Poverty

Do we even need to solve poverty? Don't we need to address ambition first? Let me explain why I think so.

We all know (notice I don't use the words "have read" or "have heard") by now that the planet is on fire and that our species are the sadistic chest thumpers having set it aflame. The sad realisation I have had recently is that only 30% of the species can really be assigned the blame, in the traditional sense of the word, but the brunt of the  planet's punishments are borne by the remainder 70%. That is the poor, the disenfranchised, the ones with smaller voices and smaller votes in this "equal" world. And the reason we see them as powerless against this natural ire is because we know it is possible to not be powerless against it. It is possible to beat the system. But not everyone can do it. Because the boat only has so many seats.

But once you go to a woman who has lost her land because you said she'd get better fruits if you put a bag of ABC in it, lost her liver because ABC entered her body through her food, lost her cows because they died of thirst when you built a National Highway through her source, lost her husband because a piece of mountain fell on him while he was working on the wall of a dam, and you tell her it needn't be so, she starts to dream.

And she will dream of a seat on your boat. The one where you have your parents and your kids. The one which you spent a lot of time waterproofing with the benefits you indirectly got from her sweat and tears. And she wants to bring her kids with her too, because she's got some too. And she loves hers just as much as you love yours, works hard for them and gives them her life too.

Now how do we solve this problem without hurling stones or abuses? It is of course a moral obligation for the people on the boat to figure out how this can be done but there is also a selfish reason for them to fix this, because if they don't, you know she's bringing her last bullet with her to save her kids a seat, now that she knows yours isn't leaking and creaking.

So what did I mean when I said solve ambition? I meant the root cause of all human existence. I'm here and I want to go there. I want to do this. I wish my life were that and not what it is now. Everyone has such thoughts. From the "poorest" to the "richest" of us. We have it because regardless of the size of the metaphorical boat or its bells and whistles, the human is an ambitious animal. Sometimes we call it greed but other times we appreciate it despite the negative connotation. Because it is ambition.

How do you solve poverty? You don't. You figure out how to get everyone an environment where their lives' ambitions have space to grow and fulfill themselves. An environment where they don't have to despair for where they were born - because regardless of where you were born, your dreams actually can come true!

And this environment is possible. Not just because I'm an optimist, but because just as much as the humans are ambitious, they are also innovative. Because what other species can look up at the stars and say, "I can go there"?

So the question remains, how do we build the future on the mistakes of the past, taking care to fill in the gaps? How do we prevent a global conflict of interest? One that the planet honestly doesn't give a flying fuck about, but will erase any proof of our collective existence on it. How do we tell the ones with smaller voices that their dreams needn't be so?