A weblog with random thoughts and reflections on society and ecology.
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Monday, June 02, 2003
Reverse Perspectives
It is often helpful to apply perspectives reverse from those we habitually apply or typically find in mainstream community.
I was reminded of two areas today where perspectives reverse from the mainstream appear to offer valuable insights.
The G8 countries are currently meeting in France. The mainstream view, at least as reflected in mainstream media, is that it is terrible for (a small portion of) the demonstrators to use violence. The reverse is often ignored - the daily and massive violence engaged in by the G8 countries. This is a systematic economic, cultural and military violence aimed at maximizing profits for the few at the expense of the many. (A sidetrack: As is so often the case, the vast majority of the demonstrators are peaceful but the media focuses on the small minority who use violence - against property. The media also portay the demonstrators as "anti-globalization" while they in reality are concerned with one particular form of globalization - the current one that benefits large multinational corporations at a terrible cost to people and ecosystems worldwide. A true grassroots globalization, one that is people and ecosystem focused, is strongly desired by the majority of the demonstrators.)
Another example is tagging. I am visitng family and friends in Norway, and notice tagging at certain locations. What is striking is that the tagging seem to occur on structures most people would find severly lacking in aestethic appeal (aka incredibly ugly). A reverse perspective here will find that the true "crime" may be committed by those who built those structures - structures which do not improve the quality of the community but rather detracts from it. The taggers seem to do us all a service by drawing attention to the most unappealing elements in our built community.
10:47
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