Access Birthrights
Even though we are in the middle of reading chapter four, I wanted to bring up a thought from chapter one. On page 23 Field writes “…the intention that through our actions (in business and elsewhere) we may diminish suffering and treat all beings with respect and compassion. With this intention, we aspire that all beings have access to food, water, shelter, medical care, and such other things that are our birthright.”
This makes me think of all the issues that have been playing out in the news for the past year, especially in relation to the huge health care bill that was passed. It was even brought up in the debates between politicians that health care is a debate in philosophy. I think these debates are evidence of the influence of greed on our culture — the general argument that I regularly hear is “I don’t want my taxes to pay for (insert social cause)” and this seems to be representative of our obsession with self-advancement rather than advancement of society as a whole. I know the debate is really deeper than that, but ultimately our country does seem to have a tendency to focus on individual wealth and success rather than the common good. Whether that is right or wrong in regard to different issues will always be debated, but I think that Field makes a good point that if our actions benefit the whole, we will benefit individually as a result (i.e. as society progresses, we progress along with it).
beadworksbykerri 3:00 pm on May 14, 2010 Permalink |
I agree, it was a very good point made in Chapter One. Our society has progressively been getting more individual minded, but especially since the 80′s when the “me” attitude really took off. It’s evident everywhere you look. Even the names of popular magazines such as Self (right now it’s the only one I can think of….lol) are indicative of our obsession with ourselves. Greed definitely plays a very big part of it. It’s like society has a void and we’re trying to fill that void with material things rather than the things in life that really matter.
I’m glad you came back to a previous Chapter. I’ve been reading about Budhism and having somewhat of a hard time envisioning how corporations can change now that they’re so enmeshed in our current economic system. It’s almost like the large corporations actually dictate society right now. I’m hoping as I read further I’ll have more of a sense of hope for the future.