|
"Obstinate Optimism" and
a "Search for Balance"
[Balance between living locally and globally]:
Being "Personally Happy and Publicly
Useful"
Selected Excerpts from
The Ursula Franklin Reader
Ursula
Franklin describes her general attitude as "… obstinate
optimism …" - p. 206
and
she advocates and explains a "...search for balance..."
- p. 239
pp. 240-242
"...it would be
wrong to think about competing our way to a balance. The
answer lies partly in recognizing the right of others and
their institutions to exist and be content within the
structure they have created.
"What can help
us find and work towards such a balance? I can think of four
things.
"…clarity …
history …. ecology .. … life of a community" being " ..
personally happy and publicly useful."
"...Human
beings are part of nature: not only each of us as
individuals, but societies as a whole. If we understand this
we can recognize that, in order to be viable, our societies
must incorporate an ecology of institutions, an ecology of
diversities, and that these priorities also apply to our use
of technology. Ecology affects not only individuals and
their families but also, if I may use the word, our entire
species. As a species, I think we have overlooked the
ecology, the history, and the usefulness of our social
institutions.
"At the moment,
we are witnessing a grievous attack on the structure of
social institutions. We have to remember that these
institutions evolved to ‘serve particular purposes. A bank
is not a church; a university is neither a bank nor a church
nor a place of business. There are rightful tasks in a
society for those who conduct business, for those who invest
money, for those who produce places where learning and
teaching are possible, and for those who run the courts and
enforcement of law. These are each different tasks, but at
the moment one of the greatest dangers to social peace and
justice lies in curtailing or changing the mandates of
social institutions that serve a particular purpose in the
ecology of our country.
"We are badly
advised to have one standard for all such institutions. We
can only impose such a uniform standard when we have lost
sight of the ecological balances within our society. … Our
social institutions play a vital role in our social ecology.
And since these institutions are about communities, they are
very much affected by the erosion of vertical cohesion, by
the crumbling of every slice in the cake. We must not let
measures that facilitate a horizontal social function kill a
vertical one.
"...A community
has to be a place where people can be happy -- not at all
times, but at times -- and where they can be publicly useful
-- not at all times, but at many times.
"The structural
changes in our society that result from the tensions between
horizontal and vertical functions, between business and
community, are making it difficult for people—especially
young people—to be both personally happy and publicly
useful. Yet those two things are linked together as
part of our nature: we cannot be forever personally happy
without being publicly useful, nor publicly useful when we
are personally miserable. Each component is important and we
must establish and protect the social means to provide
opportunities for both. Without them, the human spirit
withers and communities erode; the cake becomes a heap of
crumbs."
pp. 240-242
From:
THE URSULA FRANKLIN READER: Pacifism As a Map,
Ursula Franklin, Introduction by Michelle Swenarchuk,
Between the Lines Press, October 31, 2006
Back to top of page |
