In Michigan over the Christmas holidays, I heard about a campaign to ban the purchase of items made in China. These are easy to spot, mostly because of the little sticker label, "Made in China." One major reason for this campaign is that the workers who made these items were exploited, paid very little and made to work very long hours. I heard about some pregnant women being forced to work until they delivered and given only fifteen minutes to deliver their baby after which, they had to be back to work. This sounds terrible. I've also heard about children being forced to work fourteen hour days for very little pay. All this so that big businesses could earn big profits and so that good little western capitalist-democrats could save money buying cheap products.
In my previous post I talked about how the world's environment is changing. I wrote that the world is changing, and those who do not change with it will be destroyed. This is also true economically and politically. The West condemns exploitation in China and India and pretty much everywhere else in the East but ignores the economic and political basis for this exploitation.
The whole world sees the west and its luxury and success and riches and power and wants to be like it. But, part of the problem is, that we don't even remember how we, the West, got here. We talk about how bad the exploitation of workers during the industrial revolution of the late 1700s was a terrible thing, but we forget that without that industrial revolution and the accompanying exploitation of children and men and women we would not have the luxury and wealth and power that we enjoy now. We also forget to ask ourselves, "Is it worth it?" Is our current standard of living worth what it took to get here? To me, the answer is no. Absolutely not.
But those who live daily struggling for the basic necessities--food and shelter--and see the wealth that we take for granted and the luxury that we thoughtlessly enjoy, can we blame them if they feel a tinge of envy? They feel it and they are working to bring themselves comparable wealth and luxury and in many cases they are succeeding.
China is a case in point. China is gaining commercial capital through trade and industry; never mind that it's a 'communist' country--I won't get into that. I have met with, worked with, evangelized to many Chinese men and women and children. A friend, Hong Gang said that the biggest moral problem with China was its materialism. He admitted that the biggest obstacle to him accepting Christianity was his materialism. The Chinese people have been told and believe that it is glorious to be wealthy. If, to become wealthy, people must be exploited, it's worth it--all for the greater glory and--or, through--wealth of China. What we are seeing right now in China and the East is the equivalent of Europe's and the West's Industrial Revolution. Children and women were exploited for the greater wealth of greedy capitalists and we believed it was worth it. We now enjoy wealth and prosperity, power, luxury--Glory--because of that period of exploitation.
Not only were people exploited at home in the factories, but the West through the hundreds of years of the 'Glorious' age of Imperialism exploited people all over the world--including the people in China. Research this period of history, find out what happened to Japan when they closed their ports to American and British trade because they were being exploited. Find out what happened to China when they did the same. Find out what the British and French did in India, what the British, Italians, Germans, and French did to Africa. People were exploited everywhere because we felt that it was worth it in order to accumulate the capital to build the kind of society we have now.
Today, no matter what you buy, someone was exploited to produce and sell that product; whether it was you, the buyer, or the person who made it, or the person who sold it, or the poor night crew stock clerks who put the product on the grocery store shelves.
Where did the Chinese get the idea that it's glorious to be wealthy? No doubt, some of it came from looking at us. If we felt it was worth centuries of exploitation to have the kind of society we have today, how much more does the East now, when they see the glorious results?
We, in the West, can easily condemn Brazil for deforesting the Amazon Basin, we can easily condemn China for exploiting its workers but remember: they are only doing what we did to get to where we are now.
I'm not saying it's wrong to stop exploitation. Please, let your compassion flow. I believe that Grace is all we have. More importantly, Grace is all we need to change the world.
But I don't believe in changing the world.
In my previous post I talked about how the world's environment is changing. I wrote that the world is changing, and those who do not change with it will be destroyed. This is also true economically and politically. The West condemns exploitation in China and India and pretty much everywhere else in the East but ignores the economic and political basis for this exploitation.
The whole world sees the west and its luxury and success and riches and power and wants to be like it. But, part of the problem is, that we don't even remember how we, the West, got here. We talk about how bad the exploitation of workers during the industrial revolution of the late 1700s was a terrible thing, but we forget that without that industrial revolution and the accompanying exploitation of children and men and women we would not have the luxury and wealth and power that we enjoy now. We also forget to ask ourselves, "Is it worth it?" Is our current standard of living worth what it took to get here? To me, the answer is no. Absolutely not.
But those who live daily struggling for the basic necessities--food and shelter--and see the wealth that we take for granted and the luxury that we thoughtlessly enjoy, can we blame them if they feel a tinge of envy? They feel it and they are working to bring themselves comparable wealth and luxury and in many cases they are succeeding.
China is a case in point. China is gaining commercial capital through trade and industry; never mind that it's a 'communist' country--I won't get into that. I have met with, worked with, evangelized to many Chinese men and women and children. A friend, Hong Gang said that the biggest moral problem with China was its materialism. He admitted that the biggest obstacle to him accepting Christianity was his materialism. The Chinese people have been told and believe that it is glorious to be wealthy. If, to become wealthy, people must be exploited, it's worth it--all for the greater glory and--or, through--wealth of China. What we are seeing right now in China and the East is the equivalent of Europe's and the West's Industrial Revolution. Children and women were exploited for the greater wealth of greedy capitalists and we believed it was worth it. We now enjoy wealth and prosperity, power, luxury--Glory--because of that period of exploitation.
Not only were people exploited at home in the factories, but the West through the hundreds of years of the 'Glorious' age of Imperialism exploited people all over the world--including the people in China. Research this period of history, find out what happened to Japan when they closed their ports to American and British trade because they were being exploited. Find out what happened to China when they did the same. Find out what the British and French did in India, what the British, Italians, Germans, and French did to Africa. People were exploited everywhere because we felt that it was worth it in order to accumulate the capital to build the kind of society we have now.
Today, no matter what you buy, someone was exploited to produce and sell that product; whether it was you, the buyer, or the person who made it, or the person who sold it, or the poor night crew stock clerks who put the product on the grocery store shelves.
Where did the Chinese get the idea that it's glorious to be wealthy? No doubt, some of it came from looking at us. If we felt it was worth centuries of exploitation to have the kind of society we have today, how much more does the East now, when they see the glorious results?
We, in the West, can easily condemn Brazil for deforesting the Amazon Basin, we can easily condemn China for exploiting its workers but remember: they are only doing what we did to get to where we are now.
I'm not saying it's wrong to stop exploitation. Please, let your compassion flow. I believe that Grace is all we have. More importantly, Grace is all we need to change the world.
But I don't believe in changing the world.
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