The Fourth World

Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance

Life out of balance

koy.aa.nis.qat.si (Hopi) [n] 1. crazy life 2. life out of balance 3. life disintegrating 4. life in turmoil 5. a way of life that calls for another way of living.

ko.yan.nis.qatsi (de la lengua Hopi), 1.vida loca 2.vida en tumulto 3.vida en desintegración 4.vida desequilibrada 5.una condición de vida que clama por otra manera de vivir.

The stories of the people or their "histories" had always been sacred, the source of their entire existence. If the people had not retold their stories, or if the stories had somehow been lost, then the people were lost: the ancestor spirits were summoned by the stories. This man Marx had understood that the stories or "history" are sacred, that within history reside relentless forces, powerful spirits, vengeful, relentlessly seeking justice.

No matter what you or anyone else did, Marx said, history would catch up with you: it was inevitable, it was relentless. The turning, the changing, were inevitable.

The old people had stories that said much the same, that it was only a matter of time and things European would gradually fade from the American continents. History would catch up with the White man whether the Indian did anything or not. History was the sacred text. The most complete history was the most powerful force. - Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead

“The secret of storytelling amongst the poor is the conviction that stories are told so that they may be listened to elsewhere, where somebody, or perhaps a legion of people, know better than the storyteller or the story’s protagonists, what life means. The powerful can’t tell stories: boasts are the opposite of stories, and any story however mild has to be fearless and the powerful today live nervously.

“A story refers life to an alternative and more final judge who is far away. Maybe the judge is located in the future, or in the past that is still attentive, or maybe somewhere over the hill, where the day’s luck has changed (the poor have to refer often to bad or good luck) so that the last have become first.

“Story-time (the time within a story) is not linear. The living and the dead meet as listeners and judges within this time, and the greater the number of listeners felt to be there, the more intimate the story becomes to each listener. Stories are one way of sharing the belief that justice is imminent. And for such a belief, children, women and men will fight at a given moment with astounding ferocity. This is why tyrants fear storytelling: all stories somehow refer to the story of their fall.”

From John Berger's That have not been asked: ten dispatches about endurance in the face of walls

"I was told that after the battle, two Cheyenne women came across Custer's body. They knew him, because he had attacked their peaceful village on the Washita. These women said, "You smoked the peace pipe with us. Our chiefs told you that you would be killed if you ever made war on us again. But you would not listen. This will make you hear better." The women each took an awl from their beaded cases and stuck them deep into Custer's ears.

Somebody who saw this told me about it...Hundreds of books have been written about this battle by people who weren't there. I was there, but all I remember is one big cloud of dust.

Good Fox (Lakota)