(The following comments are observations on the current
Ebola outbreak in Africa and the growing calls for American isolationism.)
Try as I might, I will never grow to resent the fact that the world looks to the US to help resolve problems too big for them to handle on their own. That response is emotionally selfish, childish, elitist, racist, and xenophobic in the extreme. Worst of all, it is illogical and ultimately self-destructive on both personal and national levels.
Try as I might, I will never grow to resent the fact that the world looks to the US to help resolve problems too big for them to handle on their own. That response is emotionally selfish, childish, elitist, racist, and xenophobic in the extreme. Worst of all, it is illogical and ultimately self-destructive on both personal and national levels.
America is not an independent entity
self-sufficient unto itself, but a member of a much bigger community, much more
interconnected and INTERDEPENDENT than we like to admit. We also have not
attained this position on our own, as our nation a ‘composite’ community based
on and built upon immigrant citizens and national economies of the larger
community (the rest of the world) around it.
If we let the other members of the worldwide community fall to poverty, disease, famine, and even their own wars of stupidity, we would only be fomenting the seeds of our own eventual destruction. If in all instances, we choose to stand alone, as an island blindly indifferent to the rest of the world, how long before we ourselves fall prey to those same conditions, whether they be war, disease, famine, poverty, or natural disaster?
If we let the other members of the worldwide community fall to poverty, disease, famine, and even their own wars of stupidity, we would only be fomenting the seeds of our own eventual destruction. If in all instances, we choose to stand alone, as an island blindly indifferent to the rest of the world, how long before we ourselves fall prey to those same conditions, whether they be war, disease, famine, poverty, or natural disaster?
***
'Altruism' is an interesting choice of words, because it is not merely
an idea, or a vague, unattainable ideal, but, instead, a most dire
necessity for our survival as species.
Altruism is one of things that have made us the dominant life form
on the planet. Altruism and diversity; in our local communities, the world at
large, and even within our individual biological makeup, has placed us at
the top of the food chain, and made it possible for us to proliferate all
over the planet, in all climates, and against a not inconsiderable array
of natural and biological attacks.
Altruism and diversity are both successful mechanisms for species
survival that have proved themselves repeatedly. (In almost all plagues and epidemics,
some survive, while many do not. It is the biological diversity within our species
that makes this possible, and ensures our survival.)
However, we are now at a stage in our development (as a highly
advanced nation) to either embrace these facts, or denying them and turning
our backs on the rest of the world, effectively isolating ourselves from
humanity at large. If we were to do that, how long before some agent of
nature, whether biological, or catastrophic (as in weather or Earth changes)
capitalizes on that self-imposed austerity, and deals us a calamitous blow
which we would not be able to recover from on our own?
Would we still expect 'the world' to come to our aid, after we have
effectively turned our backs on it?
Altruism is a means of survival for all of us, or none of us, and it is a decision that each of us, nations and individuals alike, are called on to make almost every day, for our own good, or to our own detriment.
Altruism is a means of survival for all of us, or none of us, and it is a decision that each of us, nations and individuals alike, are called on to make almost every day, for our own good, or to our own detriment.
One point more: We
may be able to hide from an epidemic for a while until our own inactivity
allows it to become a pandemic. To whom will we turn, at that time, once the
world has succumbed, and the infectious plague has finally crossed our borders?
A person who refuses to help neighbors while their houses are burning down all around
will soon find that their own house is
the only one left to face the inevitable flames, and then, who will be there to
offer help and assistance?
