Anna Boyar

Rachel Sorenson
Honors 100
10 Nov. 2015
Assignment 3: Reflection of Farmer: Global Challenges, Interdisciplinary Answers
A global issue that I am particularly passionate about is United States
imperialism. It is not a simple issue, in fact it is one that is arguably related to most of
the major global issues plaguing the world today. However, I would argue that the main
causes of it are relatively straight forward.
The first cause is greed, which comes from a false sense of scarcity. Realistically,
we there are enough resources, and advanced enough technology, for all people to
survive and lead healthy lives. By this logic, one person or a few people would not need
to accumulate very much wealth and resources for themselves. All people should be
able to live in a way that does not take more than their share of resources.
The second main cause is the construction of the idea that some people are
better than others. This myth makes it possible to exploit and dehumanize other groups
of people.
For a variety of reasons that I will not go into but which include slave labor, the
United States has been very successful in the advancement of first industrialism and
then capitalism. As capitalism continues to advance, it continues to require more and
more labor and market pools to exploit. This is because capitalism involves competition,
and the continued squeezing of labor to maximize profits. Capitalism also requires new
markets of consumers to saturate.
Because of this, the United States has gone into a variety of countries to exploit
different groups of people. For example, the United States presence in Cuba in the late
1800s and early 1900s was because of imperialism. Most of Cubas exports had not
been to Spain, but to Cuba. The United States participated in Cubas liberation wars not
to help Cuba but to make sure their market interests were upheld. Similarly, the United
States presence in the Middle East has been both to exploit the oil reserves of the
region and to indoctrinate the people of the region with United States ideals of
consumerism.
With a problem so far reaching, an equally comprehensive solution will be
necessary. What needs to happen is for everyone to undergo a process of healing. We
need to get over greed and the inability to stop at enough. Because of the myth that the
United States culture is more developed than other cultures, and United States
discourse has been dominant for so long, we will need to follow the lead of the cultures
we have oppressed. A facet of this myth is that we do not recognize the strengths of
other cultures, some of which have figured out ways of living that do not require the
exploitation of others. In this imagined healed world, we will all live our lives on an
appropriate scale, and everyone will be able to survive and thrive.