Monday, June 2, 2008

Utopian Fantasies

Listening to: Steve Irwin – Crikey!

Mood: Tired of foolishness

I was driving through town the other day and noticed a guy walking down the sidewalk with a sign imploring us to end world poverty. It made me stop for a minute and think about why exactly people do this with signs. I can understand why people would do this to raise awareness for political causes or customer service issues, but ending poverty and hunger? Now don’t get me wrong. If it were possible, I would be all for ending all of the foolishness and suffering in the world. What strikes me is that there’s little to no chance of this happening in the near future, if it ever does. The world is such a complex, savage place, how in the world do they expect quick answers or resolutions? I’m pretty sure that most people are aware that the world isn’t a happy utopian place. Most of our parents educated us about that when we didn’t want to eat our veggies. We also already have plenty of brilliant, caring people working on the problems of the world. There really is no easy answer to poverty or hunger. It seems especially futile to me when there are only a few people standing together. Protests, marching, and lobbying the government for changes (think Vietnam war type protests) are a great tool. If enough people get up in the government’s face, they at least give lip service about change. But 1 or 2 people already lobbying on a street corner for something that most people agree is important?

Becky

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