"man, fuck the real world" - g
i've been studying economics a lot recently, and something about the way we're being taught bothers me.
virtually everything in the textbook espouses the belief that the way we do things in north america is the way they ought to be done. when "developing" countries are referred to, it's in a manner that portrays them as being inferior to us. criticism of their lack of development is always centered around their having not yet adopted our developed-world suggestions as to how to build their economies. their quality of life is dismissed off-hand as being substandard, their people as uneducated, and their future as undeveloped, which reads more to the effect of "uncivilized". we're taught that they "need" to do certain things, or else they won't ever "develop" as a nation.
unfortunately, these economic "facts" lead me to more questions than anything. who are we to say that they need to develop? who are we to say that they're underdeveloped? why the hell are we so intent on everyone else in the world developing the same problems of society, humanity, health, environment and spirit that we've "developed"? who are we to say that we're any better off than they are? is it not possible that maybe they were far better off before the western world first started telling them what was best for them? what makes life in the western world so fantastic in the first place? do these nations not have a right to exist without "developed" nations breathing down their throats to "develop" and exploit their people and land to the same extent that we have and still are in the process of destroying that which is ours? what right do we have to take a well-functioning society and turn it upside down in americanizing it? how dare we tell these people that they "need" anything at all, when we fail to give ourselves and our own what we actually do need? have we completely failed to see that as a group of cultures they just might be more developed and mature than we are?
what makes us so goddamned smart in the first place?
if we should be doing anything at all for "developing" nations, maybe it ought to be undoing all of the "development" that we've forced down their throats and letting them make their decisions for themselves. thanks to us they have far less than they would have had we never trod upon their soil and cultures in the first place, and in many ways they're still happier than we are. is it not going to be enough until we've taken even that away from them and replaced it by whatever we've fooled ourselves into thinking is happiness and success?
virtually everything in the textbook espouses the belief that the way we do things in north america is the way they ought to be done. when "developing" countries are referred to, it's in a manner that portrays them as being inferior to us. criticism of their lack of development is always centered around their having not yet adopted our developed-world suggestions as to how to build their economies. their quality of life is dismissed off-hand as being substandard, their people as uneducated, and their future as undeveloped, which reads more to the effect of "uncivilized". we're taught that they "need" to do certain things, or else they won't ever "develop" as a nation.
unfortunately, these economic "facts" lead me to more questions than anything. who are we to say that they need to develop? who are we to say that they're underdeveloped? why the hell are we so intent on everyone else in the world developing the same problems of society, humanity, health, environment and spirit that we've "developed"? who are we to say that we're any better off than they are? is it not possible that maybe they were far better off before the western world first started telling them what was best for them? what makes life in the western world so fantastic in the first place? do these nations not have a right to exist without "developed" nations breathing down their throats to "develop" and exploit their people and land to the same extent that we have and still are in the process of destroying that which is ours? what right do we have to take a well-functioning society and turn it upside down in americanizing it? how dare we tell these people that they "need" anything at all, when we fail to give ourselves and our own what we actually do need? have we completely failed to see that as a group of cultures they just might be more developed and mature than we are?
what makes us so goddamned smart in the first place?
if we should be doing anything at all for "developing" nations, maybe it ought to be undoing all of the "development" that we've forced down their throats and letting them make their decisions for themselves. thanks to us they have far less than they would have had we never trod upon their soil and cultures in the first place, and in many ways they're still happier than we are. is it not going to be enough until we've taken even that away from them and replaced it by whatever we've fooled ourselves into thinking is happiness and success?
1 Comments:
...and i stand by it.
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