Sunday, February 8, 2009

Is it Impossible?

Many words have become the new insignas for a new time after the Cold War, words such as "free trade" and "neoliberalism". The main goal being to create the ideal humanity, to "materialize the most cherished dreams of humankind, dreamed by the few of the many." Trying to make sure that everyone can get everything that they ever wanted, if they knew it or not. Two authors, Gustavo Esteva and Madhu Suri Prakash, point out that none of these new ideas will go without a doubt. the come up with the example of the famous Bill Gates and his Windows program: "even the most enthusiastic fans...experience misgivings and doubts when they observe the peculiar behaviors of their children" after having been exposed to so much computer life. No one can ignore the social and mental influences that this is having on the human population, not to mention the younger generation. Seriously, right now, if you are reading this, you are on the computer (since it IS an online blog) when you could be reading this book instead of reading my thoughts on it. Media has been one of the most influential things in the human world.

One concept that Esteva and Prakash really thought about was the saying "think globally, act locally." While people may have this a popular t-shirt slogan for Earth Day, when everyone is thinking green; it is also s symbol about what people around the world are thinking now. They state in words, "ordinary people lack the centralized power required for "global action." It is a warning against arrogance, the far-fetched anddangerous fantasy of "acting globally."" Many people make themselves think that by donating even a little bit of money to a cause is something that can be considered global. But what amny people don't reolize is that it takes more than just a little bit of cash to halp people around the world.

A second issue that Esteca and Prakash bring is is how global thinking is impossible. The only way that a person can actually know the Earth, is by "reducing it statistically", which apparently many people attempt to do. What people can't do is accept that people think that the world is something that will be able to fix itself, or that it is the preoblems of a person who is not them to fix what has happened to the world. But what people need to understand is that it is everyone's fault that the world is as it is. It isn't just the fault of the people in those countries that are having the problems with the world, it is the fault of all the people of the world, who didn't do anything when it comes to helping everyone else.

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