No. of Recommendations: 16
I probably shouldn’t have replied to this post because it’s a big subject. ometimes, too heavy for me. But since I did, and to respect those who thought about it and responded, I’ll complete my thoughts. I responded to remind people that there are two sides to that coin.
How one speaks of the idea of raising or importing people into a country for work depends upon one’s position in that arrangement. No one gets to choose which side of that coin you are on. As Buffett, says, it’s a womb lottery. Since i was born on the wrong side of that coin, my own experience makes me sensitive tot he other side. It was not so harsh that I wasn’t able to eventually escape that position, but it was very difficult and cost me a lot. Some around me did not make it out alive. Being at the bottom of the economic barrel has consequences beyond the financial. Rarely do those who are on the benefitting side of things consider the totality of those on the other side. So, often the rules are set up to completely ignore the humanity, or in the case of animals, the sentient experience of those beings—they are stripped of their feelings and are often ignored as sentient beings, no different than a hammer or a nail.
I was responding to the one-dimensional phrasing that implies that people are of economic or personal “use” to “us.” That conceptual distance, defining other People, by their utility, can be dehumanizing. That “distance” is responsible for poor long-term decisions about society, and even within families. Part of humanity’s evolution to higher consciousness, I hope, is to come up with different ways to conceptualize these other people so they are not defined merely in terms of their utility to us.
I don’t know if it’s possible for humans to evolve much in that way. I only see a small part of reality. But, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of things like that in a discussion about business and “workers,” or food, for that matter. Perhaps a bit more kindness and respect will be slipped into our thoughts and better ideas will come of it.
“Those” people are evolving, too. But for the grace… Sometimes, what goes around comes around. Life is complicated. Good to keep that in mind, I think.
