disparate shards from our origins. The most significant forgotten piece is the profound effect Native America had on the founding values of this nation. Original Politics convincingly demonstrates how the best aspects of the founding vision of America were inspired, or directly appropriated, from living, Native American cultures: concepts such as natural rights, liberty, and egalitarian justice. Further, Parry traces the influence of Native America not only on the founding fathers, but on the ‘founding mothers’ of the 19th century women’s movement; as well as the 19th century abolitionist and modern ecological movements. Native America has inspired what Parry sees as the sacred purpose of the nation: bringing all the world’s peoples together on one soil in a harmonious cultural mosaic of unity in diversity. While there have been periodic setbacks (devolution) in our nation’s history, including today, these only serve as catalysts reigniting our sacred purpose. America is creating a new melting pot, and like the original vision, it will be a creation from the many into the one—only this time it must not leave anyone out. This includes the natural world. Original Politics is ultimately about respecting all forms of life and all forms of political expression as different aspects of one whole. It is a reclamation project that brings people, land, and nation together as one. The overall effect of the book is profoundly healing.
368 pages, Paperback
Published June 16, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 29, 2020
Envisioning an American Renaissance
Original Politics explores the secret, long-neglected history of America's indigenous roots, to dazzling effect. American history is greatly enriched by remembering that Ben Franklin once said, "No European who has tasted Savage Life can afterwards bear to live in our societies." If Franklin were alive in contemporary times, he would probably choose to express this sentiment with more politically correct phrasing. Yet Franklin's feelings of respect and admiration for indigenous people would surely remain. Most Americans would be surprised to learn that many ideals and principles we consider to be "truly American" are indeed truly American--they are truly native American. A few examples of such principles include: the concept of inalienable (natural) rights; a free and egalitarian society; government derived from the just powers from the consent of the governed; informal caucusing to promote understanding of diverse points of view; and women having a voice in government.
The first half of Original Politics provides shining insights into the early history of the United States of America; the second half delves into how America might continue to learn from Native American influence to evolve into an inclusive, harmonious society. Original Politics describes the evolved and devolved expressions of unitive consciousness, and the way that America's founding fathers appreciated the minimalist quality of Native American government. This minimalist approach evolved and grew, with an emphasis on "living in accordance with perennial wisdom passed down by oral tradition."
During these extraordinary times of "apocalypse" (meaning revelation of truth), it may seem that many long-standing systems are breaking down. Parry encourages us to remain optimistic, noting that the Acoma Pueblo people make new pots by starting with shards of old pots, to include ancestral wisdom and energy. In these apocalyptic times, we will do well to hold reverence for respectful dialogue, with an emphasis on peace, harmony, and functional communications and operations in all levels of society.
Original Politics invites us to recognize that our greatest national resources include the way that we, the people, relate to the land. We have much to learn about ways of respectfully, peacefully, harmoniously and functionally interacting with the Earth, ourselves, and others. Original Politics invites us to learn from the revelations of seemingly apocalyptic (revelatory) times, and experience a re-visioning and rebirth of the United States of America.
Original Politics explores the secret, long-neglected history of America's indigenous roots, to dazzling effect. American history is greatly enriched by remembering that Ben Franklin once said, "No European who has tasted Savage Life can afterwards bear to live in our societies." If Franklin were alive in contemporary times, he would probably choose to express this sentiment with more politically correct phrasing. Yet Franklin's feelings of respect and admiration for indigenous people would surely remain. Most Americans would be surprised to learn that many ideals and principles we consider to be "truly American" are indeed truly American--they are truly native American. A few examples of such principles include: the concept of inalienable (natural) rights; a free and egalitarian society; government derived from the just powers from the consent of the governed; informal caucusing to promote understanding of diverse points of view; and women having a voice in government.
The first half of Original Politics provides shining insights into the early history of the United States of America; the second half delves into how America might continue to learn from Native American influence to evolve into an inclusive, harmonious society. Original Politics describes the evolved and devolved expressions of unitive consciousness, and the way that America's founding fathers appreciated the minimalist quality of Native American government. This minimalist approach evolved and grew, with an emphasis on "living in accordance with perennial wisdom passed down by oral tradition."
