Malcolm Margolin > Quotes

“Along with the mystical wonderment and sense of ecological responsibility that comes with the recognition of connectedness, more disturbing images come to mind. When applied to economics, connectedness seems to take the form of chain stores, multinational corporations, and international trade treaties which wipe out local enterprise and indigenous culture. When I think of it in the realm of religion, I envision smug missionaries who have done such a good job of convincing native people everywhere that their World-Maker is the same as God, and by this shoddy sleight of hand have been steadily impoverishing the world of the great fecundity and complex localism of belief systems that capture truths outside the Western canon. And I wonder—if everything's connected, does that mean that everything can be manipulated and controlled centrally by those who know how to pull strings at strategic places?”
― Malcolm Margolin

“The Ohlones seem to have lived at a time and in a spiritual place before the imagination was cast away and isolated from “mainstream” consciousness. Since dreams were real, when an animal-god appeared in the hollows of the dream mind, it was not mere illusion: it was divine revelation.”
― Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way

“And I wonder---if everything's connected, does that mean that everything can be manipulated and controlled centrally by those who know how to pull strings. . . .”
― Malcolm Margolin

“A balanced (rather than exploitative) relationship with the environment; an economic system based on sharing rather than competing; a strong sense of family and community; social moderation and restraint; the opportunity for widespread artistic creativity; a way of governing that serves without oppressing; a deeply spiritual sense of the world: these are the very things many of us are currently striving to attain in our own culture. The irony is that while we look forward to a dimly-perceived future when such values might be realized, we have failed to understand that they existed in the not-so-distant past as the accomplishments not only of the Ohlones, but of Stone-Age people the world over.”
― Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area

“Her father is dead. . . . Now she must never mention his name again. No one will ever mention his name. She must try not to think about him. He is dead.”
― Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way

“The spiritual power sought by the Ohlones was not the pure, abstract kind of power such as modern religions offer. . . . In addition to its good qualities, it had erratic and often malevolent aspects as well.”
― Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way

“The Ohlones seem to have lived at a time and in a spiritual place before the imagination was cast away and isolated from 'mainstream' consciousness. Since dreams were real, when an animal-god appeared in the hollows of the dream mind, it was not mere illusion: it was divine revelation.”
― Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way

“For as we stretch & strain to look through the various windows into the past, we do not merely see a bygone people hunting, fishing, painting their bodies, & dancing their dances. If we look long enough, if we dwell on their joy, fear, & reverence, we may in the end catch glimpses of almost forgotten aspects of our own selves.”
― Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area

“The Ohlones lived in a world where people were few and animals were many, where the bow and arrow were the height of technology, where a deer who was not approached in the proper manner could easily escape and a bear might easily attack--indeed, they lived in a world where the animal kingdom had not yet fallen under the domination of the human race and where (how difficult it is for us to fully grasp the implications of this!) people did not yet see themselves as the undisputed lords of all creation.”
― Malcolm Margolin, The Ohlone Way