Originally published in Loaves & Fishes, Clairvaux Farm, Elkton, MD.
North America contains almost 14 percent of the world’s land, 7 percent of its people, and 30 percent of its measured economic activity. From its indigenous peoples to the diverse array of Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. communities, the continent is rich in cultures and natural resources. For centuries, rivers and waterways, trading routes, travel, and war have brought our people in contact with one another. For centuries some of this contact has enriched us all while other relations have enriched some at the expense of others. 1from a draft joint statement, A JUST AND SUSTAINABLE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR NORTH AMERICA, by The Alliance for Responsible Trade (U.S), the Citizens Trade Campaign, and The Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (September 24, 1993).
Not stealing is a precept which is held in common by virtually every civilization, every religion, and every ethical system. As the Thai scholar and activist, Sulak Sivaraksa, points out, economic justice is the precept of not stealing as practiced by an entire society.
To steal is to take what is not given or to take what does not belong to us. On the social level this includes not only living at the cost of our neighbor but also living to the detriment of the earth and of future generations.
Terms like “interdependence” and “globalization,” have become so well worn as to be devalued. Yet we have still to clearly understand them. Often those who use them as an argument for a particular economic policy, such as “free trade,” rely upon our confusion as to their various and conflicting meanings.
Those who are supposed to be leading our local and national communities into the next century tell us that interdependence is a fact and that globalization is a process that cannot be stopped.
First of all, however, as has been noted by Steven Gorelick of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, interdependence is an ancient term which
…refers to the interconnected web of life and the co-arising of all phenomena. But ‘free trade’ today denies our interdependence with nature. Interdependence in economic terms refers only to links between nations in the new global economy. The increased trade resulting from agreements like NAFTA and GATT, it is claimed, will make us even more economically interdependent — so much so that we will become a ‘Global Community.’
But in fact these expanded trade links are severing the interdependent bonds that tie real communities together — bonds to nature, to culture, to people. 2“Free Trade and Interdependence,” by Steven Gorelick in Turning Wheel, the Journal of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Summer 1993, page 9.
Secondly, there is a distinction that must be made between “globalization from above” –accelerated economic integration based on the model of indefinite wealth accumulation– and “globalization from below.”
“Globalization from below” takes place under circumstances which attempt to promote:
- sustainable economic development,
- regional and cultural diversity,
- respect for basic human needs and rights, and
- democratic control of economic processes.
In recent years, some areas of the human and physical sciences have rediscovered the ancient notion of interdependence. At many different levels of investigation, it has been found that when we examine “things” which we believed to be real, and even ultimate, constituents of our world –whether these “things” be the human personality, a chair in the room, or an atomic particle– they turn out to be composed of a network of relationships or ties which bind them to other “things.” These “things” are impossible to reduce to entities with an identity independent from the network of relationships. Rather, they are the interdependent junctures of the network in which they participate –the knots of relationships of which the network is composed– gaining their life from the network and from the other “things” in that network.
The “things” in some sub-atomic networks are said to “bootstrap” themselves into existence. But the meaning of the word, “bootstrap,” is not the one that we have grown up using. It is not a matter of the individual or the entity pulling itself up or keeping itself alive uniquely through its own effort. Rather, the individuals in the network pull one another up, sustaining and co-determining one another’s existence.
This older, and newly validated, vision of our interdependence must inform the policies which we adopt, whether this be in regards to our notions of:
- what fair trade between nations would look like,
- how to allocate scarce resources,
- what constitutes right livelihood,
- what is desirable “welfare reform,” or
- how to address root causes of homelessness and poverty.
As we pursue “globalization from below,” building economic justice, a mindfulness of our interdependence will guide us. We must grasp firmly onto each others’ bootstraps.
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Footnotes
- 1from a draft joint statement, A JUST AND SUSTAINABLE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOR NORTH AMERICA, by The Alliance for Responsible Trade (U.S), the Citizens Trade Campaign, and The Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (September 24, 1993).
- 2“Free Trade and Interdependence,” by Steven Gorelick in Turning Wheel, the Journal of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Summer 1993, page 9.