Orion magazine always has a few interesting articles about nature and community. They are usually a combination of artful writing and intellectual thoughts. Sometimes these articles seem remote and disconnected as if a bunch of intellectuals are playing with ideas and not interested in getting dirty. At other times i find myself being the intellectual and not wanting to get dirty. The later is my state today. My intellect says Orion is on the wrong track in one area.
In fact, i think much of western culture pushes us on this track and few people see it or think it important. What i'm talking about is: thinking with absolutes. For example, one article in Orion identifies some problems with corporations and then suggests: we rid the world of corporations and replace them with cooperation. Well.. if we removed corporations that would leave a vacuum and what would result? Would the world be a better place or would the same problems exist? Are corporation just tools and we are trying to solve a problem by killing the tool. This would be like destroying hammers because one hit us on the thumb. The real problem is the person using the hammer or how we utilize corporations. Western culture tries to turn issues into good/bad questions or yes/no answers then declare war. This requires that we are either for corporations or against corporations. Well, i'm don't like that game. Life is about balance and not about issues with "right/wrong" positions. This is true of most issues. We need to balance development with conservation. We need to balance population growth with preservation of the species. On and on.. I can't visualize a sustainable culture adopting "right/wrong" ways of thinking. Are Arabs "good/bad" or are Jews "good/bad", or are they complicated cultures. You can pick just about any issue and adopt a fixed viewpoint (absolute thinking). This is easy but it doesn't fit our world and it creates problems. jeff
