Lately, I have been giving a lot of thought to the power of the collective narrative. Below is a copy of my comment to Keith’s post on The Sietch, ‘Why I Walked Out on Richard Reed’, and his response to my comment:
The mud hut reference makes me think of the words we use to describe so called third world or developing nations, versus developed countries. From a purely ecological perspective, both terms are actually oxymorons when you think about it.
Marguerite
I completely agree, Marguerite. Developed should be replaced by “degraded” and Developing should be replaced by “degrading” if these terms relate to reality. Let’s see them for what they are, not give them any fancy euphemisms : industrial, capitalist, communist, Eastern, Western, agricultural, technological, rich, poor, subsistence…
Terms such as Developing and Developed, or 3rd World, 2nd World and 1st World are hangovers from an outdated time – and Age of Empire – when everything was subordinate to those in power. The continuation of these terms reveals that we are still in an Age of Empire, and everything is subordinate to the industrial capitalist Western ideology.
Keith
[…] important to recognize however, that trying to fight consumption in this country, and other ‘developed countries‘ for that matter, is a lost cause. Nowhere was it more clear to me, than during my recent […]
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