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Diane Fitzsimmons wrote:
> I feel I'm benefitting from the good
> economy of those corporate baddies and the prosperous lifestyle of
> America. I feel like I should share the responsibility of the bad
> choices, as well as be able to criticize the system. AND I feel most
> Americans are in the same situation as I, living the good life as the
> expense of others.
>
> I am not trying to goad you, but are the feelings I've expressed above
> part of the delusion you feel has been fed to the American public?
I think most middle-class Americans are definitely living the good life
at others' expense--to be more blunt, we are living on the backs of
tens, perhaps hundreds of people in poor countries and even within our
own borders whose share of the world's largesse we are taking for
ourselves. We aren't doing it deliberately, but that is the effect. When
each person in the U.S. uses on average between 10 and 60 times the
resources used by a person in Bangladesh, the Philippines or Mexico, it
is difficult not to conclude that we have way more than our share, and
that the disparity is causing direct harm to others.
We should take responsibility for this disparity, for reducing the gap.
We should do it for the sake of the people and Earth that suffer so we
can enjoy luxury, and for the sake of our own conscience, our souls, our
cognitive dissonance, our morality, whatever you identify as the inner
"rightness" that gives you peace. This is taking personal
responsibility, and it is critically important that more and more people
do this. It's important, again, both physically and spiritually.
The point I have been trying to make is simply that corporations, not
individual people, must be held responsible and accountable for the harm
that corporations do. Holding individual people responsible for
corporate harm is a huge mistake and blinds us to where the harm is
coming from. I addressed this in more detail in another post this
evening.
I also will say again that because of the tremendous pressure on people
not to pay attention, not to wake up, we who have awakened should not
hold others in contempt or view them as irresponsible because they are
continuing to live in ways that increase the disparity and the suffering
of others. Work on them, talk to them, explain, give information, urge
and plead--but stop short of condemning them if you can. I just think
there are many things we can never know about another person's
decision-making process, the things that influence them, their
experiences, beliefs, pain, fear and so on. I'm simply arguing in favor
of forebearance and compassion, while advocating strongly the taking of
personal responsibility by everyone.
Betsy
-- Betsy Barnum bbarnum@wavetech.net http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1624
1. What are you doing now, today, to "be the change you want to see?"
2. What is the most important action for an "awake" person to take?
3. Alice Walker (African-American feminist novelist) says "anything we love can be saved." What do you love and want to save?