...and in the wake of mutterings among British politicians about basing a new Bill of Rights on the US model, I'd like to hope that one day all of us countries will get over ourselves enough that we realise the need for an International Declaration of Interdependence...
To my mind, dependence/independence/interdependence are three phases of development in both the individual and the collective, i.e. society/culture - correspondent with infancy, adolescence and adulthood. Ultimately, we need to outgrow the concepts of both 'independence' and 'rights' if we're to grow further, and recognise instead the twin realities of interdependence (that everything we do or don't do affects the world around us, like it or not) and responsibility (accepting the former, we should choose the effect we are going to have, because we cannot choose to have NO effect).
Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 607 Location: Australia
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:29 pm Post subject: Interdependence and responsibility
Interdependence and responsibility: powerful concepts. If we are to accept those two values, it means that we have to reconceive what it is to live in the modern world. However, if we are to solve the major issues that we face - like climate change, pollution, disputed oil supplies, poverty, AIDS, possible pandemics like SARS or avian flu, increasing loss of animal species, forest destruction - it really cannot be done without learning new ways of working with each other. It also requires inspirational leadership from major world powers, to convince their consituencies that each has to make sacrifices so the whole world can survive, so it's going to take a little time. But it's not too dramatic to say that the future of our race depends on us getting it right, sooner rather than later.
It's difficult - words are powerful indeed, but all the change really needs to happen from the 'bottom up' rather than the 'top down'. I've grown up in a country that has consistently dissuaded its population from taking individual responsibility for what happens at local or national government level - I remember noticing how between the 70's and 80's (I was too young to notice the 60's!) students largely went from having a strong sense of political identity to having a strong sense of cultural identity instead (as if there was no point in having a political identity any more, because what could you change?)
I find myself at 43 not really knowing what's going on at a local or national government level in my country, apart from what I read in the news (someone else's careful selection), feeling that I should in some way be more personally responsible, but not knowing yet how to go about this. I suppose that one of the reasons I'm planning to train as a psychotherapist is to help myself and others to grow up well (since I have no kids, and it seems that a lot of us need more than one run up at growing up well!) - and the collective community of responsible people will only exist to the extent that the individuals within it each have their own internal 'community' in harmony.
We're steered around a lot by stuff we don't even know is going on in us, and on the whole, the people who desire the positions of power in our countries are not the best examples of well-developed adults. And since getting voted in is mainly a daft short-term popularity contest, and the easiest way to get popular is to appeal to people's more fundamental emotions rather than their intellect (sneaking in below the surface like a submarine), it behooves us to understand our emotions better in order not to be manipulated so easily, and to understand the motivations of those we vote in too. It's a bugger. Things were probably simpler when we were all just tribes, and knew everyone in our 'country' quite well...
Joined: Oct 25, 2006 Posts: 1 Location: Saint-Malo, France
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:17 am Post subject: Declarations...UK style
Well following all this and that, can only say that I made the right move... to France, much better and at least if a judge rules in your favour, the ex wife is made to listen, not like in the UK... she left me, robbed the savings account and then went to court to get more! there never have been any human rights under Blair...I used to work with MI5 etc... no chance of anyone ever giving the rights bill at 100%, the security services would accept the paper then just keep going on like they have been doing since WW2 etc etc etc etc _________________ Who was the world's first computer pirate? Bill Gates, copied DOS from IBM then gave back the original and made billions!
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