Ain't no Superman

[mousme]

Even Mother Theresa limited herself to Calcutta, for the most part.

The human mind can't encompass more than about 100 close friends and family. Beyond that, it's physically incapable of caring just that much. This is a good thing, a survival mechanism. Can you imagine feeling the same devastating sorrow as losing a parent or a sibling or a child or your best childhood friend every time someone out there dies?

I would go insane. More insane than I am now. It would make life unbearable. We'd constantly be in emotional agony. Who wants to live like that?

I believe in the interconnectedness of beings. I don't believe one person inherently has more value than another. I also believe that some people have more value to me than others. I love my parents, but the teller at the bank will only get a civilized nod and a "Good morning" at best. The guy I pass on the street will never be acknowledged 99% of the time. My friends are more important to me than my coworkers.

Would I like to save the world? Sure. But I can't. I also can't care about the world in its entirety. I can care about my small corner of the world. I can strive to try and make my friends and family happy and safe, and to make my corner of the world a pleasant place for them to live.

My friends and family have friends and family of their own. My circle and their circle are not the same, and so I trust them to take care of those they love whom I don't know. In turn, those people must take care of their own. Eventually, there must be a trickle-down effect.

This isn't a perfect system. There's no such thing as a perfect system. It's just the best and only thing I know how to do. I am not a revolutionary, nor am I an activist. I lose myself in crowds, and I don't have the voice or the oratory skills for speeches. I am not brilliant. I will never write anything that will irrevocably change the way people think.

The best I can hope for is that someone someday will look at me and say: "You know, I think she's onto something. Maybe I'll try that too."

Comments

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

I think the question to ask is why you should care about 99.9999% of the population when they would, when the chips are down, cheerfully slit your throat without a moment's hesitation if it were to their advantage.

Also, a certain amount of recoiling from the implications of a worst-case scenario might be involved.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to go so far as the throat thing. But, yeah.

Living in a city, cooperating with all the citizens. The guy in curtana's post mentioned an optimal city size of 1,000,000. He used Rome as an example. Anybody have an idea of the quality of life in Rome for the average inhabitant? Sure they had running water and central heating and the like. Also slaves, to run things.

I'm wondering how people whose only skills are information based would make their way?

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

I only skimmed the article urbanhomestead linked to, so I can't really comment in-depth, but frankly, I don't like urban living now, with all our modern conveiences. Subtract reliable electricity and HVAC, spotty municipal services, a notable dearth of entertainment options, and lots and lots of unemployed tertiary sector workers?

They call that a favela in Latin America, and frankly, I'd like living in one even less. I'll stick to the sticks unless forced out of them, thank you very much.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

My skills are mostly information based, as it happens. I think that, were I left on my own now, I would be toast.

This is why, for me, it's very important to build communities wherever I go. If I need a skill, I will need someone to teach it to me.

While there are so many conflicting theories about peak oil, I have no idea what the city will be like after that. I have a feeling it'll resemble the Depression era in more ways than one. While I don't especially want to be an urbanite under those circumstances, if I happen to be living in the city when it happens, well, I'll just suck it up and deal as best I can. No other way about it.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Even if you cut out all the PO talk, having a useful and tradeable skill can help you do better in any economic downturn, for example. If my job gets outsourced like the last few have, I better have some things I can make or do that are in demand. That works wherever you are.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I'd like to have more faith in humanity than that. I honestly don't think that the vast majority of people would resort to violence, as you say, "if it were to their advantage."

I do think there are many people out there who are violent and opportunistic, but they are not the majority.

I don't think the majority of people would hesitate to put their welfare above mine. From there to outright physical violence is a stretch. If you look at huge natural disasters, like the recent devastation of Hurricane Katrina, you'll note that the vast majority did *not* engage in violence. They were lost, disoriented, unable to do much other than fend for themselves and their close families, but there was relatively little violence involved for a disaster on that scale.

I do think you're being pessimistic about human nature on the whole. Sure, disaster brings out the worst in us, but it also brings out the best in us. :)

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

I think the reason things stayed relatively polite in New Orleans was the fact that there was a rescue effort, albeit a slow and mismanaged one, and that people knew it was coming. If the situation in New Orleans had had three weeks of no support whatsoever, things would have gone beyond ugly...

How about Sarajevo? That one's not a great example, because an organized "them" trying to kill "us" with modern military hardware also tends to foster a sense of community solidarity.

Mogadishu, perhaps? Baghdad?

I guess we're lucky, in that we don't have any examples of a modern Western city being thrown into complete anarchy,

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Sarajevo is my favorite example. We are lucky. Luck only holds so long. Maybe it will hold until after we are all dead. Have you read Parable of the Sower? Octavia Butler is the author. Interesting.