
Asos confirms hackers sent ‘unauthorised’ notification to app users as reflected on by Elder Thomas Many Feathers
Across the open grasslands of the northern plains, our people have always known that sound travels far on the prairie wind. In the old days, a rider rode into the winter camp. A herald shouted through the village center. Indeed, that voice carried great weight. The speaker was known, and their clan was known. Their ancestors stood behind their words. If a warning sounded, kinship and honor backed it. In our Lakota understanding, speech is not a toy. The breath carrying it is a gift from the sacred winds. Therefore, directing another person’s attention is a serious matter of trust. This wisdom helps us understand the recent unauthorised notification incident.
I hear millions of people suddenly received an uninvited voice. This voice came through their glass devices. Strangers sent it, slipping through hidden doors in digital trade networks. I see a familiar malady of the modern world. Men have built extraordinary networks of wire and invisible energy. They wrap Grandmother Earth in a relentless hum of artificial noise. Yet, they constructed these things without spiritual balance. They built pathways so fragile and hollow. Unseen hands can shout into crowds’ ears. These hands never show their faces or answer for the disturbance. This imbalance causes deep concern.
Guarding the Lodge: Digital Breaches and Traditional Respect
In our traditional life, every lodge has an opening. However, customs of respect guard that doorway. A visitor does not barge through a family’s tipi flap unannounced. Even a relative stands outside and calls softly. They wait for permission to enter. This modern marketplace, driven by fast commerce and endless buying, demands open inner lodges. Millions give their pocket devices the right to call out day and night. They hope for bargains or diversion. Instead, thieves and tricksters find their way into their homes’ sacred quiet. This is a profound invasion.
This disruption points toward a deeper spiritual carelessness. Market culture often suffers from this. Corporate houses gather names, locations, and intimate habits of everyday people. They store them in vast digital caches, like pelts in a fur trader’s warehouse. They promise safety and convenience. Their primary motive, however, is accumulation, not human dignity. When the walls fail and a breach occurs, the company issues a sterile statement. They call it an unauthorised notification. Yet, the deeper breach is one of relational reciprocity. They took what belongs to the people’s peace. They failed to protect it with true honor.
Reclaiming Quiet: Medicine for a Modern World
Among our people, we learn the teaching of Mitakuye Oyasin. This means we are all related. We are joined in an intricate web of life. When relationships are healthy, connection brings mutual strength. It also provides clear guidance and mutual protection. But connection forged merely through machines to feed consumption creates unnatural vulnerability. It ties millions together not in love or shared survival. Instead, it exposes them to faceless malice. People find themselves startled and alarmed by phantoms. They remember how completely they surrendered their quiet attention to machines owned by distant traders.
Perhaps such intrusions, though unsettling, carry an unintended medicine. This medicine is for those willing to pay attention. They serve as a small reminder. The devices we carry are not our relatives. The voices that come through them carry no true loyalty to our families or our spirit. When the digital bells ring without cause and strangers whisper through the glass, it is a good time. Set the device facedown on the pine table. Step outside. Breathe the cool air blowing off the hills. Listen instead to the wind, the cottonwood leaves, and the genuine voices of our children sitting by the fire. This is true connection.
You may also like
Share this reflection
Pass this spiritual insight on to your congregation, friends, and community across your social networks.
By Elder Thomas Many Feathers
Lakota ceremonial elder and community counselor. Advocate for treaty rights, sacred waters, and the protection of Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth). Writes on ecological reciprocity, the sacredness of clean water, tribal sovereignty, and ancestral wisdom for modern crises.
Archives
- October 2026
- September 2026
- August 2026
- July 2026
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
Leave a Reply