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Badgers And Blood Oranges

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They came upon a circle of nomads
Camped far from the lights of the town
Blue men with scars and malarial eyes
And teeth that were pointed… filed down
He said: “These are the people I’ve been searching for,
This is more than I ever could have hoped!”
As they threw him down on a blanket
And tied him up with a hand-braided rope

They cut out his tongue and blinded his eyes
With coals from a cous-cous fire
Tied empty tin cans to his arms and his legs
That rattled on long copper wires
Now he’s forgotten his name and why he came to the desert
As they lead him through oasis and town
And the people stare, throw coins and laugh wildly
At the Blue Men and their white dancing clown.

— “Blood Oranges” Tom Russell

*

“The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I’d have them all in zoos.”

— The Judge in “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy

*

Rullman and I independently hit upon the badger as a kind of spirit animal. Perhaps Badger ought to be the mascot of RIR. Badger doesn’t go looking for trouble, but if you stick your arm down his hole, you’re going to pull back a stump. There’s something admirable in that, don’t you think?

Why would anybody stick their arm down a badger’s hole? Good question. Why would 26-year-old American John Allen Chau decide that he simply MUST visit the most remote, uncontacted people on the planet — tribesmen noted for greeting anybody who tries to visit their island with a shower of arrows?

NPR reports:

An American man described in local media as either an adventure tourist or a Christian missionary has been killed by tribesman on North Sentinel Island, Indian police said Wednesday (November 21). As of nightfall, they were still trying to recover his body. A homicide case is pending.

Seven local fishermen have been arrested and accused of facilitating the man’s trip, police said.

In this undated photo released by the Anthropological Survey of India, Sentinelese tribe men row their canoe near India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

North Sentinel is part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, hundreds of miles off mainland India’s southeastern coast. The Indian government restricts tourist travel to some of the islands.

… (The Sentinelese) are hunter-gatherers who live on a remote, forested island in the Indian Ocean. They do not use money. They resist contact with the outside world — and have been known to sling arrows at outsiders who approach their shores.

And from CNN:

It’s believed the Sentinelese killed Chau after he asked a local friend to find a boat and several fishermen to help him get closer to the prohibited island.
From the boat, the fishermen said Chau used a canoe to reach the shore on November 16. He returned with arrow injuries the same day, but set off once again to reach the island on November 17 and never returned. The fisherman later saw members of the tribe dragging his body around, authorities said.
Chau knew the island was a restricted area and his mission there was illegal, according to a friend, John Middleton Ramsey.
Chau had made a scouting trip to the remote island chain several years ago, and when he returned, Ramsey recalled Chau talked about his plans to go back to the island bearing gifts for the Sentinelese people.
He said he wanted to get to know the islanders’ way of life, eventually share the Gospel and perhaps translate the Bible, Ramsey recalled.

*

I can’t say I’m sorry for this guy. When people make it clear that they just want to be left alone, the right thing — the smart thing — to do is to leave them alone. Reminds me of a party I went to in college where some guy had a completely unprovoked problem with my hat. He walked by and batted the brim. I told him not to do that. He did it again. I told him that if he did that one more time, I would punch him in the face. He did it again and I punched him in the face. He lay there on the floor whining, “You hit me!”

*

Thing is, there are a whole lot of people in the world who just can’t leave Badger alone. They MUST stick their arm down his hole; it’s a compulsion, or a mission from God. Badger — or any creature — left alone is an affront to their sense of order and propriety in the universe. They are insulted by the freedom of birds.

I find this strange, but then I have little of the proselytizer in me. In fact, proselytizers of any stripe set my teeth on edge. And there are many, many stripes to be found. The Abrahamic religions are proselytizing faiths — it’s the duty of a Christian or Muslim to convert others. (Interestingly, the original is NOT a proselytizing faith).

But religion has no corner on the proselytizing racket. Marxism was the great proselytizing faith of the 20th Century, and it seems to be making a comeback. It’s not enough for adherents of the faith to believe that they’ve found the path to utopia, they must convince thee and me that this is the True Path. And if we cannot be convinced, the Way must be imposed upon us. For our own good, of course.

