BIG WORLD VS. SMALL WORLD -- PART 1

Life has been busy but now I have a little time I want to blog about a key concept that will give context to pretty much everything I write in HOUSE ON FIRE. I call it “Big World Vs. Small World.”

As the name implies, this dichotomy describes two different ways of looking at the world. It also tends to describe two groups of people – although I am acutely aware that categorizing people is a practice fraught with problems.

“Big World” is the world at large. And the big issues that affect us all. The institutions, the laws, the rulers and the ruled, the global economy, the threats to the planet’s future and so on. Basically, how the world works (or, doesn’t work). “Small World” is our personal lives: Family, our job, things going on in our community, leisure pursuits, and other facets of our life that we deal with regularly. Basically, how we function from day to day.

You might also call this dichotomy “Macro Vs. Micro.”

I will go out on a pretty thick limb and say that the vast majority of people on the planet are primarily occupied with Small World affairs but at the same time are unavoidably affected by the Big World. There’s no escaping that.

Here is where I see the problem: It is so easy for us to become weighed down, preoccupied or obsessed with Small World matters -- junior’s grades, earning enough money to get by, golf handicaps, football scores, new car purchases, charity work. Some of this is very important stuff; some not so important. The fact is, we do each have our Small World and have to function in it.

But this often comes at the expense of paying close attention to, and interacting effectively with, the Big World.

Why is this important?

Well, very simply, virtually everything that goes on in the Big World will impact you and the ones you love at some time and to some extent. The Big World impacts our Small Worlds because the Big World is the rather polluted, unfortunately corrupt life support machine in which our Small Worlds live. The two are inseparable.

For example, if one were to say: “I can’t think about all those big issues. It’s too depressing! I’d rather just concentrate on my own children and take care of them,” this would qualify as unsound logic. Nobody, not us or our children, live in a bubble. Our kids, our lives, cannot be shielded from the Big World because they are part of the Big World.

To deny this is the equivalent of the old “duck and cover” method of surviving a nuclear blast (pictured). That school desk you’re trying to hide under just isn’t going to do the trick. Sooner or later the shockwaves are going to hit you.

The only way you have a chance at ensuring a good life for your kids – now more than ever – is to address the problems of the world at large. Those “Big World Issues.” Environmental degradation, the control and manipulation exercised by corporations, the appallingly unfair distribution of wealth, the lack of real democracy, the privatized-propagandistic model of the mass media, the prevalence of nuclear energy plants and weaponry, the exploitation of individuals and nations in all its forms, etc.

Otherwise, guess what: There won’t be a world to live in. Big, small or otherwise.

This is getting too long. More on this subject next time.

Take care, and onward!
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at BIG WORLD VS. SMALL WORLD -- PART 2.