I Suppose

To share life with a best friend and a lover would be true bliss; but what is a lover when passion, desire, intimacy, equality, trust, compassion, and yearning are withheld? A friend I suppose.

Ethnocentrism

It’s sad to know that such a thing as ethnocentrism even exists but we see it in our lives everyday. One culture is constantly criticizing or questioning the rituals of another; even the simplest of differences are scrutinized. We make decisions and act they way we do because we were raised by our parents or guardians and conditioned by our society to think the way we do.

Consider what it would be like if you were your neighbor’s child, taught by their morals and experiencing life under their care and influenced by their actions. Using this small comparison of one American family to the other next door and it is simple to see a multitude of differences. What if you were born in another part of our country where people talk different, cook different and even dress different? Now go even further beyond our country’s border and visualize yourself born in another land; one without highways, cars, malls or even indoor plumbing. What would it be like to wake up every morning without electricity or hot water? What would your daily routine consist of? Suddenly getting water from the river is more important than what you’re going to wear to the meeting today. Wait a minute! You don’t have to be at a meeting! You’re not employed by another. You work for yourself. What you have to live from is the land and animals that co-exist with you. You grow your own food, butcher your own meat, sew your own clothes and build your own house. You may not even venture any further than your own village. There is no television, there’s no telephone; just you and those closest to you. How do you see your world now? What is normal for one is obviously not normal for another.

Following man from his existence we can see how his insatiable hunger for progress has harmed his fellow man. More civilized cultures conquered the less civilized, believing that their modern way was the best for the entire society. Indigenous peoples were forced by ethnocide (death of their culture) into civilization. Many however, perished when robbed of their way of life and others who refused to forget their own culture, slaughtered. Genocide was committed in the name of progress of course; or in the name of science; or even in the name of God. Those people who were not civilized and living in a modern way were considered to be less human; better known as savages; posing a problem for modern society and therefore deemed expendable for the good of the whole.

One of the biggest perks of civilization is technology. It allows us to do more of basically everything. Technology is everywhere inside the modern realm. However, we are constantly learning that technology, the progression of civilization, is harming us in ways we never thought possible. In her research Devra Davis discovered that we are in an era when “half of all men and a third of all women in developed nations will contract the disease (cancer), and more than one in four of their citizens will die from it.”

Not only are the products we are producing in the name of progress slowly killing us but we have also managed to detach ourselves from the one thing essential to our survival on this planet; Mother Nature. We have sewn our society together in such a way that we no longer have a relationship with non-human things. As David Abram put it, “We can attribute much of this oversight to the modern, civilized assumption that the natural world is largely determinate and mechanical, and that which is regarded as mysterious, powerful, and beyond human ken must therefore be of some other, nonphysical realm above nature, ‘supernatural’.” Unlike the less civilized who remain connected with their natural surroundings, we who are civilized do not have a balanced relation to the earthly biosphere (Abram). “...hundreds of our fellow species becoming extinct each month as a result of our civilization’s excesses, we can hardly be surprised by the amount of epidemic illness in our culture…”

Civilization looks more and more like the death of us all; human and non-human; rather than our salvation as we hoped it would be. Perhaps we would be healthier and happier today if we had just allowed ourselves the freedom to live as savages.

Forty Days and Forty Nights

Let’s start with a rain dance shall we? The obstacles associated with globalization are so complex that reaching a solution for all is unfathomable. Worldwide democracy is a concept that boasts political good deeds. However, even our own country that takes pride in its democratic ways, like others, has many flaws.

The world is full of “injustice” but that should never be considered a worthy cause for ethnocide or genocide of a people; or the murder of one person. Regardless of where in the world we live, we were all born with a conscience; knowing right from wrong. It is social conditioning that has dulled our senses causing us to lose sight of the essential bond that was intended to keep us all together. That “super glue” is called humanity and without it we are simply inhumane.

Free enterprise is a privilege and should be available to anyone, anywhere and the efforts of those who engage in such a market should be allowed to reap their rewards. Receiving monetary benefits from such enterprises are not deserved by those who took no part in the entity’s progression to success. In the same way that those who did not partake in the risks involving said successes are not expected to carry any financial burdens accompanied with failures.

The current perception of globalization is it makes the rich richer and keeps the poor, poor. While globalization of free enterprise should strengthen local communities around the world, it may only do so if it can be perceived as an obtainable asset to everyone. In other words, if the idea of globalization was introduced in a way that promoted education and opportunity for all; then perhaps it would be more accepted worldwide. It is a lack of education, the feeling of powerlessness and the thought of being left behind that may be the largest cause of animosity. It’s possible that if democracy came before globalization; things could be different.

In many ways, Greider’s ideas are relevant to Chua’s observations of globalization and world-wide democracy. How can a society that is conditioned to accept their lack of voice and power under their employer in today’s workforce be expected to generate, within themselves, a powerful voice against larger hierarchies such as local, state and federal governments? The lack of democracy in our every day lives on the most basic levels, rob us of self-worth and disconnect us from the whole. We are numbly accepting our conditioned roles as individuals without even considering the compatriots that we once were or could be again.

Democracy only works when justice; being defined as the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness; is present. So long as greed continues to lead mankind, arbitrary laws will be written without the intentions of being upheld. A democratic system without justice will do nothing to encourage true democracy leaving the people without a voice and their power unrealized.

Changing the hearts of men to practice the already globalized “Golden Rule” is a task that no one can accomplish for another. That revelation is saved for the man himself. Once man feels compelled to take ownership in himself, it is then that we can see true change.

I’ll get the wood and you bring the animals; two by two…