value

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis

Thursday January 20, 2005 15:33

by - -

Now more than ever, we are one. In the world of global economy and global media, it is possible to consume products from the other side of the planet on a daily basis and to understand something of far away places as our cultural input speeds thousands of miles in a split second to reach us.

But this is a degraded and degrading version of unity, a destructive process of planetary robbery which injures not just the billions living in poverty or war zones, but also the peoples of the rich nations.

It is, in the end, a question of values – of what we value – which decides how much misery or joy there is to go around. It is a question of how much we value our own humanity above and beyond the trivia of 21st century materialism to the point where we can act decisively to help rescue the denied humanity of others and the ransacked resources of the natural world.

People all over the world are indeed fighting right now for exactly these goals. But it is also correct to say that the revolution will not be televised and that brave, sometimes beautiful efforts of successful resistance are ignored or poisoned with misinterpretation by our corrupt media.

Contrary to the idiot pronouncements of the corporate media, there is no ‘anti-globalisation’ movement. There is instead a massive, articulate and energetic movement for an alternative form of globalisation, a movement which is passionately committed to the cause of global justice. It is inspiring to be part of this.

It is both easy and difficult to join. First of all, you must be able to convince yourself that global justice is something to be valued more than the inducements of a privileged western lifestyle. Get past the idea that a global free market economy is the only thing that can keep a roof over your head, provide good schools and health care and throw big, big parties. It isn’t. But we all need to stop believing it is and start to move forward, dispelling the myths, exposing the lies, and developing together a new practice. Because the cost of not doing so is just too high.

Anarchism, socialism without the unaccountable executives, participatory economic systems… whole populations need to start talking about and developing these alternatives. Because, look around, capitalism has failed. Privilege is blood soaked. The briberies and fake hopes of the free market system disguise the fact that it is out to get you too and for every lotto winner there are neighbourhoods of the poor. Not acceptable. The free market is sustained through coercion but also because it constantly degrades our values, lowering our levels of expectation so they conform to the economic system, so we begin to believe in its inevitability.

We are in a difficult situation because our leaders – and I am talking right around the world - in government, in religion and in academia have failed us. Profiteering politicians are annointed by vain and cruel preachers while intellectual apologists cover their tracks. It is difficult to know what information to trust. Much of it will be incoherent because the context is lost but context can be gained if you value knowledge above ignorance and enquiry above passivity. Whatever our level of knowledge, understanding events must always be based on a simple value of equally shared human worth. Gone are racism, sexism, homophobia and bigotry.

Here in the west, our culture of decadent consumerism leads us to believe that far away horror is normal or justifiable because it is commonplace. But foreign horror is the displaced cost of our lifestyle here – a state of affairs which is neither inevitable nor justifiable. To increase value in humanity it becomes necessary to identify, not with the rich person of the same nationality who you envy and who is in the press, but with everyone else denied justice by the rich. This isn’t a luxury of conscience: it can be, and almost always is, done on the cheap. It isn’t too much to do either, just a different way to look at the world in which there is value everywhere, and especially in the beauty of nature.

Increasing value improves our own lives: jettison the goals of acquisition and suddenly you are free to pursue other things. The world becomes a bigger, more profound place. Through raising our values we raise our levels of expectation; through raising our expectations and through affirming them with others, we begin the process of change. Go for it.

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value