Steven,
"... a hell of a lot of people. . . who sought systemic change are languishing in prisons around the world, for the crime of offending the powers that be."
True, and by ignoring political and cultural flashpoints as Mother Theresa did, she was able to perform a vital humanitarian role. Had she set her sights on a systemic revolution, I doubt she would have been able to offer 40 years of service to the poor.
My point all along has been that her works are laudable, your's seemed to be that it was "nice" she performed them, but you criticized her for not having done more--that she should have sought systemic change (working to reform the caste system, etc.).
Would you criticize me for not battling the tobacco companies when instead my personal project involved picking up cigarette butts that litter the streets? Sure I'd like to end smoking, but I don't expect this to occur in my lifetime, and meanwhile I can effect my little corner with small acts of conscience.
And I wasn't trying to romanticize our agrarian past, just trying to show that "progress" has a price and the net effect is sometimes less than desirable. When we make technology and science our saviors (and IMO, we in the west are becoming dangerously idolatrous) we unduly affect the balance of materiality and spirituality in our lives, and if this trend continues, someday we'll find ourselves in temperature controlled, stainless steel wombs, with a neural shunt in the side of our necks. Wonder then how the quality of our antiseptic, technologically optimized lives will compare to a "primitive" aborigine living in the bush?
Rick |
