Page 33 - Taliesin's Rainbow

As a consequence, the mall was flooded with Americans, and
Balinese who buy nothing, but go to escape their pastures, and
gawk at how “green” America’s grass is.

How wrong they are! I can say without doubt that the 22 family
members in my compound lead happier lives than almost any
American I’ve ever met. The children I saw at the mall seemed
significantly more sullen than any rural Indonesian I have met,
and it seems to be because they strive for a lifestyle that is unat-
tainable to many of them. If only they knew the lifestyle they are
begging for is not all it’s cut out to be. My host family could not
understand the meaning of an awkward silence, because they
are completely comfortable with each other and themselves. By
night we sit in a massive circle on the floor of our compound’s
temple and reminisce, all the while sipping Kope Bali (Balinese
Coffee), and tea. It is paradise, and yet modernization is im-
minent, and it’s effects noticeably noxious to their seemingly
pristine culture.

Something for American readers to think about...
-How can you love neighbor when you are pitted against him in
a world of scarcity where avarice is foremost in both your minds?

- How can you love yourself when you cannot love your neigh-
bor, when it is him or you, and you choose yourself? The greater
the fear of scarcity, the more ruthless competition. The more
ruthless competition, the more you must dehumanize your
competitors. Therein lays the paradox, for you and your neigh-
bor are the same man under different conditions, so either you
must admit that a human is only as good as his conditions, as
the circumstances he was born into, or you must see yourself
dehumanized with him. The first is to ignore responsibility for
the fact that you have more because your neighbor has less, as a
good capitalist would. The second is an inherent consequence
no matter what. The answer is not to accept the maladies of “the
system and to strive to come out on top, for then you are part of
the problem. The answer is to make your life’s work inspiring
the masses to see an alternative where sustainability is the mod-
el, and equality the goal. ~Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche