When we talk past each other we no longer communicate.  When we can’t communicate our beliefs and assumptions can no longer be challenged.  When our beliefs and assumptions can no longer be challenged we don’t have to think for ourselves and understand what we believe.  When we don’t understand what we believe we can only talk past those who believe something different.

The more tribalized we become the less willing we will become to listen to those who are different.  Unless we find ways to break from this cycle of self-reinforcing argumentation we will grow farther and farther apart — no matter how close we are.  This leads to more conflict,  more distance, and more fear.

When I think of globalization I think of the benefits, but when my grandfather thinks about globalization he thinks about the detractions.  I see globalization bringing the wealthy closer to the plight of the poor.  When we can no longer hide behind ignorance or inability, when we have the opportunities and the resources, history judges us much more harshly when we don’t help.  My grandfather sees one-world governments being created by political elites and the breakdown of government by the people for the people.  More bureaucracy = less freedom and as William Wallace said, “History is written by those who’ve hanged heroes.”

Which one of us is right?  I don’t know, but I tend to think we’re both on to something.  Even with the shrinking of the globe, where my neighbor is no longer just the family next door but also the families in Burma, miscommunication breeds distance and distance breeds fear.  And because we’re afraid we want to over legislate our interactions to be able to appeal our lack of responsibility to something “higher.”

After talking politics, globalization, and religion with my grandfather the last week, I return to a set of questions that, for me, echo in my soul as I wrestle with my place in this rapidly shrinking world.  There is a movie called To End All Wars, that is set in a Japanese POW camp during the 2nd war to end all wars (WW2).  A young Scottish teacher joins the war and ends up in this POW camp in South East Asia.  It is an incredible film and the lessons this young Scottish teacher learns, I think come to bear quite prophetically on our specific time in history — because I think we have to wrestle with similar questions.

How we answer these questions, how each one of us answers these questions, will go a long way in determining the good or bad in globalization.

How would you answer these questions?

  • What is the consequence of a single life weighing less than a feather?
  • What is the final destination of hatred?
  • When you look in the eyes of the enemy, and you see yourself, at what price mercy?
  • Who is my neighbor?
  • How many times should I forgive my brother?
  • What does it mean to love one’s enemies?
  • What can a man give in exchange for his soul?