REFLECTIVE INSIGHT #018 - EMANCIPATE OURSELVES FROM MENTAL SLAVERY - THE METAPHORS OF “BABYLON” AND “ZION”

The Choice is Ours

We often talk about "the system" as if it’s a faceless machine, but our tūpuna and the prophets who walked this land before us had a much sharper name for it: Babylon. As Bob Marley famously sang, we need to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, because while they can’t stop the time, they certainly try to steal our energy. Today, we stand at a crossroads in Taitokerau where we have to choose: do we stay in the "Leaky Bucket" of Babylon, or do we finally build Zion?

The Babylonian Error

In the traditions of the Ringatū and Ratana movements—much like the Rastafarian faith—the names “Babylon” and “Zion” aren't just religious labels; they are descriptions of opposing economic and spiritual operating systems. Babylon represents the "Newtonian Error," the idea that we are all separate, isolated particles just trying to grab what we can. In modern Northland, Babylon looks like the log trade: we export 61% of our raw timber—our "embodied energy"—to the other side of the world, receiving fiat currency that we immediately spend on imported goods. It’s a state of high Entropy (disorder) that leaves our roads broken and our whānau struggling while the "order" is realised offshore.

Zion and Indigenous Ekonomia

Zion, by contrast, is the restoration of Ekonomia—the stewardship of the household. This is the "Woven Universe" that Rev. Māori Marsden spoke about, where everything is entangled. This is the "Redemption Song" of our region11. It is a negentropic ecosystem. Our Zion is an Economic Pā—a circular system where waste becomes food, data is protected as "Digital Flesh," and the Mauri of the land is our primary metric of success.

Negentropic Engines of Change

The transition requires a shift from Chrematistics (money-making for its own sake) to Indigenous Ekonomia. We are already seeing "Islands of Negentropy" popping up, like the Ngāwhā Innovation Park, which uses geothermal heat in cascades to power glasshouses and dry timber locally, keeping the energy and the jobs right here in the North.

Activate the Future

It’s time to stop observing ourselves through the "Colonial Gaze" of deficit and start observing the abundance of our own potential. We are the Universal Constructors of our own timeline. Are you ready to leave the bucket and start building the Pā?