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All poems: copyright by
Nicholas Gordon
Free scrapbook poems
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1. In the inexorable movement towards one
world, much will be gained and much lost. For example, on the positive side
is the end of war; on the negative, the slow disintegration of
difference.
2. Once people are free to live and work anywhere
in the world, traditions, languages, and cultures will slowly disappear over
generations of intermarriage and dispersal. Those who love beauty will devote
themselves to preserving what can be preserved.
3. The elimination of barriers to the free movement
of goods and people is a goal that ought not be opposed on grounds of national
self-interest. For no life is more or less precious according to which side
of a border it is born on. And all are equally entitled to the goods of the
earth.
4. Thus both equity and freedom argue for
globalization, and those who oppose it should argue against only the manner
of it, and not the thing itself.
5. As water freed from barriers seeks its own
level, so will commerce, raising the wealth of some and lowering that of
others. Yet freedom increases productivity, which will cause the general
level of wealth to rise for all, though not immediately to the levels once
protected by privilege.
6. The task of those who care about the good
of humankind is to manage globalization well, so that the one world that
results be free and democratic, in which every human being has equal opportunity
for health and happiness, and in which the natural legacy of the earth is
preserved.
Next: Wisdom in the
Modern World: Technology
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Secularization
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