During these extraordinary times of "apocalypse" (meaning revelation of truth), it may seem that many long-standing systems are breaking down. Parry encourages us to remain optimistic, noting that the Acoma Pueblo people make new pots by starting with shards of old pots, to include ancestral wisdom and energy. In these apocalyptic times, we will do well to hold reverence for respectful dialogue, with an emphasis on peace, harmony, and functional communications and operations in all levels of society.
Original Politics invites us to recognize that our greatest national resources include the way that we, the people, relate to the land. We have much to learn about ways of respectfully, peacefully, harmoniously and functionally interacting with the Earth, ourselves, and others. Original Politics invites us to learn from the revelations of seemingly apocalyptic (revelatory) times, and experience a re-visioning and rebirth of the United States of America.
November 23, 2020
Wow. There is no way I can do justice to this book: it is information-dense and so rich in decent human values, refreshingly so even thought it's by no means a feel-good volume. (Nor doom & gloom. Just... honest.)
Perry begins with a history of the immense but unacknowledged basis that the U.S. foundation owes to Native American governing principles; citing extensive documentation on the influence that Haudenosaune and other tribes had on the development of the U.S. Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution; he also of course speaks out about the criminal harmfulness of the founding fathers' omission of rights for anyone other than white males, an omission whose costs will likely continue beyond all our lifetimes.
I did not know any of this. I never tied together the Haudenosaunee Confederacy with the fact that the early colonists lived so closely side by side with them. I feel embarrassed but also angry that this is not taught more. If these elements are true, we should all know them. (Are they true? I'm a skeptic by nature but I have a yardstick that has served me well: if I encounter new information in a source, I consider what that source says about topics on which I consider myself informed. Perry passes on all respects. Still, I will strive to better inform myself on this in the future). The U.S. could not have been possible without the centuries-old experiences and perspectives of the Native Americans.
Part two covers the Revolution through 2016-ish, creation of political parties and their switcheroo over the decades, the genocides. Less new material here, but still informative and well written.
Part three is the Apocalypse and is where Perry's insights shine. He likens the orange traitor to the Trickster God from so many mythologies: chaos personified, disruptive, destructive, but a necessary force of nature and one we can choose to learn, recover, and rebuild from. (The key word of course is "choose". We can also choose denial or woe or even to further the destruction). I've always seen the traitor more as Windigo, as insatiable destructive greedy hunger, but there's a lot to be said for this angle. I'll settle for him being both. Rebuild we must: life will never be the same, we cannot undo the suffering that's been inflicted, but we can and must work together to build something better. Can we?
Perry writes in spring of 2020; I'm writing this in November. We now know that Biden and Harris won the election, but we don't know if they'll make it into the White House. We don't know how much more destruction the traitor will wreak, or how violent he will get in his attempts to avoid the prosecution and bankruptcy and humiliation that's coming to him in January. We do know, though, that the US has dodged a bullet: the possibility of an actual lawful win by the traitor. This offers us hope, and brings us to part four, which is so rich that I'll just stop here and hope that you buy your own copy or borrow mine.
OK one small postscript: I almost stopped reading on p.4, a grammatical then/than mixup. That's sloppy, as is the multiple misspelling of duel (Burr/Hamilton) as "dual". Don't quit: those are really the only mistakes, and the book is too damn good and important to abandon because of them.
Perry begins with a history of the immense but unacknowledged basis that the U.S. foundation owes to Native American governing principles; citing extensive documentation on the influence that Haudenosaune and other tribes had on the development of the U.S. Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution; he also of course speaks out about the criminal harmfulness of the founding fathers' omission of rights for anyone other than white males, an omission whose costs will likely continue beyond all our lifetimes.
I did not know any of this. I never tied together the Haudenosaunee Confederacy with the fact that the early colonists lived so closely side by side with them. I feel embarrassed but also angry that this is not taught more. If these elements are true, we should all know them. (Are they true? I'm a skeptic by nature but I have a yardstick that has served me well: if I encounter new information in a source, I consider what that source says about topics on which I consider myself informed. Perry passes on all respects. Still, I will strive to better inform myself on this in the future). The U.S. could not have been possible without the centuries-old experiences and perspectives of the Native Americans.
Part two covers the Revolution through 2016-ish, creation of political parties and their switcheroo over the decades, the genocides. Less new material here, but still informative and well written.
