34 / All Politics Is Local

A fifteen-hour flight from Singapore to London provides a convincing demonstration that "living globally" is highly unnatural. I just experienced such a flight, and it convinced me that there is a very good reason that the slogan says "think" globally, but "act" locally.

To the extent that things are "natural" they are, by definition, rooted in the specifics of local places, climates, cultures, and customs. And to the extent that Tip O'Neill was right (and I'm inclined to think he was) all "politics" is "local," too.

"Politics" is the activity by which we decide, together, what sort of world we want to live in. But we live today as if we were able to make such decisions on a "global" scale. The "New World Order" of George Bush is inherently anti-political and unnatural, and yet that is the model by which we are attempting to define our future.

No wonder we have lost touch with the World of Nature. We act like it doesn't matter.