Make America Civilized
A strong and healthy civilization requires people to pursue racial, social, or economic justice in every society.
Civilize: to reclaim from, or cause to come out of, a savage or barbarous state; to instruct in the rules and customs of civilization and thus elevate in the human scale; educate; refine
— definition from the Oxford English Dictionary
“Recently I saw a film of Gandhi when he came to England in 1930. He disembarked in Southampton and on the gangway he was already overwhelmed by journalists asking questions. One of them asked, ‘Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of modern civilization?’ And Mr. Gandhi said, ‘That would be a good idea.’ I think now the time has come when we can implement this good idea.”
— from Good Work, E.F. Schumacher, p.62, Harper & Row Publishers, 1979, Verena Schumacher.
Two months ago I participated in a “Ready to Run” training sponsored by the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University. For the most part, the training gave me a better understanding of why the political system in this country is in so much trouble. But at the end of the day there was an interesting exercise to name one’s own political platform. The presenter used Trump’s MAGA platform — Make America Great Again — to illustrate what she meant.
The “platform” was to be something catch-y that would define what needs to be accomplished — Make America Great Again. Next, we were to define the problems which kept this circumstance from happening. Then we were to outline solutions which would bring this about, and finally define what life would look like after this transformation.
I decided that my platform would be — Make America Civilized. Ever since I read the story of Gandhi’s response to modern civilization, I have been very aware that we are not nearly as civilized as we would like to think. The problems that have resulted because we are not civilized are quite apparent. We do not have racial, social, or economic justice in our society. Our concept of gender, which defines men as being from Mars (warlike) and women from Venus (loving) instills a sense of dominance/passivity rather than of co-operation and complement. Our environment tends to be seen as something to exploit, so that there is much degradation to our air, water, soil and other species, as well as to ourselves. And we use war as a problem solving technique rather than listening to others and participating in honest dialogue and negotiation to solve problems.
I would suggest that the solutions to these problems are relatively simple. I believe that if we were to focus on the NEEDS of individuals and create work opportunities that meet these needs rather than have jobs that are financially lucrative and keep people busy, we could have a very creative and extremely interesting society. I am especially interested in transforming the financial economy into a gift economy, where we can all use our “gifts” and live in the “present.” I like the way that E.F. Schumacher outlines the idea of Work in “Good Work”, Prologue, pp 3–4. -
“Let us ask then; How does work relate to the end and purpose of man’s being? It has been recognized in all authentic teachings of mankind that every human being born into this world has to work not merely to keep himself alive but to strive toward perfection. To keep himself alive, he needs various goods and services, which will not be forthcoming without human labor. To perfect himself, he needs purposeful activity in accordance with the injunction: ‘Whichever gift each of you have received, use it in service to one another, like good stewards dispensing the grace of God in its varied forms.’ From this, we may derive the three purposes of human work as follows:
First, to provide necessary and useful goods and services.
Second, to enable every one of us to use and thereby perfect our gifts like good stewards.
Third, to do so in service to, and in cooperation with, others, so as to liberate ourselves from our inborn egocentricity.”
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