Friday, March 04, 2005

Twisted Wisdom: Do you think the western world has it all wrong?

Yes. Completely.
Posted by Unknown at 9:10 am

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It all comes down to greed MsB. As soon as people decide they need a surplus of anything, it means someone is going to denied somewhere along the line. Everyone on this planet could live a life where there is enough food, water, health and education services, and energy for all, if only certain countries would stop trying to get their fair share. Capitalist democracies are mostly to blame here. I wish I was a Cherokee hunting and fishing all day, and then making love all night!
Anon.

3/3/05 16:46
Chelfyn said...

I think it's simplistic to use the concept of 'greed' in this instance. Human beings have an enourmously powerful need for social status and will do almost anything to secure this status. The manner in which status is obtained and maintained will determine it's effect upon society. In more primitive times this status may have been obtianed through hunting prowess, or cooking ability - both of these would benefit the tribe as a whole and would be considered positive status goals. Where modern society has got it significantly wrong is with the replacement of postive goals with sociologically negative ones, such as the never ending accumulation of wealth or property.

The trick no fixing things is to find a way to make people gain pride from things like how efficiently they recycle. Instead of 'how big and fast my car is', replace that with pride in 'how amazingly fuel efficient and easily recyclable my car is'. Instead of 'how much money I've got in the bank' try ebgendering prode in 'how much money I've given to my local community'

Instead of businessmen priding themselves on how much tax they've avoided paying this year, thy should get kudos from how much tax they've contributed to society...

Of course, if I had a clear answer of how to change these attitudes that have been built up over hundreds of years, I'd be running the country right now and making things better!

4/3/05 12:30

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