Mapping the Terrortory

“We're lost in a mask, masquerade”
- sung by George Benson, song written by Leon Russell

(and a more up to date map, from Tribal Nations Maps )

At some point after the Global War On Terror (GWOT) was launched in response to the attacks on 9-11-2001, it became apparent that the USEmpire (USE), UK and other 'stand with us or against us' folks, to paraphrase President Dubya, were breaking Newton's Law big time. As of 2021, "A report from the Costs of War project at Brown University revealed that 20 years of post-9/11 wars have cost the U.S. an estimated $8 trillion and have killed more than 900,000 people." https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar And some stats show much higher loss of lives, including nearly 5,000 US military troops.

With no disrespect to the approximately 3,000 lives lost due to the 9-11 attacks, that the GWOT has turned out to be nowhere near a Newtonian equal and opposite reaction made it glaringly obvious – at least to some – that something else was going on. And considering the above cited numbers, something very sick and sinister.

In a March 2, 2007 interview on Democracy Now!, General Wesley Clark spilled the beans, saying: “And he said, ‘This is a memo [from the US Secretary of Defense’s office] that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.’”

(USE military bases worldwide, plus what are called “ lily-pads”.
map source: www.craigmurray.org.uk)

Because of the excessive onslaught, at some point I dubbed it the Global War OF Terror (GWOFT), which, though am no historian, seems basically what all wars are.

Recently listening to First Voices Radio (FVR) I heard host Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota) mention the etymology of the word "territory." Something to do with Earth/land, from terra, I thought, but I was only partially correct. For starters, "territory" (from terra) is not just a reference to a piece of Earth/land: From the "late 14c., territorie, "land under the jurisdiction of a town, sovereign, state, etc.; a region belonging to a kingdom or associated with a people," probably from Latin territorium "land around a town, domain, district.""

"Under the jurisdiction of" signals an overlord, the state or sovereign and historically a king with the land as his kingdom. In other words, under the domination of the king, an aspect of what Steven Newcomb (Shawnee-Lenape) refers to as the "system of domination."

So in essence a territory is not just some land, rather land controlled by the powers that do too much. And since the land is typically if not always originally lands of Original Peoples, the system of domination is based on legal and property twistedness. Similarly, the pledge of alliance indoctrinates young schoolchildren into the consciousness of “one nation under God” (my bold), which can later serve as a warped raison d'être for condoning and/or ignoring war (see above GWOFT stats). As Dylan sings:
“And the names of the heroes
l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.”

Yet another layer of “territory” became apparent to me listening to FVR with the mention of the etymology of “territory” as meaning: "hold a place subjective to terror." Whoa! So I looked further to find: "An alternative theory, somewhat supported by the vowels of the original Latin word, suggests derivation from terrere "to frighten" (see terrible); thus territorium would mean "a place from which people are warned off."”
&
“terrible (adj.) c. 1400, "causing terror...fitted to excite awe or dread" from Old French terrible (12c.) and directly from Latin terribilis "frightful," from terrere "fill with fear."”

Thus etymologically the GWOFT dates back to the 12th century.

Aside from a Halloween prank, why would anyone want to go around filling people with fear, terrorizing? I suppose they must want something from them, or at least want to control them, or disconnect them from their innate resonance and relationship with the land of which there is a natural “awe,” say of a storm with high winds — but being with the natural world is decidedly not human “under the jurisdiction” of another human's fear or terror.

My sense is that money is not the root of evil, rather money is a symptom — and the root is fear. One hoards something as a means to protect one’s self; the protective coat masks the underlying fear of not having enough and not knowing how to be nurtured by the Earth. Many people grow some herbs and veggies in the warm weather gardens, but live off of that? The challenge is a direct result of terrortory.

While it may sound a bit new agey, my strong feeling for how to tip the energetic/emotion scales is: The more people that wrestle with and face their fears, the less power the terror-mongers have, the less they can poke at and feed off of fear, the less they can convince people that the GWOT du jour is for your good because it's protecting you from terrorists — which, by the way, is one of the taglines for another of the sickest most sadistic onslaughts in human history, the US-UK-Canadian-German-backed Israeli genocidal attacks on Gaza and the Palestinians, the Native Palestinians; bombing schools, bombing bakeries, bombing hospitals; drone bombing individuals; killing a reported 70% women and children. Newton cries in his grave.

There was a Reign of Terror in France, from 1793 to 1794. In 1973, after Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, another reign of terror. In existential moments I ask myself: When does that shit end?

Currently in the USE, wild animals are killed so as to protect the Orwellian or investment banking named “livestock industry.” The wild buffalo of the Plains were systematically almost eradicated (for a fascinating look at some of the history, see Extermination of the Buffalo and Creation of the Corporate Person). Yet, while challenging, the Buffalo Nation is currently making a valiant comeback (see Roam Free Nation).

The spelling TerrorTory helps unveil another historical tidbit. “The Tory [British] ethos has been summed up with the phrase ‘God, King (or Queen), and Country’” (Wikipedia). But it’s not just history because the “corporate person” is the new King/Queen. But it’s not just history repeating because while still controlling land, it’s not simply the ‘local territory’ because the corporate-state has a globalist agenda. And the stakes are high: the possible woke feudalization of all land and public consciousness.

About twenty years ago I read something in what am pretty sure was the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and it has stayed with me. While exact details may be off, it is the gist I find significant. There was a footnote to the effect that, historically the religious crackdown on and persecution of homosexuality was not about sexuality per se, rather about the uncontrolled and wild behavior of those who participated in such experiences, about the different states of consciousness that could be accessed. Such behavior was contrary to the status quo and – as with pagans, witches, gypsies, mystics, Original Peoples, and the likes of Socrates, Galileo, and Assange – had to be repressed if not stamped out. Only in 2013 was homosexuality no longer categorized as a mental illness.

I cite this so as to say, I think that along with the fear of not having enough to survive, it is fear of the wild that drives the terror agenda. That those who are terrified of their own wildness, terrified of being a small fry in a big wilderness, terrified of spiritual and sexual energies beyond their control seek to play God (and Country) by controlling others; subsequently that control-freakness takes control of the land by terrorizing those who were already there. Even in suburbia there are small wooded areas I can’t go into because of a fence and sign to the effect of: keep out—property “under the jurisdiction of state/town.”

History shows it is a tall task battling behemoths, but the dandelion — a wildflower before it was demonized and labeled a weed in an attempt to eradicate as with the wild buffalo — has a track record that perhaps every child has witnessed: growing through concrete.

We have our work cut out for us. It's a hard road (no pun intended), but some of the work requires getting through the concrete consciousness that has paved much of the Earth/land/terra — and turned the sacred grounds into a terrortory.