Jordan,
I think your views of our world are spot on in the arena of personal development but severely lacking in the field of human motivation. Cultures outside the west have historically not been motivated to obtain massive amounts of wealth through force as western nations have. Most humans are not internally driven to acquire large and infinite sources of abundance for themselves, through violent force and at the expense of their fellow man. They only care to obtain what is adequate.
Unlimited access to cell phones, computers, cheap Nikes, and every unhealthy food source known to man are not signs of human advancement and progress, and until recently (60 years ago or so), nations not considered ‘western’ have not desired these things. Prosperity? Yes. Excess by any means necessary? No.
So why do intellectuals of the modern era tout these luxurious icons of western idealism as evidence of man’s greatness? Simply offering the products of an abusive capitalist system to humans in other countries does not make them better off– especially if we consider that these products were most likely created by the inhabitants of these countries.
Plenty of people here in the U.S. have an abundance of “stuff”–shiny, new, and ultimately valueless items–yet we are still fundamentally a broken people, depressed and distraught in…
