Thursday, January 19, 2006

never underestimate a russian novelist



I've been pretty into the fact that our nation seems to be regaining a social conscience; that there seems to have been a significant uptick in our concern about the impoverished both within our own country – and probably more heavily – concern about those in the third world. This is especially true with people within the church and with people in my age group, the generation following Gen X, whatever we're called.

This makes me hopeful about our world and it's often sorry state. I'm a supporter of the One Campaign - I sport the t-shirt from time to time and send pre-written letters to my congressman. I gave my family a flock of ducks for Christmas, a cleverly disguised contribution to the good people at Heifer International. I find these, and other endeavors that Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates put their seal of approval on, to be worthy causes.

Not to discount any of these efforts in the least, but I've been wondering these past few months if we're really solving any problems. Sure these aid movements are demanding of their beneficiaries responsibility and a return on investment like never before, they're geared towards creating self-sufficiency and sustainability, but are they fixing problems or are they only mitigating symptoms? Are these efforts mere bandaids on flesh wounds?

The real question was crystallized for me during a conference call I was listening in on yesterday: is poverty just a physical problem or is it also a spiritual one? Is our world's pain and stark poverty just in need of a redistribution of the wealth? My guess is that such a solution is only a temporary one. The capitalism the west is proselytizing is, at its core, a system in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is a system in which man reigns supreme, the richest men the ones who rule, who get more stuff.

Granted, free trade is important, and a worthy fight. But will this goal, fully realized, solve porverty or just distribute it more evenly around the globe? Will these pursuits not just make the poor harder to find and easier to ignore? The ultimate question is one of who is ultimately in charge. As long as mankind views mankind as the highest power there will continue to be discord, poverty, and bitter pain.

I admit these thoughts to be but partially informed and spontaneous, open to criticism. I also admit them to be heavily influenced by a speech I read this morning, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's speech to the graduating class of Harvard University in 1978. It's ridiculous how much foresight Solzhenitsyn had. He pretty much nails the progression our world has gone through over the past half-century. I hope his words won't be lost on us, they're worth careful consideration:

A World Split Apart
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Excercises,
Thursday, June 8, 1978.


Also: Flag Waving SUV by Penny Carothers [Burnside Writers Collective]

1 Comments:

Blogger sethdub said...

you raise relevant and thoughtful thoughts, my good friend. would love to talk through 'em sometime soon...over coffee, at ye olde house, watching shaun of the dead...if Peet's departure isn't still too fresh and hurtful...

love,
your friendly neighborhood ONE organizer and advocate for sustainable poverty alleviation.

9:36 AM  

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