The following speech was given by Russell Means in July 1980, before several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering, in the...
I don't think anybody here is about throwing out modern science; without modern science I would have been dead by the age of 12, so I'm not even close to advocating for that. I'm just trying to give context for why it's not a totally ridiculous argument for native peoples to make, based on their history with "modern science." Science is progress for some but not for all. There is nothing "in the abstract" or devoid of historical and social context. "Modern science" allowed Europeans to steamroll over native peoples and did not bring them any modicum of "progress." Therefore, it's a natural consequence that many will be skeptical of any accounts of "progressive" science making life better for everybody. Even Marx in his later years began to doubt his own "progress" narrative about the necessity of capitalist development and "science" for communism—see Karl Marx and the Iroquois. I agree that there is tremendous potential to re-purpose a lot of the "progress" we've seen under capitalism for the benefit of all the world's peoples, but right now that's not the case, and this "progress" has only resulted in increasing levels of misery for some.
I don't think anybody here is about throwing out modern science; without modern science I would have been dead by the age of 12, so I'm not even close to advocating for that. I'm just trying to give context for why it's not a totally ridiculous argument for native peoples to make, based on their history with "modern science." Science is progress for some but not for all. There is nothing "in the abstract" or devoid of historical and social context. "Modern science" allowed Europeans to steamroll over native peoples and did not bring them any modicum of "progress." Therefore, it's a natural consequence that many will be skeptical of any accounts of "progressive" science making life better for everybody. Even Marx in his later years began to doubt his own "progress" narrative about the necessity of capitalist development and "science" for communism—see Karl Marx and the Iroquois. I agree that there is tremendous potential to re-purpose a lot of the "progress" we've seen under capitalism for the benefit of all the world's peoples, but right now that's not the case, and this "progress" has only resulted in increasing levels of misery for some.