The True Followers of the God of the Market are also proselytizers, though perhaps of a subtler (and more insidious) stripe. They offer a sip from the grail of greater and greater ease and convenience, and pay no mind to the cost…

There are proselytizers in every city and every town, including our own, who have found a way of life they wish to pursue — and because it is a good way of life, and a righteous one, everybody else should abandon their old ways and pursue it, too. They, of course, would not recognize themselves in this description, and would be outraged by it — but it is nonetheless true.

And this is a problem, because it may be that, down deep, the most earnest and well-meaning among them find our freedom insulting and would have us all in zoos.

*

So… I cannot look upon the fate of the young American proselytizer on Sentinel Island with much dismay. It is sad, like a young man losing his life by driving way too fast is sad. But I can’t help feeling at least a sense of recognition in the Sentinelese. They know the zoo is out there, and they’re not having it. They have struck a blow for the freedom of birds. And for Badger.

Leave ’em the hell alone.

*

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Jim Cornelius

Jim Cornelius

Born in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Jim Cornelius grew up dreaming of distant frontiers, of mountain men, long hunters, African explorers. His older brother gave him a tattered copy of Allan W. Eckert’s The Frontiersmen, a biography of Simon Kenton, and the twig was bent. Graduated from...

Comments

  2. Rick Schwertfeger says

    There’s a very thin young women in my neighborhood who walks quite vigorously most mornings. Being the retired gentleman of leisure that I am, I’m out walking some mornings, too. Or out doing yard work. So I’d say “Hello.” Some times she actually stopped and we had short conversations of the type you have when you don’t really know each other. She’s fit and pleasant, and I enjoyed seeing her.
    BUT, sure enough, answering a knock on the door one day, there she is with hubby in tow. After a few hellos and nice to meet yous, hubby quite assertively wanted to know what I thought about THE MAN JESUS CHRIST. It took at least 5–10 minutes from that point to be as nice as I could while putting them off. Now I see her rarely. Guess she’s changed her route. Maybe trying to hire a canoe to head to some island.

    Reply

  3. deuce says

    “Rullman and I independently hit upon the badger as a kind of spirit animal.”

    You could do worse. While not that closely related to our badgers, the ratel/honey badger is something else. Mind-boggling ferocity.

    Dachsunds were bred to (successfully) enter badger dens and drag out the badgers. The name means “badger hound”.

    “When people make it clear that they just want to be left alone, the right thing — the smart thing — to do is to leave them alone.”

    We no longer have that right in this country.

    “And this is a problem, because it may be that, down deep, the most earnest and well-meaning among them find our freedom insulting and would have us all in zoos.”

    That certainly could be the case.

    Reply

    • lane batot says

      …as to the Zoo comment, I WORK in a Zoo, and am always flabbergasted at the people that I have to hear rant against zoos, and want them all abolished(not realizing in their ignorance all the good a GOOD zoo does–and like anything, there are good and bad ones…), but hypocritically, those kind of people are ALREADY living very much like captive animals, and have no realistic concept of wild freedom. If such individuals were taken to a remote wilderness and dumped out and told to “go and be FREE!”, they would be HORRIFIED, and probably dead within a week(or less). But then perhaps that’s why they rail against zoos–subconsciously they despise their own overly-civilized lives.….

      Reply

  4. John Cornelius says

    If they are still giving out Darwin awards, Chau would certainly qualify. Returning with arrow wounds, and going back for more is certainly an enhancement. 

    Initially, there was talk of retrieving his body, but it seems that cooler heads are prevailing about that absurd notion. 

    I had completely missed Blood Oranges. Glad you shined a light on it.

    Reply

  5. Matthew says

    Well, as a Christian I believe there is value in sharing my faith, but there are right and wrong ways of going about it. Trying to shove religion down the throats of those who don’t want it is the wrong way. If for no other reason than it doesn’t work.

