(Part of the People’s Ordinary Superowers series) Parts of America, especially in major cities such as Los Angeles where I live, a strong sense of individualism has developed. There are great things about a strong sense of individualism, which is a central idea in this series. The concern here is the self-centered and narrow view of individualism that is growing. For many people, the ultimate goal of waking up everyday and for some, heaven forbid, to have to go to work, is nothing more than to “hang out,” “chill,” “go shopping,” or “party.” In other words, the only purpose of living is to have fun.

Having not grown up in difficult times, this generation does not fully understand that being alive and knowing security is a privilege. Sure, it is a blessing that we were born in such a great country and it would be stupid and unnatural to make ourselves suffer just because the other ppeople do….but we owe it to the world to do more. As human beings, we need to watch out and help our kind and not simply take advantage of other people, past and present. People in the past fought in wars, made sacrefices, and worked constantly all their lives so America as it is today is possible. The rest of the world provide us with endless resources, the U.S. using several times over the energy and resources that other countries use. We have a duty, the responsibility, to make this world a much better place given the countless apparent and some not so apparent things we take for granted.

So why should you make an effort to help people thousands of miles away? For some this duty is obvious, but for those of you who are selfish bastards, you might be thinking, those people never did anything for me. The first response I have for you is, “you’re naive.” If you live in a commercially developed country, you’re a burden to the rest of the world and earth itself. This isn’t meant to be a lesson on international economics, but a majority of factories that produce labor-intensive products are located in underdeveloped countries. It is a sad fact that the “hells on earth” are the only countries without human rights and environmental laws that would allow these products to be produced for profits. Not only that, but these people who give their lives working in terrible conditions do not enjoy the fruits of their labor. Sure, they get paid, but their stipends would not be enough to pay for a bottle of water in some places. Furthermore, these factories destroy their homelands- remove the landscape of beauty that even people in NY have some to enjoy.

For a small family in the Suburbs of L.A. to pass another day- for the kids to go to school and the adults to work, soccer games after school, and groceries before going home to a small apartment- incurs more burden on the environment than can be imagined. How many gallons of gasoline was required to bring that TV dinner to the grocery store? Some of these things do literally come from the other side of the world. How many pounds of trash was produced to process and package these necessities? How much pollution was added to the air and water to keep the electricity going?

The number of people truly committed to “making the world a better place” is minimal. I can’t say that I am one of them either. Without some kind of big corporate machine behind the cause, the progress made by these limited number of people is futile compared to the rest of the developed world’s behavior. Even living under conditions that more than half’s the world’s population would consider heaven, people never give up worrying about the details of their lives. “Daily life” keeps people from helping make the world a better place is a big way. But is the movie going and the snowboarding trips and parties a good excuse for not helping the rest of the world who brought you these luxuries? The rest of the world pay dearly for bringing you these luxuries and are not paid nearly enough in return.

Am I looking to start a movement to save the world? Like I said, I don’t think it would be possible as many “organizations” have failed. I am looking for discussion and ideas of how ordinary citizens can help this cause. Donating once or twice or even 10 times in a lifetime when tragedies like the Tsunami disaster in southeast asia is just not enough. One possible starting point is some type of industry that makes a profit from helping poor countries. Is it “right” to have a financial motive when helping those less fortunate? No…but not acknowledging that money makes the world turn is plain stupid too. The problem is that poor countries have nothing to offer that is valuable other than cheap labor- but we all know which end the local people get out of that deal- the short end. If “making the world a better place” can be turned into an industry, college graduats and PhD’s would be busting their ass for this cause…sadly not because they care about other people but about themselves…but we can’t expect most people to be responsible human beings, even if they are well educated. And who knows, maybe the industry would appeal to the consciousness of those formerly irresponsible human beings…more so than the gaming or Starbucks industries where the results die with the people who use the products.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 11th, 2005 at 11:03 am and is filed under Non-Stocks, Society & Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.