It is amazing to me how easy it is to attempt to fix one problem, and really, create another. This just goes to show how difficult it is to solve major world problems. We are using biofuels to keep the environment safer, which then competes with producing agriculture for poor people to eat or producing agriculture to make our cars runs cleaner. Ironically, we run out of resources elsewhere and must worry about the advocates hoping to begin chopping the beautiful brush in the Amazon rainforest (One of a kind world wonder, by the way. Never mind that!), which then limits the amount of oxygen continually produced into our ecosystem and keeping the equilibrium for healthy climate change. I'm not sure who is to blame for this, but the author seems to have blamed the fuel (facetious blame, I'm sure), the environmentalists point the finger at big business, and the poor people keep starving. What's new. Sardonic attitude, I know.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080519_024493.htm
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Big Business & Lobbyists strike again...Are we pretending to care about the environment and human rights these days just because it looks cool? Geez. Nothing surprises me anymore.
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a true cynic, and I agree. I think it's often about the image.... Seems like there are usually alterior motives and it's not really about genuine compassion or concern. On the other hand, I think it is challenging enough as humans to have consideration for one other person, let alone an entire nation or a globe. We should honestly recognize that nowadays we're bumping up against the limits of our last reserves of strength to care about EVERYTHING. How could we? It's rather cocky to think that we could in the first place - or that we could even have the brains to avoid making the occasional poor (though perhaps well-intended) decision that triggers an unexpected crisis. We are not capable of being so thoroughly circumspect. Not only that, but the media and advances in technology have placed an unfair burden on our generation that people in previous centuries didn't have to carry: instant awareness of all the world's aches and pains.... Wars, incest, rape, terror, famine, slums, massacres, poor economies, etc. Who has a heart big enough to absorb and react appropriately to each new panic attack? Be honest now. It's impossible, and it's way too overwhelming. What bothers me is that with all our 'awareness' of things as a society, our underlying attitude is that we're omniscient - or that we CAN be omniscient. This is demonstrated by the idea that everything is preventable. And when disaster strikes and the consequences aren't prevented, we relish our witch-hunts in which we seek out the negligent person or persons who miserably failed to prevent, or respond correctly to, the crisis. [As if one person or organization or government could have that much power!] And then we crucify them. Oh, how we love to crucify them and point blame. It's an international pastime. All this to say -- I am not advocating selfishness or apathy in regards to the suffering in the world and the influence that one economy has on another, but I do think that the popular trend nowadays of getting worked up into hysterics over every cottonpickin world problem is rather ridiculous. And not just that - it's false and it's vain. What we need is a good dose of Christian realism, i.e. do what you can do, but don't get tied up in knots over it. Mark Buchanan says it this way: "Every good deed sets in motion a chain of reactions, some of which will, by hook or by crook, make havoc.... Here are some real-life examples. Christian programs to buy the freedom of women and children sold into slavery in Asia and Africa have created a growth market in abductions: people who never thought of slave trading now nab the vulnerable so they can sell them back to Christians. Or shoeboxes stuffed with toothbrushes and pencils, sent to impoverished children in some hard-pressed country, undermine that country's local economy: some honest businessman trying to sell toothbrushes and pencils in that village has just lost a year's worth of revenue. You can't wake up without some fallout. Sin boldly, Luther said in response. Don't let life's inherent complexity, its pact with the devil, keep you from doing anything. If every act, intended for the best of ends, is sinful anyhow, then sin boldly. Don't anguish over every last little thing. Do what needs doing, and leave the outcome to God."
ReplyDeleteIt's strange how the compassionate can be most cynical. And it's why selfishness always carries the day.
ReplyDeleteDo your Christian thing because it's what you believe it right, because it lets you sleep at night. I'll do that which lets me sleep at night. Neither of us have the right to invade the other's sovereignty, even if you perceive that which I do as evil and selfish.
You're right; nobody is all-seeing. Our world is too complex for anybody to understand all the consequences, which is why it's important that we make the best decisions possible in an environment which we can understand, control, and affect: our own.
I'd like to see hemp adopted as a biofuel. Its ideal climate varies from corn and soy, increasing potential arable farm land, meaning the cost for fuel and food will decrease for me. There are other positive and negative consequences, of course, as we'll be able to feed the hungry, but big business will log the Pacific northwest at an even greater rate (best conditions for hemp growth). All I can do is work towards my best benefit and participate productively in an adaptive society that will capitalize on its improve conditions and react to the worsening.
There is a quote that has been resonating in my mind lately: "The best thing I can do for you is work on myself. The best thing you can do for me is work on yourself."
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