How Much Does It Cost To Achieve The Right Quality Of Life For All?

Dear Reader,

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

(Margaret Mead) 

Her life came to an end in 1978, but Margaret Mead was a pioneering but sometimes controversial cultural anthropologist who created the basis for much-revised thinking in western society. Conservatives did not much approve of her approach, which was to do with her underlying view on the nature of human thought. 

Putting aside her major work on sexual attitudes - which can of course be controversial - there is a theme that she identified that can be taken to identify and explain all our attitudes. Her most important view, not previously much recognised, was that it was the social expectations and norms that had developed slowly for centuries that laid the groundwork for each individual’s psychological makeup.

Hence, in line with rationalist thinking that has developed in the last few hundred years, our general tendency is to think that if we are to change things, we should be most focused on outward-looking solutions (usually utilising technology), not introspective-based considerations. If we were to be more inward-thinking, we would probably tend to look at whether our belief or value systems may be the right approach before we address a solution to the problem. 

So, on this matter of inner reflection, Margaret Mead also said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

There are those that reckon that solutions to Climate Change lie in technology, but if the nature of how we have thought in the West over centuries continues to be utilised, then we are surely backing a non-runner.

It is interesting that in the last sentence I utilised an old phrase commonplace in UK parlance because horse racing has been such a part of our culture. We adopt picturesque phrases to create images of what we wish to convey. But use of such phrases can also betray our subliminal weaknesses for preference towards useless pastimes. The word "backing" is, unfortunately, a synonym for the word "betting" and links us to the state of gambling in the UK. This has reached unprecedented levels of people taking on huge risks they cannot afford because they believe they know how to turn copper into gold.

The general reaction is to criticise the gambler, but if gambling is given such official sanction without proper education of what is responsible behavior, then we are surely asking for trouble.

Though we are, naturally, preoccupied with COVID and its effect, at some point we surely need to address the state of affairs in western society in respect of its lack of real quality. Only if we do that will we be able to begin to rectify the perilous situation the world is in.

We should also, surely, recognise that the West has had a big influence on other parts of the world, but too much of it has been of a detrimental nature, ending up in the creation of many 'sticking plaster' organisations to help paper over the effects of wrong Western influence.

If my words are doubted, then what was the basis of the current Israeli-Palestinian troubles? And also the troubles in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan? All these issues relate back to the way the Middle East was carved up following the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World War One. All the work done by Lawrence of Arabia in gaining trust from the Arabs was thrown aside, and, further, a promise was given to Jews for a state of Israel to be created in Palestine.

The promise to create a new Israel came to a head after World War Two after the Nazi attrition that the Jews suffered. But the outcome was that 75,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes to make way for Israel and forced into refugee camps in adjacent countries. They never left. Since then, right-wing factions in Israel have pressed for more occupation of Arab land. Hence the terrible non-stop war between the two sides, where the Goliath is Israel, supported by the West.

The death toll amongst Arabs throughout their lands is sickening. Yet we hardly blink an eyelid.

Western thinking has not changed much, and much of our approach to the world's issues have been without wisdom. I was interested to find out that even in the 19th c., 'Buffalo Bill' Cody spoke up against his own U.S. government's policy towards the native Indians, claiming that it was wealth-creation that was the motive for the move to occupy western territories occupied by the Indians. What the Indians received in return was effectively their treatment as second-class citizens, regardless of their wisdom relating to how to live in balance with nature.

Nothing much has changed. Western powers have too often shown that money is the chief consideration in their dealings with other peoples.

Is money really the most important thing? Climate Change and other issues indicate that it is not. Far from it. As Margaret Mead indicated, there is an alternative voice in the West that points to a different mode of thinking that is aspirational and also fair if carried through. But it needs enlightened education to achieve that state, based on the removal of selfishness and the promotion of equality.

It is not that such changes are not already taking place. They are, but there continues to be a lack of awareness amongst people at large in the West. Climate Change will not allow us the luxury of very much time to change our views and our backing of the right people to be our next leaders.

The quality of life needs to be addressed - urgently. What cost is involved in doing that is less important - the future of the world and mankind is at stake. 

Thank you for reading this.