Economic and cultural globalization has given us, citizens of countries large and small, east and west, north and south, access to all that the world has to offer, from chinese Mung beans to Maasai fly-swatters, all for sale in our 'local corner-store'.
We are used to a wide variety of cuisines in our daily eating-habits, regardless of whether we live in Bangkok or San Francisco, happily devouring a Pad Thai for lunch and a burrito for dinner, or perhaps some Lebanese mezze to spice the day up.
Political ideas and ideologies have not been exempted: look at the widespread manifestations and revolts in the name of freedom and democracy that have spread through the Middle East like a wildfire...
We appear to come closer and closer together, more than ever before, more than we ever could have imagined.
But....
The antithesis is looming around the corner, often in the defense of 'Gott mit Uns' (God with Us).
In many communities in the world, including Hindu, Muslim and Christian countries, young children are coerced into pledging allegiance to a religion, a culture or government they have no understanding of.
How can a young child, with hardly any knowledge of other cultures and ways of life, judge what is right or wrong in the eyes of God or humanity?
How can the adults who coerce these children into fundamentalism judge on other countries and cultures without ever having been in contact with them?
What we, citizens of planet Earth, are mostly in danger of, is not ideology or terrorism, but ignorance. As Primo Levi once said: "Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions."
We are used to a wide variety of cuisines in our daily eating-habits, regardless of whether we live in Bangkok or San Francisco, happily devouring a Pad Thai for lunch and a burrito for dinner, or perhaps some Lebanese mezze to spice the day up.
Political ideas and ideologies have not been exempted: look at the widespread manifestations and revolts in the name of freedom and democracy that have spread through the Middle East like a wildfire...
We appear to come closer and closer together, more than ever before, more than we ever could have imagined.
But....
The antithesis is looming around the corner, often in the defense of 'Gott mit Uns' (God with Us).
In many communities in the world, including Hindu, Muslim and Christian countries, young children are coerced into pledging allegiance to a religion, a culture or government they have no understanding of.
How can a young child, with hardly any knowledge of other cultures and ways of life, judge what is right or wrong in the eyes of God or humanity?
How can the adults who coerce these children into fundamentalism judge on other countries and cultures without ever having been in contact with them?
What we, citizens of planet Earth, are mostly in danger of, is not ideology or terrorism, but ignorance. As Primo Levi once said: "Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions."
