believe me good will come

Every day thousands of people starve to death. Tens of thousands more die because they don’t have clean water or basic medical care. Millions of people are denied their basic human rights: they are killed or imprisoned for their political or religious convictions.

Yet people will probably be more offended by my use of the word “fucked” in this post’s title than they will by anything else I type here. Somehow, through some remarkable intellectual sleight of hand, we are able to ignore the starving millions and go on living our lives. Birth, school, work, marriage, house, children, retirement, death.

Millions go to bed hungry while I’m surrounded by people who eat too much. Basic products such as sugar, cocoa (and thus chocolate) and coffee are sold to us cheaply because they are bought for a pittance from poor farmers in the developing world – farmers who damage their local ecology and way of life in order to grow these ‘cash’ crops. The clothes I wear were made in Chinese sweatshops, where workers labour for sixteen hours a day. It would take them two weeks to earn what I am paid for an hour’s work.

The whole global economy thrives on exploitation. The powerful and wealthy countries and corporations exploit those that are weak and poor. Trade barriers ensure that the rich stay rich at the poor’s expense. [Some] third world debt is written off with great fanfare, but no measures are put in place to prevent the debt from re-accumulating. “Congratulations, you’re back up to 0. Only a few hundred billion behind us. How about another loan?”.

War is still the preferred means of many for settling differences. There are more conflicts now than ever before. The vast majority of those killed in modern warfare are civilians. Something clearly isn’t working when the five permanent members of the UN Security Council also happen to be the five biggest arms dealers in the world.

But the systems, countries, and corporations that I deride are merely expressing on a global scale what I act out on a personal scale. Despite all my best efforts I still have an innate tendency towards selfishness and laziness. I don’t cycle to work even though I know it would be better for my health, better for the environment, and – given the world’s bloodlust for oil – better for global politics. My purchasing decisions are determined largely by how much the product costs. I have more clothes than I need. Indeed, I have drawers full of clothes I hardly ever wear because they aren’t fashionable.

Superficiality plagues me. I am bombarded by advertisements for products that will give me bigger muscles, whiter teeth, shinier hair, and smoother skin. Equally useless products promise to make me happier, more popular, and more attractive. I know none of this is true and that I have more of everything than I need. But I still desire more.

Of course I want to change things, but I know it will mean a fundamental change in the way I live my life. I’d rather live a comfortable, secure life and do just enough to ease my middle class conscience – sponsor a child, buy fair trade coffee, sign some petitions [whine on my blog] - isn’t that enough?

tell me, tell me the story
the one about eternity
and the way it’s all gonna be