We could learn more

This rant was inspired by two sources: the Chavez version of oil MBS, and Mamdani’s brilliant phrase ‘the warmth of collectivism’.

Progressives and wokies love to focus on the ‘spiritual’ side and the ‘suffering’ side of the old American tribes. We could learn a WHOLE HELL OF A LOT MORE from the commercial success of those tribes.

This angle is uncomfortable to ‘progressives’. The Cherokee and Chickasaw knew how to do business long before the Euro invasion, and continued doing business afterward. The Cherokee were prosperous plantation owners in Dixie. When they were forced into Oklahoma they took their slaves along and resumed running prosperous cotton plantations.

A hundred years ago the Cherokee and Osage were enriched by oil on their territory. They used the oil wealth wisely, setting up Mutual Benefit Societies to insure that all legitimate members of the tribe had a share of the revenue. Tribal registration, like inheritance of a family estate, was valuable, so the tribes had to guard carefully against impostors.

Another uncomfortable fact: Mutual Benefit Societies are NOT inclusive. They are meant to serve one occupation or one religious group or one ethnic group. An MBS works BECAUSE it’s a closed club with shared culture and shared ‘selfish genes’. It also reinforces the shared culture by adding a monetary reward for cultural compliance.

In the 1800s each major trade had its own MBS, helping to train apprentices and helping to support disabled or elderly members. These societies morphed into trade unions, which continued the training aspect but lost the assistance part.

Most MBSes were destroyed in the 1920s when Wall Street took over the economy. Bank-based insurance companies saw the members as profit sources, so they bought out the society and turned it into a COLD commercial algorithm instead of a WARM cultural zone. Later when Wall Street wrote “civil rights” laws, the ethnic MBSes were pushed out of legitimacy. The tribes were able to continue because their governing bodies are more sovereign than states.