How big is your view----who are you willing to vote off the island?

A "Poli-sophical" Rant----and tribute to Wordless Wednesday's "Balloon Girl"

     Given these extraordinary economic times it is sometimes difficult to step outside of ourselves and look at the big picture.  After all, when things get tough it is more than natural to focus inward in self interest.  What this does is narrow our view to such an extent that we can no longer benefit from the many advantages of having a bigger view of what is going on.  

     As we focus on survival, of paying the bills, of feeding our families and paying the mortgage it is very easy to forget that we are all on this ship together.  When times are "tough" it can be easy to think of the people around us as somehow less important---even unnecessary.  (Some people seem to make this a way of life regardless of how tough the times are.)  We become egotistical, ethnocentric and nationalistic.

     Even our definition of the "Bigger Picture" is defined by our own limitations.  How many people's "big view" stops at their state borders, their country's borders, their religion's borders or some combination of them all?

     I would argue that none of these things are even close to the biggest view we can have. 

     Is it not so that any view that does not include everything is, by definition, going to exclude someone or something?  (The worst version of this has to be people who are "born" excluded.)  Who are we willing to vote off the island?  I would rather ask, "Who are we willing to vote off the planet?"  There may come a time when we discover that even a "planetary view" is not big enough, as there may very well be other planets that are willing to vote Planet Earth out of the solar system.  I think we need to be a lot more careful about what individuals, religions or countries we decide to vote off the island.  One of the points of a "bigger view" is that everything changes and one day it may be us that gets voted off the island.

     The tough questions are not whether this or that person is the cause of all our problems but rather how can we get everyone to see how inter-related we all are.  How much of our precious resources are we delegating to this endeavor?  Precious little I would argue.  As a species, one step at a time, we have come to where we are in history.  I think we are all culpable----to think otherwise is to define the trap our mind is in.  One way to look at this is to see us all as "one being" and that our individual separateness, while real on one level, is an illusion on the level of the bigger picture.  Do we cut off our arm to spite our face? 

     What would it take for the entire planet to see that Economic richness in one part of the globe requires poverty in another?

     What would it take to see that plenty of food in one area requires that there be inadequate food supplies in other areas? 

     What would it take to see that polluting the farm lands in the land of Dorothy will ruin the shrimp harvest in the Gulf of Mexico?  All over the planet we have all these not so subtle versions of, "f___ you" going on with only lip-service given to "caring."  Does anyone seriously doubt the relationship between "Hummers" on the streets of America and "Humvees" around the world?

     There will always be this balance between the extremes.  It would seem that a larger view on the part of all of us would enable the extremes to be somewhat moderated.  The endless waves, or cycles, of existence can't be changed; and, it is my opinion that the extremes can be lessened to the point that we neither have people so rich that they don't even know how rich they are, nor children that die before they are weaned from their starving mothers.

     It is this lack of a bigger view----a view outside of the selves---that has created the tremendous gulf between the "haves" and the "have-nots" around the world, and has radicalized many people to the point where they have no room for a bigger view----where all that matters is their small view----survival----and "Pink Balloons."

     No matter what our economic position this should sound familiar to everyone on the planet.  We all get trapped in our own small view.  We all at times say, "My way or the highway."  We expect our leaders to maintain our small view----to kill other people and their small views in order that our own small view survives.  We do this in the name of "progress" or "religion" or "race" or "country."  It really doesn't matter what clothes we dress it up in as long as it allows us to "dehumanize" those with undesirable views; and, make starvation, disease, and poverty somehow palatable.

     I think some reasonable questions to ask of ourselves are:  does my view open doors or close doors; and, does my view require that others be like me----or else?

     "But, but, but.......," you say. 

     It would seem to me that all "buts" are merely attempts to maintain the way things are----to define and bolster a smaller view.

     We expend vast resources to maintain this poor approach.  What good does it do a people to have tremendous physical wealth if they are morally and spiritually bankrupt?

     The real question is:  Do we have the balls as a planet to act in a way that everyone is benefited?  Are we capable of a "HUGE VIEW"----bigger than individuals, states, countries, religions, races and even the Beatles?

     The answer for me is actually quite simple:  "We must." (Or----to quote someone smarter than me, "Yes we can.")

Charles Buell  

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