Some of us who still remember the Cold War remember how easy things were: black and white.
Everything else “Third World.”
Now, the Third World has emerged. Hence, we live in a multi-polar world.
More complicated world. More are at stake.
People wheel and deal.
Purchasing parity has become less of a parity.
Trading up and trading down. Things and places are interchangeable (Banana Republic , despite its name, used to carry made-in-India or the Philippines – no banana republic there).
Marijuana used to be a taboo. Now it’s legal in some states.
I am confused. My moral sense (put there by my parents who were born early in the 20th century) has been challenged and put to question.
Those foundations are constantly revised and compromised.
First by others, then myself (or else, I am looked at as a loser or an outsider).
Sounds like a teenage phenomenon. But it’s real. Flight or fight.
Cavemen syndrome still.
With technology moving so fast, energy consumed at break-neck speed, our sense of the world and how it should operate needs a relook.
The enemy is now our friend ( for example, Russia as supplier of oil and arms).
Our friend has become enemy (by abandonning us when the coalition calls for joint troops in the Gulf Wars).
What was abnormal has become normal.
In this multi-polar world, China, now the largest automobile market in the world,
doesn’t discriminate imported products, but its export ones are.
For the right reason (unsafe, copy cat etc…).
We have an image problem.
We need to improve our relations with others (who have also changed).
We need new friendnemies.
We need to normalize that which was considered abnormal.
Gay is the new straight , the pheripherals have gone mainstream.
It’s late-stage now for a lot of things such as globalization and world trade (finished products get shipped back to the US and Western countries, turning the US standing into a Third World status by definition).
I am glad we still agree on grammar points and earning points.
Do unto others as we would like to be done onto.
The only thing that is constant is change itself. Grow up!
Thang Nguyen 555 