an excerpt from Noam Chomsky’s interview with Jaime Martinez Luna, desde Oaxaca, Mexico

“… but rather to a relationship with the land that is not mercantile, a relationship of sharing and caring.  That is, humans are linked to the land not only for organic sustenance, but also for spiritual and symbolic sustenance…

Obviously in a world ruled by the logic of the market, it is easier to appropriate everything from nature for ourselves.  The need to survive causes us to view everything from a materialistic perspective…  But here is where the difference from indigenous thinking springs forth.  Comunalidad is a way of understanding life as being permeated with spirituality, symbolism and great integration with nature.  It is one way of understanding that human beings are not the center, but simply a part of this great natural world.

• The “isms” are aberrations that convert themselves into authorities that impose themselves and are not naturally born.  I fear “communalism” because it sounds doctrinaire.  And I believe that is what we least want for our own free self-determination.
• Marx included in his writings a fountain of knowledge by which to understand our social longevity, but this was covered by his focus on industry and the protagonist role of the worker.  And we all know how that turned out.
• We must find in the experience of our peoples the lessons necessary to create new conceptual frameworks.  And we must not be afraid to construct new epistemological notions that will lead us to transcend ourselves.