The society in which we live today is causing great distress to not only ourselves, but to humanity. As globalization becomes a key factor in our foreign business relations, foreign cultures are being influenced by western beliefs and social constructions. By using our concepts of truth as "an exercise of power" we impress these beliefs on other societies. The globalization/localization issue is discussed in the documentary "The Economics of Happiness". Catherine Ingram, of The Huffington Post, on January 19, 2011, reviewed this radical documentary in her article "Localization: The Film!" (see link below).
The film discusses the crisis' in our society: our influences on cultures, our wastefulness towards the planet due to the importance we have put on economics and trade, and our general decreasing happiness ever since 1956 (see trailer below).
To quote the trailer "Local knowledge is knowledge that tells of your own life". Local knowledge should never disappear. Many of these concepts can even be connected to our loss of smaller cultural languages and dialects. The environment is impacted by even these linguistic changes as cultures are assimilating from their beliefs, towards western or simply even more broader and accepted views. Nature and culture are interrelated in this way. However this is causing people to adjust to a belief that is causing their spirits harm. Just as Rozzi believes that everything is influencing each other, and all disciplines share metaphors, even the concept portrayed in the film: "Economics is Happiness" is comparing two staggeringly different concepts, that are now seemingly directly influencing each other in our culture. Plumwood tells us that the stories we tell about our lives give us our own meaning and purpose. This has become a problem because the media has imposed itself upon our lives giving us a general standard to try to live up to. Localization would solve many of these problems because people would be living to a much more reachable standard (adjusted to their local economy and culture) and would not feel as impoverished. Our society has instrumentalized nature to uphold our economy to bring political power. However, this causes the environment and many cultures to struggle. It is a selfishness based off of power and "survival of the fittest" that is causing us to exclude the act of coexisting peacefully with nature from our conceptual system. "Truths are illusions, we have forgotten are illusions- they are metaphors that have been worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins"(Pg 5, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense; Nieztzsche). The truth that good economics leads to happiness is not only denying historical evidence that clearly defends the opposite side, however it is excluding the happiness that can be found from other means and assuming that only one way of living is the truth. However, there are many ways to be happy, and changing our current society's view on happiness would be beneficial because the demands on us today to be successful in so many areas of life, are being imposed on even the most vulnerable people who have no access to the same opportunity. The distress on the spirit is great. Localization is a great consideration to solve this problem because it causes a specific area to generate its own politics, economy, and spirit to live by. This generates a happiness that is not found in the competition of imposed power in today's society.
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