There is a tribe in New Guinea called the Torajanese in Sulawesi which is a part of the nation of Indonesia, and it teaches us a valuable lesson. They are famous far and wide for doing what many of us Westerners already do in one way or another, to one extent or another. They have just carried it to an extreme, and extreme that we seem to be headed to as fast as we can go.
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It seems this tribe has "traditions" invented and maintained by Old People of course that "honors" their dead. Now there is nothing wrong with "honoring" the dead, elder or not, but there is a point at which these "honorings" of the dead become the killers of the Youth, and so we need to learn what extreme this tribe is taking this that might be a warning sign to us.
It also seems that in this tribe it comes down to "money" as most everything does everywhere, and provides an example of how easy it is to allow the "love of money" to make money itself into an evil, by the way we handle it. Money should be used for good, rather than allowing the love of it to destroy all of us, especially our Young People.
This tribe started out simply enough, (doesn't every evil start out quite simple and seemingly harmless?) but what started out as simply honoring their dead parents has over time ballooned into a dishonoring and permanently pauperizing their surviving children all in the name of honoring their parents.
In short, the cost of funerals is so great that the expense is bankrupting the children and grandchildren for generations just to pay for it. Families plunge into into debt for generations on end and never get to the end of paying for these incredibly costly funerals. Naturally, someone is profiting from all this borrowing, so just use your imagination as to how much the "bankers" supplying this money are profiting from the interest they are collecting on it.
Bottom line is, things have reached such a stage in this tribe that many young people are in open rebellion over these costs, which is dividing the society into a virtual civil war between the Old People and their allies, and the Young People and their allies. If you want to know the details of this evil filthy exploitative mess, and where it stands now, you can research this tribe and find out the sordid details.
The purpose here is to showcase that there is this fundamental divide, as there ought to be, between the Old and the Young of any society in any time, and in any place, and in particular in our Society. Old People have little in common with Young People. Now that is unfortunate, but when the power balance between the is tilted way out of line, then it must be righted by the Young standing up for what is right, and the Old gracefully yielding.
Young People and their allies, right here in America need to wake up, smell the coffee, and face the music and realize that this hostile unresolved divide between young and old is what ails this country more than anything else. Put simply, the greed and love of money of the Old, and the consequent victimization of the Young.
Right now there is an unequal power relationship between these two groups that transcends all differences between the parties, and ideologies of Right and Left, Conservative and Liberal, Religious and un-Religious. Youth must face their opponents united, and resolved to do what it takes to restore the proper balance between Young and Old in America.
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