Eco-communities as a social vision

Eco-communities as a social vision
Egalitarian and ecological communities, like the pictured East Wind (www.eastwind.org), are very close to our vision of an ecological society

18 March, 2010

Genocide (The Killing of the Buffalo) by Thin Lizzy, album: Chinatown (1980)

When they try to tell you knowledge is a dangerous thing
"It's such a dangerous thing"
The people that have it are the people that sin
And the people that need it are the people that can never win
"They can never win"
Let me get you out of here Little Broken Wing

There are people round here that are right
There are people round here that like to sleep at night
There are people round here that go slow
There are people round here that don't kindly to the killing of the buffalo

When they tear up all the treaties and break up all the plans
"They break up all the plans"
Did you do your duty and kill on command?
Did you know the redman used to roam this land?
"He used to roam this land"
Now the souls of lost warriors blow across the sands

People round here they get it right
People round here we like to sleep at night
There are people round here that go slow
People round here that don't take kindly to the killing of the buffalo, oh no

So listen to my story and listen to it well
"You better listen well"
Listen to the glory of the gory details of the tale I tell
Did you know the redman very well?
"I used to know him well"
Did you know the hunting ground before it became a hell?

There are people round here that are right
There are people round here that like to sleep at night
There are people round here I don't know
There are people round here that don't take kindly to the killing of the buffalo

The killing of the buffala-o
The killing of the buffala-o

So listen to my story of Genocide
How they were hunted and slaughtered till there was no place left to hide
Did you know the redman used to hold his head with pride?
Till every man, woman and child were destroyed

There are people round here that get it right
There are people round here that couldn't sleep at night
There are people round here I don't know
There are people round here that don't take kindly to the killing of the buffalo

There are people round here that understand
There are people round here that couldn't give a damn
There are people round here that go slow
There are people round here that don't take too kindly to the killing of the buffalo


A song that refers to the mass genocide of Buffalos in USA during the last decades of 19th century. We read in everything2.com

Two things led to the near extinction of the American buffalo or bison. The first threat to them came when the Indians began hunting on horseback, instead of following the migratory hordes and killing them on foot. But this was still of small account compared to the wholesale slaughter that went on when American colonists set out to exterminate the buffalo in order to deprive the hostile Indians of their primary source of food.

This began in the 1870s and became known as the Great Buffalo Massacre. Sadly, this was so successful that by 1889, a population of some 75 million buffaloes was reduced to a mere 540, a horrendous situation that led to the prairies being littered with the bones of the slaughtered buffalo. By the turn of the century, these few pitiful survivors were reduced to a mere few dozen.

Almost before it was too late, Congress realised the enormity of the crime that had been committed in the name of progress. In 1902, 50,000 dollars were set aside for the protection of the country's last herd in the Yellowstone National Park. Since then the buffalo have thrived.
You can hear this song in youtube