Humanity sinking further
What has our world come to?
In response to the admirable, although long overdue, banning of shark fin soup from the menus of the Peninsula Hotels group, a public relations officer at the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, when asked why their hotel did not also ban shark fin soup, responded: “Our job is to meet the requirements of our clients” (“Hotels refuse to drop shark fin soup,” Nov. 27, page 1).
Translate that into: “Our job is to make money, no matter what. If clients wanted boiled children’s head soup, and it was legal, we would serve that, too. We have a complete absence of any moral values, because making money tops every other consideration in the world.”
In this, our corporate-sponsored world, greed now infests almost every aspect of economic and political action and it filters down to ordinary customers who don’t seem to mind gobbling down the last few remaining members of a species that has been living on this planet for much longer than we have, or to fight our fellow human beings tooth-and-nail over discounted bath towels (“Mass violence and pepper spray mar US’ ‘Black Friday,’” Nov. 27, page 1).
I am completely at a loss as to why humanity has sunken so low.
Is our only idea of progress the ever-increasing consumption of the Earth’s natural resources? What about enjoying and protecting beautiful things, such as landscapes and the plants and animals that live in them, or old, historic buildings, which seem to disappear even faster than sharks? What about spending time with family and friends instead of wasting our time in traffic jams and lineups just to get the newest iPhone?
And why do we even care about buying “things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like,” to freely quote author Dave Ramsey (www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/25775)?
I am more and more convinced that real progress, which means making a better living for ourselves and all the other living creatures on this planet, actually stopped decades ago. What we see around us now is negative progress, because despite people having more money in their pockets, they behave worse, their societies are built around despicable greed and mindless consumption, and our Earth is getting more and more polluted and destroyed.
Unless we radically change our moral values and take care of each other and our fellow beings and spend our money on worthwhile things, I do not have much hope for humanity.
Flora Faun
Taipei
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