Good People Making Bad Choices
Welcome to my random musings about the world, on a weekly-to-occasional basis.
Where we are: We’re in Edinburgh, hanging out with some friends who are also visiting (Hi Laura! Hi Dan!). I’ve been enjoying beautiful views and some of my favorite graveyards, often at the same time.
Good People Making Bad Choices
Right after we crossed the border into Serbia in early June, we stopped in a small town to eat lunch and check out the local church. There was a souvenir vendor out front, selling Vladimir Putin refrigerator magnets. I wanted to stop and examine them, but I felt too weird and awkward, not sure what to think—was the vendor trying to be ironic? Or was a picture of Putin something that somebody in Serbia actually wants on their refrigerator? Eventually we decided it was the latter—the Serbian government has been openly supportive of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Once we started looking around we realized that many of the gas stations were owned by Gazprom, the Russian oil company.
Later that evening, telling Lane all about the interesting things we’d seen that day, I could feel their disapproval pulsing through the Internet, or Ethernet, or space-time continuum—whatever sorcery it is that connects me to my offspring. “You should leave. You shouldn’t be in a country that supports Russia right now. They’re doing A Bad Thing.”
How should we decide which places are ethical to travel to, and which are not? I don’t mind admitting that I’ve been to Myanmar—it was before the coup, but even then we were highly conscious of the human rights problems, the beginning of the campaign against the Rohingya, and the tenuousness of Aung San Suu Kyi’s position. We consciously chose to go, in spite of those issues. I really struggled with our decision to go to Saudi Arabia, for a whole list of reasons. I loved our time in Russia (back in 2018), even with my eyes wide open about the government. I also loved our time in China, and can’t wait to go back—I know not all of my compatriots feel the same way.
If I refuse to go to countries whose governments I disagree with, where does that leave me? Honestly, I can’t think of a single country that I’d consider perfect, especially after the way many western countries have handled Covid.
What about my own country, which (from this distance) appears to be falling apart at the seams? We’ve been away for seven years now—should we only visit when there’s a government we agree with? Should we go back permanently, and try to make a difference (even though it feels a little hopeless)? Should we stay away permanently, in a meaningless show of objection?
The reality of life in 2022 is that we all make value-based decisions every day, all day long, whether we see them as decisions or think about those values or not. Should I buy the cheap t-shirt or the more expensive one? When I’m done with it, should I throw it away, or donate it, and contribute to the flood of used American t-shirts that Africa neither wants nor needs?
What about the salmon that’s on sale, or the beef, or the pork? Regular or free-range or welfare (yes, that’s a thing)? If I stick with veggies, who picked them, and under what conditions? Do I want the best technology, or the locally produced technology? Where did the parts come from, anyway? Should I volunteer to build houses in a developing country, or does that take a job from someone who needs it? Should I give money directly to the homeless person, or to the organization that may or may not help in the best way? What’s best—planes, trains, or automobiles?
For most of my life I took the default option. I lived in a suburb and shopped at Target, because it was nearby. I made the same choices that my neighbors made, because it never occurred to me that the decisions were being made for me.
But when we started traveling, I gave up the default, and now I have to (get to?) choose everything, all the time.
The only difference between my life today and my life back then is that I am somewhat more aware that every detail of my life is a choice, one choice after another, all day long, because I gave up the default option—the place where I started.
Take care,
Lisa
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