tears for the Tao

From my History 175 textbook, about the Lakota Indians:

To gain access to spiritual power and to benefit the weaker members of the community, young men would "sacrifice" themselves by suffering self-torture . . . Painter George Catlin, who recorded Great Plains Indian life before the Civil War, described such a ceremony.

"Several of them, seeing me making sketches, beckoned me to look at their faces, which I watched through all this horrid operation, without being able to detect anything but the pleasantest smiles as they looked me in the eye, while I could hear the knife rip through the flesh, and feel enough of it myself, to start involuntary and uncontrollable tears over my cheeks."

Would Joe American, v. 2006, assuming he could spare a moment for time travel between reality TV shows, share in George Catlin's empathy? Or would he shrug, remark on the very interesting difference from our culture, and go on to the next thing?

Last summer at WJI we watched a startling documentary called Through These Eyes about a social science program used in the 60's and 70's that systematically ripped away at a Western child's worldview by exposing him to the amoral and often gory life of the Netsilik Eskimos as an acceptable paradigm for human behavior.

I intend to study this and pontificate fully when I have time again. In the meanwhile, I am noting Lewis's foresight in "The Abolition of Man," and returning to my history textbook.