Part three is the Apocalypse and is where Perry's insights shine. He likens the orange traitor to the Trickster God from so many mythologies: chaos personified, disruptive, destructive, but a necessary force of nature and one we can choose to learn, recover, and rebuild from. (The key word of course is "choose". We can also choose denial or woe or even to further the destruction). I've always seen the traitor more as Windigo, as insatiable destructive greedy hunger, but there's a lot to be said for this angle. I'll settle for him being both. Rebuild we must: life will never be the same, we cannot undo the suffering that's been inflicted, but we can and must work together to build something better. Can we?
Perry writes in spring of 2020; I'm writing this in November. We now know that Biden and Harris won the election, but we don't know if they'll make it into the White House. We don't know how much more destruction the traitor will wreak, or how violent he will get in his attempts to avoid the prosecution and bankruptcy and humiliation that's coming to him in January. We do know, though, that the US has dodged a bullet: the possibility of an actual lawful win by the traitor. This offers us hope, and brings us to part four, which is so rich that I'll just stop here and hope that you buy your own copy or borrow mine.
OK one small postscript: I almost stopped reading on p.4, a grammatical then/than mixup. That's sloppy, as is the multiple misspelling of duel (Burr/Hamilton) as "dual". Don't quit: those are really the only mistakes, and the book is too damn good and important to abandon because of them.
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August 8, 2020“I want to thank Trump for helping reveal the collective shadow of this nation and for his role, however unwittingly, of catalyzing a national awakening of our nations’ sacred purpose,” (The last line of Glenn Parry’s book Original Politics: Making American Sacred Again). I am impressed with Parry’s research, insight, and ability to analyze where we are now in the history of our country including the Black Lives Matter movement to women’s rights, etc.….. You will learn so much that you may not have known about the transactions between early settlers in NA and Native Americans to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for their wisdom in helping us to form our democracy.
August 10, 2020
Fresh Insights into U.S. Political History
Glenn Parry integrates Native American history with that of the English settlers in convincingly documenting the interplay of the two cultures in the founding of the US. In compelling arguments, Parry persuasively shows how the collaborative approach to decision making of various Native American tribes influenced the formation of the US style of government. He then shifts his focus to the present day, perceptively assessing the Trump administration for what it has revealed of contemporary American society and its urgent need to make America sacred again. Parry clearly builds his case for rethinking our history, setting a new moral course, and incorporating Native American wisdom into all that we do.
This book has been long overdue as its alternative views are needed now more than ever. I recommend without reservation.
Glenn Parry integrates Native American history with that of the English settlers in convincingly documenting the interplay of the two cultures in the founding of the US. In compelling arguments, Parry persuasively shows how the collaborative approach to decision making of various Native American tribes influenced the formation of the US style of government. He then shifts his focus to the present day, perceptively assessing the Trump administration for what it has revealed of contemporary American society and its urgent need to make America sacred again. Parry clearly builds his case for rethinking our history, setting a new moral course, and incorporating Native American wisdom into all that we do.
This book has been long overdue as its alternative views are needed now more than ever. I recommend without reservation.
August 11, 2020
"Original Politics Making America Sacred Again", by Glenn Apraicio Parry, is a great read for history buffs and political junkies. His basic premise is that native Americans had great influence on the formation of our government. Parry discusses our polarized and dysfunctional politics and suggests a way forward.
The book is well documented discussing Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke, development of our political parties, abolition and women's suffrage, up to now. He concludes by stating, "May we resolve conflict with love. May we treat each other with love and respect..."
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The book is well documented discussing Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke, development of our political parties, abolition and women's suffrage, up to now. He concludes by stating, "May we resolve conflict with love. May we treat each other with love and respect..."
Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
August 18, 2020
Through the lens of caring for the land and for all the peoples who have made this country what it is, Parry helps us to understand what is happening now and to appreciate the past history that has brought us this far. This book helped me to dare to hope that we, our country, and our world can still restore the mutual respect necessary if our potential for wholeness is to be realized. I expect I am not the only one who didn’t know just how profoundly the example of inclusivity among the Iroquois people inspired the Founding Fathers; thereby setting these United States of America upon our unique journey across this sacred land.
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July 16, 2020ORIGINAL POLITICS is a must-read for anyone concerned about democracy, the future of this country, equal rights and the environment. This book should be on the curriculum in every college in America.
Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2020/06/original...
Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2020/06/original...
February 23, 2021
I think this is one of the most important books ever written about the influence of Native American culture on "American" culture. It's a new way of thinking, well researched, and mind opening. A must read for anyone interested the nation's, past, the future, and a spiritual awakening.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews