In a world where people eat scrumptious meals in fancy restaurants while homeless people peddle for coins just on the other side of the glass, where others drive their $100,000 autos solo daily past hordes of bus goers (in sub-freezing temperatures) without considering offering a ride, and where increasing numbers communicate via \u201cgod-like\u201d cellular devices while others, thousands of miles away, work feverishly in horrific conditions to collect enough \u201ccoltan\u201d (a versatile metal alloy used in WiFi-transmitting electronics) to feed their families, one has to ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s moral these days?\u201d And, relatedly, in a world so extreme in its inequality and maldistribution of resources, \u201cIs it even possible for a person of economic privilege to live morally?\u201d<\/p>\n
Imagining an extra-terrestrial who happened upon our planet, I suspect he\/she would unequivocally state that nearly all \u201cfirst-worlders\u201d live immorally. This judgment would come simply from his\/her observation that we consume resources that are obtained, distributed, manufactured, and sold in ways that usually cause great psychological and physical harm to other humans and other forms of life. From the pesticide-laden plants (or hormone- and antibiotic-dosed meat) food that dominates food systems, our fossil fuels which often come from war-torn regions of the world where (despite the amazing amount of $$ that these resources must be worth) most people have remained severely impoverished for decades, or our everyday clothing and house \u201cproducts\u201d that are almost always made by workers overseas who live in inhumane work environments, this verdict is undeniable. If there were a functioning international court, we would be found \u201cguilty\u201d of immoral lifestyles. <\/p>\n
Concluding that we are living immorally shouldn\u2019t be news to anyone, though it rarely gets coverage in such blatant terms. It also doesn\u2019t have much meaning if it isn\u2019t just an inevitable result of living in the 21st century (or at all). Clearly, humans must consume substantial resources to live, all large animals do by necessity. So, do we have any real choice? The answer is \u201cyes.\u201d First, we overconsume, producing excessive amounts of waste. Many of the products that we buy aren\u2019t necessary to living a fulfilling life. Second, we, if we really cared to do so, could find many of the resources that we do need to thrive from producers that aren\u2019t destroying the environment in their work. This is particularly true with food but is doable, albeit difficult, in other areas as well. (Here are a few articles that lay out some of these options, ref 1<\/a>, ref 2<\/a>). Third, all of us are entangled, whether we like it or not, in the most immoral component of our \u201cconsumption\u201d: the trillions of dollars lost (which we pay in taxes) on the continued militarization of the world and its ties to resolving humanitarian and economic challenges with arms and violence, rather than diplomacy and peace. <\/p>\n All this said, it must be noted that many of those that live in \u201crich\u201d countries, especially the U.S., live under great economic stress and this limits their ability to act morally with regard to their consumption patterns. Reasonably, until they are relieved of their structural impoverishment, their immorality doesn\u2019t deserve much attention; though increasing their “take” and not causing further damage would necessitate a different type of growth than we are use to. On the other hand, the behaviors of those that live in middle- to upper-class lives cannot be overlooked. Sadly, much of what they (and \u201cI\u201d) consume falls into the category of \u201chorrible.\u201d Our educational system and mainstream media (both increasingly influenced\/controlled by corporations), in their effort to ensure that we continue to consume, completely fail to teach us what we need in order to consume morally.<\/p>\n So, where does this leave us? I don\u2019t think there are any magical solutions. But, just as alcoholics must admit their addiction before making headway, we need to admit our immorality as well. Perhaps part of the solution is something equivalent to AA (or NA) where people could meet regularly and figure out ways to modify our (individually and collectively) consumption patterns toward moral pathways. Such meetings are happening under other auspices (e.g., Green Party, First Nations Environmental Network, Urban Ag\/Permaculture, etc.). Start your own group or check one of these out. Let us know what you find!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a world where people eat scrumptious meals in fancy restaurants while homeless people peddle for coins just on the other side of the glass, where others drive their $100,000 autos solo daily past hordes of bus goers (in sub-freezing temperatures) without considering offering a ride, and where increasing numbers communicate via \u201cgod-like\u201d cellular devices … Continue reading “are we moral?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,11,2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenges","category-economics-money","category-food-ag","category-justice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BrNb-1N","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}