2-16-10

Civilization and the act of being "civilized" are two very different things when you think about it. Everybody in the United States is considered to live in an advanced civilization, yet a decent percentage of us do uncivilized things like commit crime and hurt others. We put ourselves on this pedestal as being civilized, but there's not as much follow through with that. We see our way of living as the way to live and look down on anybody who lives differently. We want to change the way that they live in other countries so those people can be as "civilized" as us. And that's bullshit. Plain and simple.
Another thing that I find funny is the true definition of "third world". The term was coined by Alfred Sauvy during the Cold War which defined a third world country as one that does not follow the guidelines of capitalism nor communism. Yet we see third world countries as ones that are poor and under-developed. Not many people take into consideration that maybe people like to live in ways different than us. Maybe people in countries different than ours would rather have social capital than economic capital. I know everybody has heard this since kindergarten; but it's wrong to judge others that aren't like us.