There's a lot to be said for thinking about the notion of global
responsibilities a little deeper. Humankind is slowly evolving in the
direction of transcending the nation-state/capitalist "I/Me/Mine" but
particularly in the US we still value people by possessions and earnings
instead of social contributions and quality of humanistic behavior.
Sadly enough that way of thinking, feeling and living is more and
more putting it's claws into Europe too.
I don't have a solution because its 'human nature', reinforced by a globally
distributed culture. Rich people want to keep their lifestyle, sharing it
only if it won't mean a reduction in their standard of living (as measured
by *things*, not quality of *character*) and poor people for the most part
aspire to reach and imitate the rich lifestyle by having more things, first
simple things but increasingly "two TV's and a car and a bigger house"... We
need to create a global culture that doesn't measure the quality of one's
life by the size of the SUV and house you have... We are a long ways from
that.
Again: it's sad but true
I don't have any solution, I just don't see the dichotomy of rich nations to
poor nations yielding any solution that looks like the rich nations
lifestyle for everyone. The earth's resource base won't support an SUV (with
a tank of gas) in every third-world person's two-car garage. All of which is
pretty standard for the USA... As long as there is the huge disparity, there
will be tension that some will exploit for power.
--
Jim Brokaw
OM-1's, -2's, -4's, (no -3's yet) and no OM-oney...
Right on the spot, Jim
Henrik Dahl
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|