Think Global, Act Local

Last week I used the phrase “Think global, act local.” It’s a fairly common catchphrase used by activists in all different areas, and I’m always surprised when someone hasn’t heard it before—- usually the response is something along the lines of, “that makes so much sense!” Like a lot of catchphrases that end up overused and on bumper stickers, it sometimes loses its punch and ends up seeming like a platitude. But just because it’s a common phrase doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hold true. On one level, it means that we have the responsibility to both stay aware of global issues while we try to create positive change in the community we live in. It’s a hard balancing act: in a bubble like SMU, or any college community, it’s easy to forget that there’s a larger world where things are happening. But it takes a certain amount of dedication to keep up with global events, just like it takes time to dedicate ourselves to inciting change in the world around us. There’s an art to dividing our time between doing both, especially when things become overwhelming—- sometimes it seems like there’s so much that’s wrong with the world, it’s impossible to keep track of it all.

On a deeper level, “think global, act local,” is also a call to maintaining a constant ethic, which essentially translates to avoiding hypocrisy. Without thinking about it, we can easily aware of global issues and condemn the wrongdoings of people and countries elsewhere in the world while overlooking the fact that similar injustices are happening just down the road. If we condemn the actions of those globally, we also have to hold ourselves accountable for the wrongdoings that occur locally. Even if we’re not directly to blame, we hold responsibility as people who are capable of doing something to change it.