Looking from the Outside In

by Joan Marques

Published on this site: February 12th, 2004

As the world turns, humanity is increasingly diverging in its perceptions toward life:

• While in some countries it is perfectly normal for people to walk around naked, other parts of the same world have no tolerance whatsoever for an unexpected display of a woman’s breast.
  
  
• While in some parts people are starving with no chance of improvement due to the political instability in their country, other parts take abundance for granted and throw away leftovers after practically every meal.
  
  
• While some people are worried about their dying children, others are worried about their fading youth.
  
  
• While some societies worry about suicide bombers in their midst, others are petrified by the thought of car thieves in their neighborhoods.
  
  
• While some countries perceive child labor as a way to feed yet another couple of hungry mouths, others condemn it without considering the consequences of their decisions.
  
  
• While some populations know they are free because they don’t have --nor care for-- any significance in history, others think they are free while they are scared to death for a bad credit history.
  
  
• While some people accept death as a normal consequence to life, others do
  everything in their power to store, invent, and preserve to prolong life long after their due time.
  
  
• While some individuals know that we are no more than a substandard alley in a complexity of sophisticated galaxies; others think we are the center of the universe.
  
  
• While some cultures prefer family life to material gains, others prefer material gains to family life.
  
  
• While some groups follow rules, others rule followers.
  
  
• While some communities pray for rain, others reign over prey.
  
  
• While some societies openly express their aversion if they don’t like you, others hypocritically smile at you while they run you down the drain.
  
  
• While some continents are still taking small steps on barely paved roads,
  others are racing at dazzling speed on the information highway.
  
  
• While some folks are happy to be working, others are working to be happy.

These and a million other contradictions stand for an interesting blend of facets in an institution that must be fascinating to everyone who is looking from the outside in: Human civilization.

And the world keeps on turning….

Joan Marques, Burbank, February 11, 2004

Joan Marques, holds an MBA, is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Leadership, and a university instructor in Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may visit her web site at www.joanmarques.com Joan's manual "Feel Good About Yourself," a six part series to get you over the bumps in life and onto success, can be purchased and downloaded at:
http://www.non-books.com/FeelGoodSeries.html.