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out of control

Hmmm.... perhaps I wasn't too clear on my last post... the whole log in a stream thing.

The main point I want to stress here is freedom. For all, freedom has a price... for some, that price is more expensive... for some, it is easily attainable.

For most, I feel, that price is tradition... upbringing. There are certain ways that most of us have been brought up that bind us to tradition, that bind us to the ways of our parents.

A cage is only a cage when one is aware of it. When one does not know the restrictions by which on is bound, that cage is a comfort...

Once the outside world makes itself known, that cage is a burden that will be heavy throughout life if one does not choose to step outside it.

I suppose it's a problem that many face in a world of globalisation... where do you shut the doors of a culture to the outside world? Where do you let a flood of new ideas in?

I find it odd that people speak of globalisation as though it were something new. Throughout history, from the very dawn of mankind, where neighbouring tribes did things differently, there was dispute, there was strife about tradition being lost... now those neighbouring tribes, along with one hundred others have formed themselves into a conglomorate of neighbours we call a 'country'... or a 'community'... the only difference, in analysis, when you cut out a lot of extra factors, is that there are simply more people involved... but would you rather share resources and increase everyone's quality of life? Or would you keep an excess of resources to yourself and suffer the lack of others?

What, in the end, is better for people?

I need soil, so that I may grow my crops... you need water. Your land has abundant soil... my land is criss-crossed by waterways and tributaries. We both have something that the other needs - and when that is the case, is it not a good idea to overcome any differences between our cultures so that I might eat, and that you might drink? Or do we choose to be obstinate in our views, so that one may die of thirst and the other of hunger?

It's not about losing identity... it's about discovering in what manners we think alike... and strengthening those aspects of culture and identity so that in the end, we are still ourselves when we let go of other aspects...

Perhaps it is difficult, but I believe that it can be done. I believe this applies to individuals, and it applies to nations.

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