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Nigerian author and artist Teju Cole (via xkimberlyx) Also the implication that kids only starve or people are only homeless in Third World countries. Hello, that happens by the thousands in First World countries too, we’re not special. (via goddessofcheese) (I don’t like anyone saying “first world problems”, “white problems”, “girl problems”, etc. I feel like a lot people don’t really understand what they are implying when they say it. There is no such thing as first world problems, they are just problems.) This quite succinctly summarizes my feelings about that phrase. (via cctcd) Food for thought. I had never considered this until now. I’m not going to say First World Problems anymore. I feel the same way about when people use the term “White Girl Problems”….are you saying that I don’t have those problems because I’m not white? I guess the same logic applies for First World Problems. (via thetumblrofdoriangray) a lot of my resistance to the term is this [the OP’s point] plus a sense that some western people invoke it to affirm their denial about how much entire global environmental, economic and political systems are undergoing transition-collapse-power contestation stages atm. it can be righteousness masking intellectual laziness and/or fearful denial, to persist with the notion that the world has only 2 types of people in it, who should prioritize invasion or iPads based entirely on their region, rather than their location within some extremely unstable political variables. really? significant sections of ‘the west’ are in collapse: economic, civil, environmental, you name it. for white, fairly apathetic westerners who’re secretly terrified of this and choosing to scapegoat the hell out of migrants, rather than face why things are so unstable here, jokes and false solemnity about ‘1st world problems’ are a kind of intentionally shallow affirmation of their wish that these regional, racialised divisions remain ‘just the way things are’. |
I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t …disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.
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Transition cultures vs. optimist/pessimist dichotomies
“I’ve started viewing both optimism and pessimism as spectator sports, as forms of disengagement masquerading as involvement. Both optimism and pessimism tirck me into judging life and betting on the odds, rather that diving into life with my full co-creative energy.
I think the emerging [eco] crisis calls us to transcend such false end-games like optimism and pessimism. I think they call us to act like a spiritually healthy person who has just learned they have heart disease: We can use each dire prognosis as a stimulant for reaching more deeply into life and co-creating positive change.
/Tom Atlee being quoted within The Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience by Rob Hopkins.
