Destruction

I took a class while I was in college. It was a literature course, and its emphasis was on mysteries. We read The Maltese Falcon, Devil in a Blue Dress, various others. One book that we read had to do with the Cherokee (the tribe that was forcibly ejected from Georgia in what is now known as the Trail of Tears) as they lived in Oklahoma (on land that had oil on it... i'm sure you can see where this is going).

I've always loved learning about Native Americans... There is something about the pastoral nature of the way they lived, the way they lived in balance with the Earth... It is very Christyan.

One of the concepts that the book discussed was that suicide doesn't exist in the tribe. The tribe was a community and they supported each other. Depression happened, but they helped one another through their hardships. Suicide was a "Western" concept. I found myself thinking today about how it is the ultimate sin for a Catholic to commit suicide, but that the thought of suffering in hell for all eternity doesn't seem to act as much of a deterrent to those who are set on ending their lives.

It makes you wonder what made the colonists think they were more civilized. Scalping is crude and disgusting, sure; Europeans used to leave heads of executed criminals in the town square, to serve as a deterrent to those considering breaking the law. Criminals in the early US (and for decades and decades afterward) were hung in the gallows... Witches were burned at the stake or drowned. We legislate against cruel and unusual punishment and employ it on a daily basis.

Is it human nature to destroy others in an effort to raise oneself up?

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I want a t-shirt that says "hypocrite." I think it would be good for my sense of self.