So, I was commenting on clicknathan and something came to me. I'd like to share it with you.
In Nathan's post, he was making comment on how the rest of the world, while complaining about America, did little to stop the "Americanization" of their own countries. While I must admit, as a Canadian, I do have my problems with the country to the south, something else came to mind. And that is that WE allow all of this to happen and that we, too, have to take some responsibility for it.
Just as women are to blame as well for the attitudes of men in the world (I will discuss that a little later), we as world citizens must take personal responsibility for the ills of our world. Many of us do not speak up about things that are not copacetic with us and thus, we allow huge corporations to dictate our lives. Sure, you can use the argument that we do not have the power to make such change, but to me, that's just a cop-out. We DO have the power and that is that we have the currency and the ability to make good choices.
It is our decision to frequent establishments like McDonalds and to max our credit cards buying things that many of us do not need just because the neighbours have one or because we believe the advertisements that say things like it's cool, or it's convenient. If we were really upset about the obesity of people or child labour, we would just stop buying things from the corporations that promote them. However, I do not see that, I still see Nike selling shoes when they at one time used child labourers. Do you really believe that these companies have a conscience? If they had a conscience, they would have affordable products created by workers in conditions that were safe and healthy. Ever figure out the markups on some of these products? I can only guess that the profits are huge. Let's face it they are in it for profits not the well-being of the world.
You can argue that some of these corporations give money to charities so they can't be that bad but as far as I am concerned, it's all a big write-off to create higher profit margins...
Anyway, as I was saying, if we want to cure the "ills" of our societies they we have to take a stand. We can buy locally from companies that are small and help to support our communities. We can ignore the incessant barrage of advertising and "just say no". We can create economies that keep us in jobs that are specific to areas in fields that are needed. We can depend on ourselves to have those things that we need versus what we want.
We have allowed our world to become one where families have both parents working to afford the things we buy. We have to have more and more daycare to help parents to do this. We need to take stock of what is really important to us and force government and huge corporations to take notice.
What I am suggesting is that people decide what is important to them. If you want to be a stay-at-home parent, that should be acceptable. If you want a career, you should evaluate whether you have the time to put into being a parent as well. We tend to look at things and are in denial that there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. We are doing this because huge business has convinced us that that is the way it should be.
We have the power to create change and the world that we really want to live in.
My world is one where we respect nature and live within our means. I know that this is what is best for humans as well as nature. We don't have to have huge food processing plants to create pre-prepared meals. We just have to insist on change and slow down a bit.
Finally, I suppose that I should address the "women are responsible for the attititudes of men" comment I made earlier. What I meant by that is that we all complain that men are insensitive and there are many other things we assume about them but it is women who are the mothers. As women, we have a responsibility to create well-rounded adults out of our children but we don't. God forbid your boy be have a sensitive nature. We need to stop letting society pull us away from our boys. It is entirely possible that if we work together we can create this type of men instead of the one's that assume that men are stronger and have more power.
Finally, I'd like to say that we all have the strength to make change. We just have to believe it. If we don't want to "become America" (no offense Nathan) then we have to have the strength to change it. Have the strength to stand up against McDonalds, Walmart, Gap and any other countries. We can do it!
In Nathan's post, he was making comment on how the rest of the world, while complaining about America, did little to stop the "Americanization" of their own countries. While I must admit, as a Canadian, I do have my problems with the country to the south, something else came to mind. And that is that WE allow all of this to happen and that we, too, have to take some responsibility for it.
Just as women are to blame as well for the attitudes of men in the world (I will discuss that a little later), we as world citizens must take personal responsibility for the ills of our world. Many of us do not speak up about things that are not copacetic with us and thus, we allow huge corporations to dictate our lives. Sure, you can use the argument that we do not have the power to make such change, but to me, that's just a cop-out. We DO have the power and that is that we have the currency and the ability to make good choices.
It is our decision to frequent establishments like McDonalds and to max our credit cards buying things that many of us do not need just because the neighbours have one or because we believe the advertisements that say things like it's cool, or it's convenient. If we were really upset about the obesity of people or child labour, we would just stop buying things from the corporations that promote them. However, I do not see that, I still see Nike selling shoes when they at one time used child labourers. Do you really believe that these companies have a conscience? If they had a conscience, they would have affordable products created by workers in conditions that were safe and healthy. Ever figure out the markups on some of these products? I can only guess that the profits are huge. Let's face it they are in it for profits not the well-being of the world.
You can argue that some of these corporations give money to charities so they can't be that bad but as far as I am concerned, it's all a big write-off to create higher profit margins...
Anyway, as I was saying, if we want to cure the "ills" of our societies they we have to take a stand. We can buy locally from companies that are small and help to support our communities. We can ignore the incessant barrage of advertising and "just say no". We can create economies that keep us in jobs that are specific to areas in fields that are needed. We can depend on ourselves to have those things that we need versus what we want.
We have allowed our world to become one where families have both parents working to afford the things we buy. We have to have more and more daycare to help parents to do this. We need to take stock of what is really important to us and force government and huge corporations to take notice.
What I am suggesting is that people decide what is important to them. If you want to be a stay-at-home parent, that should be acceptable. If you want a career, you should evaluate whether you have the time to put into being a parent as well. We tend to look at things and are in denial that there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. We are doing this because huge business has convinced us that that is the way it should be.
We have the power to create change and the world that we really want to live in.
My world is one where we respect nature and live within our means. I know that this is what is best for humans as well as nature. We don't have to have huge food processing plants to create pre-prepared meals. We just have to insist on change and slow down a bit.
Finally, I suppose that I should address the "women are responsible for the attititudes of men" comment I made earlier. What I meant by that is that we all complain that men are insensitive and there are many other things we assume about them but it is women who are the mothers. As women, we have a responsibility to create well-rounded adults out of our children but we don't. God forbid your boy be have a sensitive nature. We need to stop letting society pull us away from our boys. It is entirely possible that if we work together we can create this type of men instead of the one's that assume that men are stronger and have more power.
Finally, I'd like to say that we all have the strength to make change. We just have to believe it. If we don't want to "become America" (no offense Nathan) then we have to have the strength to change it. Have the strength to stand up against McDonalds, Walmart, Gap and any other countries. We can do it!
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