Whom Did I Kill Today?

I've pretty much failed at attempting to post regularly. I'll shirk my responsibility and blame a combination of school, law school preparation, and dread at the thought and reality of moving to the desert where I will serve this summer.

Much of my recent contemplation has been upon issues I've expounded during my last post. I have settled on a law school that provides a slightly more practical education over one that highlighted public interest law, bringing me one step closer to the point of losing a vital connection with the world.

This connection is one that I believe should impact our every decision. Each action, no matter how small, must be understood in an economic and political concept - an allocation of some resource. In most cases it is one away from others in less fortunate parts of the world towards our own benefit. Some of these decisions, such as buying toothpaste or chips to go with a sandwich, may seem minute and inconsequential. However, every small step away from understanding that tossing away the chips one didn't finish is one closer to a reality where children in another country don't get a meal for days or weeks.

I don't advocate that people stop living their lives, or that every decision requires a deep evaluation. Thought in this manner would stifle any progress or ability to participate in society. Rather, people should attempt to reach this ideal, so that a connection with the world outside our respective bubble is not severed completely.

To understand my point, I often point to the dogmatic stances of political parties. Republicans promote individualism, maintaining that people must be responsible for their actions and bear the consequences of their actions without a buffer from society to soften the blow of the negatives they may encounter. Democrats go with a slightly different take, promoting all of society's members to a status that requires maintenance by removing access to resources and opportunities to those outside our society. For clarification, think of welfare programs in the former situation and protectionism in the latter.

These cases both require severing of the connection at a different level. Republicans ask for one inside society, and Democrats ask for one outside of society. They also hope to simplify the situation into an us-them dichotomy, making sure that whatever in-group is created is the one the appropriate party represents.

Either way, a dissonance is established, where the claim is made that people are being helped. However, in both cases, people are being forgotten and left behind - inside and outside society. In both cases, people that have never had opportunities for a peaceful, fulfilling life are relegated to the out-group of lesser importance.

The core issue boils down to how one conceptualizes humanity. The categorization by nation, race, gender, or religion doesn't make sense in a increasingly interconnected, global society. People are people, and where one happens to be born, which religion one adheres to, what one looks like, or what one feels like should not define the abilities and rights one possesses.

Translating this into daily life becomes extremely problematic, when a domestic job is exported to someone who is making enough money to feed their family, possibly for the first time in generations. Is protecting thousands of these jobs worth the starvation or malnutrition of these others? Does it make sense to sustain the retirement base of the middle and upper classes at the cost of a lower class's education, nutrition, and safety?

Every action taken should bring along with it a conscious understanding of the cost incurred. A slight consideration of the alternatives of an action might actually cause people to understand the benefits they hold within our society. With such an understanding, maybe they would also come to realize their complacency and/or apathy partially contributes to the suppression of benefits to many others - those not only in our local streets and inner cities, but in neighboring countries, trading partner nations, and even those groups simply connected to us by their presence in our world.