|
Lanet-
Hey i'm not trying to enforce
anything left, right or center referenced in your note below. And I have carry
no brief on what the Miami U student government should or should have not done
with regard to campus coffee purchases.
I most certainly do however,
have a very strong opinion about someone's statement dismissing the plight
of others less fortunate than they with the comment that dissatisfied peasants
in Columbia can quit and get another higher paying job. I have a most
definite opinion that if people cannot nurture a good deal more empathy than Mr.
Ulrich (along with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal) has shown,
than our civilization as an expression of our humanity is bereft of what is
necessary for our souls to flourish and prosper.
You see, even though I am a card
carrying economist, I do not conceive of THE market as something
so exalted that it transcends what it is that can make our ugly brutish selves
into something very beautiful. Once the market becomes an end -- an
arbiter of all interactions -- instead of a means within tightly
constrained bounds that recognizes its inherent limitations, we have consigned
ourselves to the mindless pursuit of money for its own sake without regard to
the others with whom we momentarily share this small globe.
What I'm trying to do is not
enforce anything on Mr. Ulrich. Even if I were to try, that would be a notably
ineffective approach. What I am suggesting that we do is attempt, without
judgmental disapprobation, to reach into that kernel of goodness which resides
in everyone, and through that transcendence that comes when one does strike gold
-- and that's what that spiritual awakening constitutes -- use that as a vehicle
to help others similarly situated in mindset, see a possible pathway out of
their crabbed and conflated excuse for living.
In Europe, as the pressures
mounted in the 1990's to work longer hours and pursue the very highest profit
margins without regard to the human consequences, the society as a whole paused
and asked themselves whether a higher standard of living when measured in
artificial monetary terms is worth those human losses. In America, quite
the contrary. Not only don't we ask, we do not even notice the transition to our
becoming mindless, monetary automatons.
How we define ourselves as a
people is the single most salient battle for America's hearts and minds in this
new century, and any small step that we can take to epitomize the issues and
raise them up the flagpole constitutes for America the potential for
a renewed beginning.
One more thing, since this is
occupying the Greenyes listserve: the success of recycling -- built as it
is on people's desire to try to do something palpable that is good even though
it works largely against the marketplace -- ultimately depends upon rejuvinating that better part of
ourselves.
Peter
_____________________________________________
Peter Anderson RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING 4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15 Madison, WI 53705 (608) 231-1100/Fax (608) 233-0011 email: anderson@recycleworlds.org web: www.recycleworlds.org
|