[axlee]

> Let's not gloss over the fact that we in the west do the same. Only we hide the slaves in sweatshops so our sensibilities aren't triggered.

Totally: Norway and Saudi Arabia are exactly the same in terms of humanism, it's just a matter of optics, right?

[flir]

No UK supermarket will guarantee their supply chain for prawns (shrimp) is slavery-free.

This in no way mitigates anybody else's issues, but that's an issue that I, personally, wish we could solve (and when we're done with that, maybe we can tackle the calorie laundering that goes on in that industry).

I think the problem is that in a globalised economy, a local issue quickly becomes an everybody issue. Am I less responsible, as a consumer, because the injury happens a long way away?

[JoeAltmaier]

Yes. Yes you are.

Of course, we are responsible most directly for our own interactions with other people. Less so with other people's bad behavior.

You go down the other road, there's an indirect connection to every person on earth. Refuse to deal with everybody and anybody because of that, you're paralyzed.

I get it, that was a rhetorical question. Mine is not a rhetorical answer. It's hard enough, dealing decently with the people I come into contact with. Struggling to make every problem into my problem, there's very little gain in that.

Before anybody says I'm callous and unfeeling, well, you'd have to know what I do in my own community. But few bother to weight that, at all, when they're playing the blamethrowing game.

[flir]

Ignorance is an excuse. But once I'm aware? It seems to me that's the point where I am complicit. Because I could just not eat prawns.

"They enslave their children's children, who make compromise with sin"

I think about that quote a lot. It sets an unachievable standard. But I don't think it's wrong.

[JoeAltmaier]

'Just not eat prawns' is barely more than social action theatre. That's a point too. "I'm silently protesting something" is no protest at all. In fact, it is damaging the innocent for infinitesimal gain (the supply chain, the grocer, your own food variety).

You want to seize on a cause, go ahead. That would entail work, doing research, sending letters, something! That I could get behind; in fact, as I suggest, many of us are doing something every day. And maybe get a little weary of the warriors who respect gestures over substance.

[spacecadet]

Sure. Norwegians are people too, capable of evil. Thinking you are special? Thats a good starting point.

[ethanbond]

And as we all know, capable of == actually doing

[spacecadet]

Yeesh. History says otherwise.