Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

"I love WL's [white liberals], love 'em to death. They're on our side," he had told me some days ago, defining the term. "But WL's think all the world's problems can be fixed without any cost to themselves. We don't believe that."

— Paul Farmer, as quoted in Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains

Comments

[bcholmes]

I don't think that it's precisely a zero-sum game, but I do think that a lot of our comfort comes at the expense of others, and if we really want to help ameliorate some of the world's problems, we need to think in those terms. I think that a more equitable world might not be quite a comfy for us in the first world, and I think that's something that progressive types should think about coming to terms about.