I remember the phrase ‘Think globally, act locally’ which has the essence of this goal without the tedious spelling out of the word
E T H I C A L L Y.
Yet now I am older, I don’t always find it simple to figure out who the good guys and bad guys are. Absolutist, us vs. them thinking has always offended me, both intellectually and morally. For example, should we support economic development of what we patronisingly call ‘the third world’, with its concomitant exploitation by greedy über-businessmen who pollute, over-work and disavow wrong-doings, or should we let it languish in the ignorance and poverty (and disease and self-righteous intolerance) of the religious maniacs who would control it to their own delusional ends? It boils down to McDonald’s vs. the Taliban – or so the “impartial” watchdog of society – the media and its owners – would have us believe.
I really DON’T think it is this simple a choice. Why can’t we reject BOTH McDonald’s AND the Taliban? And the media? And find something else to do with our lives other than buy superfluous things and waste time on infotainment, sports and reality-TV? Perhaps we really are the morons our politicians think we are.
