them and us

Submitted by Wily S. (United Kingdom), Jul 2, 2003 at 22:31

Your analysis of the left/right distinction leaves out, as do most accounts of the U.S. and their role in the modern world, the quiet genocide that is being perpetrated by all of us who live in the first world upon the world's unfortunate billions. Our need for commodities of the right sort and at the right price kills millions of people every year. By the way we consume, we are as a group guilty of the murder of Nicaraguan coffee farmers and African cotton producers who are unable to buy food because of our requirements. And then, to add insult to injury, we presume to give the third world aid, as if they were four billion idiots incapable of fending for themselves.
The third world is bigger than the first, and hungrier. As demonstrated, there are elements of the world's unrepresented millions who are prepared to wipe us out. The first world no longer has exclusive ability to use weapons of mass destruction, and I think that in time the feedback from our gross consumption will become more pronounced. The real problem is, they're not scared of us anymore, and they want what we have - but you can only lead the life of a Westerner if a few people starve to death every year to ensure that your commodities are provided easily and cheaply.
The lefties are only recomending a more conservative strategy, which they hope will pacify the third world into granting us a few more years of exploitation. The right misunderstand the situation and think that the imbalance can be maintained, just as the aristocrats of pre-revolutionary France thought - and the result ? Robespierre said that we must sail 'oceans of blood' before peace is attained, not anticipating that the whole grisly mess might be repeated, on a greater scale. I don't think we should set sail again, but then as a westerner it's not up to me.

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