The Hindu Business Line : Worth striving for more humane world

IT IS not only terrorism or war that threatens us, but also `economic ruin and global warming', explains the intro to Paul Rogat Loeb's The Impossible Will Take a Little While, from Basic Books (www.basicbooks.com) . Doubt and despondence are only natural "in a culture that too often rewards cynicism and mocks idealism", and to think of common problems may seem "a fool's errand".

The trouble lies in looking at life "through too narrow a lens", diagnoses Loeb, and therefore summons contributions from writers who believe "that striving for a more humane world is worth the effort." Chapter one begins with Diane Ackerman's bold statement to stop a suicide: "Choice is a signature of our species. We choose to live, sometimes we choose our own death, but most of the time we make choices just to prove choice is possible. Above all else, we value the right to choose one's destiny."

A nation's destiny too hangs on `a slender thread' called Budget, doesn't it, dictating directions for the economy through roads that we choose? `Standing up for children' by Marian Wright Edelman doesn't stop with heart-wrenching numbers such as 90,000 children killed by firearms in the US since 1979, exceeding the nation's combat toll in Vietnam.

"Something is awry when the net worth of the world's 476 richest billionaires exceeds the combined income of the poorest 2.5 billion people and when the income gap between the top and bottom fifth of the world's population has more than doubled in the last generation." The legacy we leave would, therefore, be an eminently skewed-up economy.

Danusha Veronica Goska takes us through what we're only too familiar with: `Political paralysis'. The authors protest the fallacy "that to be virtuous, one must be on TV", and the notion that "the unnoticed gestures of insignificant people mean nothing."

Politicians may not believe in a personalised god to see and tally actions, but here's a caution: "Disembodied forces that can never be tampered with also weigh our deeds... You may be able to fool your fellow humans, but, ultimately, you can't cheat karma."

Part two of the book is `dark before the dawn', starting with W.H. Auden's poem: There is no such thing as the State/ And no one exists alone;/ Hunger allows no choice/ To the citizen or the police;/ We must love one another or die. Howard Zinn reminds us in `the optimism of uncertainty' that those who have power may seem invulnerable but are fragile, because "their power depends on the obedience of others." Deep down, ordinary people have common sense, "and sooner or later they find a way to challenge the power that oppresses them."

Nelson Mandela recounts in a chapter titled `the dark years': "Prison is designed to break one's spirit and destroy one's resolve." The only counter is to gain strength from one another. Try this technique: "Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward."

What is it that political prisoners value more than gold or diamonds? "Newspapers," writes Mandela. "More hungered for than food or tobacco."

We've strayed so far away from nature that agricultural metaphors are lost on us, points out Parker Palmer, before revealing the trick in achieving abundance: "Whether the `scarce resource' is money or love or power or words, the true law of life is that we generate more of whatever seems scarce by trusting its supply and passing it around."

Thus, "abundance does not lie in secured stockpiles of food or cash or influence or affection, but in belonging to a community where we can give those goods to others who need them - and receive them from others when we are in need." One needn't reserve such occasions only for calamity aftermaths.

`To love the marigold' reads Susan Griffin to whom "the unapproachable immensity of the skyscraper" is an "icon of an anonymous power" in whose shadow she feels powerless. But there's hope if one were to see the present in new ways, because "every important social movement reconfigures the world in the imagination."

Thus, "what was obscure comes forward, lies are revealed, memory shaken, new delineations drawn over the old maps." Perhaps, transnational pipelines to import natural gas that the day's headlines talk of make the hitherto hostile postures look like mere gas.

Vern Huffman narrates the story of Simon Kapwepwe who didn't like the racist law in Rhodesia "requiring black Africans to do all their shopping through the windows of stores." Never allowed inside, their goods came to them through the window. So, Simon thought of a challenge. He went to a Land Rover dealer, and waved his cash. "The salesman offered to bring the vehicle to the gate, but Simon was adamant that the law be followed."

There was a mêlée, yet Simon managed to go in, get the car, and drive it through the window, "bringing down the entire wall". Thus started "the non-violent uprising known as the Cha Cha Cha." Many of the rebels were followers of Gandhiji's teachings.

Desmond Tutu pens the last piece titled `No future without forgiveness,' where he proposes `restorative justice' as what lies beyond the usual `retributive' one. "We are bound together by bonds of a caring humanity, a universal sense of ubuntu," writes Tutu, referring to how "the world is galvanised by a spirit of compassion and an amazing outpouring of generosity" to counter the effects of natural disasters. These are only glimpses of the deeper truth, he says: "Somewhere deep inside us we seem to know that we are destined for something better than strife."

About that happening closer home, we would know when Parliament resumes its sittings. And, with the Budget only a fortnight away, if you've started waking up at wee hours, scared by nightmares of tax proposals, this book would be the ideal read, for it is billed as `a citizen's guide to hope in a time of fear.'

Economics@TheHindu.co.in

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