    Better to take responsibility for yourself and try to live up to your own principles than meddle in other peoples lives.

    Reply

  6. WLR says

    Great work you guys are doing here. This piece is excellent reasoning. Sadly sometimes people just can’t leave well enough alone and its costly. Reasoning and Rationale need to be the R’s taught in every school until college graduation I say.
    Superb writing to be found on RIR? Thank you guys and keep up the great work. You guys have faithful followers.

    Reply

  7. tom says

    I did a tour in the field artillery in Vietnam. I would say,in the luxury of hindsight, that Vietnam was a badger for the usa?

    Reply

  8. TJ says

    Great piece sir and I believe a good example of the contributing factors to much of the disconnected violence today. We are paying the price for the artificial inoculation from the lesson of consequences (the badger, or a well placed bloody lip) at an early age; coupled with a disconnect to other humans, nature and our creator. Seeing it from the front row here in California on and off the job.

    Reply

  9. John M Roberts says

    The fool doesn’t even rate the name of martyr (though some will undoubtedly try to bestow it upon him). He wasn’t killed for his faith. He was killed because he insisted on intruding upon people among whom he knew damn well he was not welcome. They had already repelled him with arrows, though non-fatally, yet he insisted on going back. In Russian Roulette, you can only pull that trigger so many times. He got what he deserved.

    Reply

  11. lane batot says

    I read a book not long ago about the Andaman islanders(and related tribes), and the ones that DID allow foreigners to influence them basically became extinct as a people and a culture. Same old story, played out a buhzillion times on our planet. Shades of “Ishmael”. May the Andaman islanders remain “wild”!.…Numerous efforts have been made to convert me, but all failed–both religious-wise and institutionalized education. I have remained as “unreconstructed” a savage as you could hope for, despite forced immersion in modern society. I once watched with pleasure as my formidable Louisiana Catahoula Leopard dog sent some Jehovah’s Witnesses packing–and that ain’t easy! I used him as a stud dog several times, and his selling point as a breeder was that he was “proven on Jehovah’s Witnesses!” The only other time I saw J‑Wits defeated and in such a hasty retreat was in a valley I once lived in(as a renter–strange that I was tolerated despite my hethern ways.…) totally run and occupied by Seventh Day Adventists–I mean, this tribe had it’s own hospital, school, stores–an entirely almost self-supporting community! Very nice folk generally–but ZERO TOLERANCE for the J‑Wits–I’m surprised those intruders didn’t have some arrow wounds before they escaped!.…..And as to the Badger as a totem for this blog community–I’m all for it! And include ANY type of badger–they all have similar characteristics and temperments! Ratel/Honey Badgers, and Old Brock–the European Badger–there are badger-like critters on most every continent, kinda like the Frontier Partisans! Instead of the motto “Don’t Tread On Me”, ours could be “Keep Yer Hands Outta My Hole!”

    Reply

  12. Breaker Morant says

    A few weeks ago over on FP we had a discussion that The Wild Bunch is the quintessential Frontier Partisans movie, even though I might argue for Blood Diamond (and rightly lose) and place Secondhand Lions as first place in the family category-LOL.

    Not speaking for others, but since then my thoughts have turned to other quintessential symbols of the combined community here. Obviously, Blood Oranges seems to be the song most symbolic of this place. Plus we all seem to hate Imagine-another binding tie.

    So we have the movie and the song?

    Personally, I have a deep visceral hatred for the movie Dunkirk. I hated it immediately from the opening onward and it only got worse.

    Reply

      • John M Roberts says

        A movie most might overlook is “The Roots of Heaven” (1958). It’s about an idealist trying to save Africa’s remaining elephants from extinction. One of the most fantastic casts of all time: Trevor Howard, Erroll Flynn, Orson Welles, Eddie Albert, Herbert Lom, Paul Lukas…the list goes on. African nationalism comes into the mix. Not what occurs immediately when we think frontier partisan but squarely in the ballpark nonetheless.

        Reply

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