Think Locally, Act Locally
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 8:31PM Though not out of New Years Resolution, I plan to write 500ish word entries as much as possible. Why 500? I dunno. But it's about a page of A4 or Letter paper something, so I figure it would be about right. For reference, this part is 49 words long. Some will be rants, some will be random, some will just be me airing out my brain. This one will be me letting out some brain vomit.
Working at an international school, it's no surprise to see posters that declare "think globally, act locally". Though the concept is fairly old in community of expats and mixed culture communities, the entire idea of globalism and internationalism has become increasingly popular and mainstream with the rise of the Internet and the age of instant information. We're all encouraged to think about the Earth when we throw out our trash; think about the forests when we print; think about the kids in Darfur, Haiti and anywhere else there's trouble; think about the farmers when we get our coffee; think about the sweatshops when we get our Nikes. We're all thinking together as one big family!
Yet, over my Kim Chee Cheese Cup Noodles, it didn't really click. We can keep that all in mind, but what can really be done? If you asked all of those who walk around talking about fair trade coffee and refugees in developing countries to throw away everything they own, go to Somethingistan and help out, few would seriously consider it. Conversely, we don't really know what the heck people in Somewhereaguay are thinking, let alone if they want our 'help'.
Now, I don't claim to be a genius or even well informed. But I think I'm in the ballpark when I say that the Earth and its citizenry is incomprehensibly complex. The moment there was more than one of us monkeys wandering around the Serengeti, it all hit the fan and it got a lot tougher than when one guy was deciding to eat meat or boiled grass. Hell, we fight over chocolate and vanilla ice cream nowadays.
And that's not all of it! When we drill down to it, people are fickle and downright selfish. With some things you can assemble an army relatively quickly, others you'll just end up ruining the party. Globalization itself is one of those words that cut like a razor, sometimes to the point of it becoming polarizing.
So I propose an alternate. Think locally, act locally. Maybe if you're nice to everyone and everything around you, and in turn everyone and everything around you is nice, the world would be a much nice place. Maybe we're confusing the hell out of everyone by saying we're part of a much larger world, making things hard to perceive and get a hold on.
There is no doubt that keeping the world in mind isn't a bad thing. But there is only so much we can do as an individual. Perhaps maximizing the 'niceness' of our individual is what can lead to better things.
Reader Comments (2)
A 500 word article a day..You need to get riding again. It looks like you have a lot of back articles to take care of.
Killed the idea... Blogging is behind me now...!