The End of Possible Standup: The Best Oral Tradition
the end of a career that never was
That’s all, folks! I think. Unless, of course, I think of some other inane thing that piques my interest. But I’m all tapped out at the moment. As expected, my US Open watching made this post late, but that’s all over now, too.
Please enjoy the final installment of my possible standup career that never was - The Best Oral Tradition.
Have you noticed that lately, podcasters and the like are announcing they are living on the land of the so-and-so indigenous tribe? I imagine a host mentioned this at some point, perhaps as a curiosity or for illumination, but then it didn’t take long for liberal folks to turn this into an opportunity for imperialistic guilt and shaming. And then, of course in response to this, conservative folks cite this as a form of virtue signaling. And now we yet again have people arguing.
Instead of fighting, I’d like to take a different tack. Can we stop for a second and praise how brilliant Native Americans were with their emphasis on the oral tradition? I’m speaking in broad terms, of course, but generally speaking, we know that indigenous folks didn’t write things down, or if they did, they were written on material that was easily destroyed. Like the idea of etching commandments on stone tablets – that wasn’t their jam.
Now consider how difficult life was back in those days. Here’s an excerpt from a Quora post regarding Native Americans in pre-colonial times:
It has been conservatively estimated that 90% of their day was spend[sic] tending crops (by hand), planting crops (by hand), scouring the woods for roots and berries (by hand) or hunting for meat with bow & arrow or spear or traps & snares (by hand).
They had no steel. All their hand tools and weapons were made from stone, rock or flint or sharpened wood. Metallurgy was unknown to them.
And now think about the last time you were hungry. For me, that’s going to a restaurant and the mozzarella sticks taking longer than eight minutes to arrive at my table. For you, it’s probably not dissimilar. But think how pissed off you were. Now take that and make that eight hours instead of eight minutes. Can you imagine how terrifyingly hangry you would be?
The Lenni Lenape Indians lived in the county where I live today, Warren County, in the state of New Jersey. From what I’ve read, they were peaceful folk, but do you really think they were the only humans who lived here? Of course not. More likely is that somebody else lived here, and then the Lenape took over, whether by force or by nature. The Lenape don’t own this land, either. In fact, nobody owns this land, because it’s land. It’s dirt and rocks and grass. It belongs to everyone and no one.
But since the Lenape nation was smart enough not to write down who was there before them, they now get to own this land for the rest of human eternity! Let us praise them for their unscripted brilliance: keep your nose to the grindstone and write down nothing.
lBUMMER but get it and I have personally dabbled in the Improv/Stand Up world...not for everyone but it is fun. More importantly Sung your comments about the indigenous tribe and how yes some liberals including me and I would consider myself a moderate may make it about shame and guilt--yet really it boils down to what you likely know ancestoral wounds, trauma, ego etc VERSUS again in my opinion the narcissistic, materialist, ego fear scare tactic often used by evangelicals and conservatives-serving no purpose but continued spew and hatred that many comedians try to gently "break" through humor and sarcasm....... Honorary spiritual leaders including many Native Americans you speak of talk a lot about "surrender" and the right way to approach this all and until everyone can do this inner work which is facing ones self which is VERY HARD likely we face the same problems and never figure out why we get mad if we have to wait eight minutes for our mozzarella sticks. My silent wish is we all can get there in this lifetime and the world becomes less about ourself or more one another.....and we do that to the best we can before we die...........like you said, instead of fighting we take a different track or path........HUGS!