ENG | THAI

In collecting the Ready-Made Culture that demonstrates the will to share love and mercy to other human beings, some events are not necessarily important occurrences which would immediately change our society upside down; it might be only a smile, a word or a conversation filled with good wishes for others. It might cheer up or inspire one person to live his/her life with hope and happiness in this competitive society. All of the collection demonstrates more than a basic instinct of survival. It tends to demonstrate: (a) Self-Respect, to respect human’s value in oneself and also in others; (b) Self-Criticism, to overcome prejudice and expand limitation of our understanding to get closer to the truth of nature; (c) Sincerity, to share love and mercy and sincerely help others to be happy; and, (d) Freedom of Creativity and Expression, to have the right and freedom to express creatively and also to respect others.

The world is ever changing in both good and bad ways. These changes could be caused by natural disasters like volcano explosions, tsunamis, global warming or disease epidemics. Changes could also be caused by human beings, such as war, pollution, forest destruction and improper disposal of hazardous nuclear waste. We cannot deny responsibility to those things that happened to nature and it cannot be specifically blamed on any nation or person. These problems affect everybody in this world. It is time to be understood that this world is one nation and it is our home.

I believe that humans have the knowledge, ability and advanced technology to solve any problem. But why are there still problems which seem to become worse? For example, though advancements in food science and technology could provide enough food for all of the Earth’s inhabitants, there still are many people dying from starvation. It’s neither the lack of knowledge nor that we cannot produce enough food, but a lack of love and mercy to share with others. Likewise, medical advancements allow us to develop and produce AIDS vaccines, but we cannot help the poor infected patients who cannot afford this vaccine. The same goes for Intellectual property, which was created to protect personal interest instead of public interest. Including war in benefit of arms trading and occupying natural resources, but claims itself for peace, and righteous moral principles. The problems mentioned above and others will remain continuously, if we don’t share the basic understanding that this world is our home.

Art and culture created in each locale is like a production from the way of life which relates to its geography. Every social activity whether cultural, moral or legal is created to help people to live harmonically in the society to get a fair share and the opportunity to access natural resources equally. This is the heart of living together in a society.

I am trying to collect activities and stories from all over the world through my personal experiences and through the media that impresses me with the purpose and intention to help or share love with others and support nature. I also want to know what inspired these people to have love, mercy and the will to share with others. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, for example, the founder of “The Giving Pledge” which is the campaign to encourage rich people to make a commitment to give most of their money to philanthropic which has no moral agreement. Bill Gates, himself, donated at least $23 billion USD to The Bill and the Melinda Gates Foundation, supporting education and medical research, while Warren Buffet declared to give most of his property to public interests. Even a small event which I experienced when I was walking in Chicago: two girls in a restaurant wrote on a paper: “Have a Great Night” and waved this sign to people passing by without hoping anything in return but only wanted the people who read the paper to be happy. How do these things happen? What is their inspiration? How can we encourage other people in society to have this kind of behavior?

Receiving information from media, especially from “fast and comfortable” TV and social networks, causes both positive and negative effects. How can we determine this ready-made information into dimensions of goodness, truth and beauty? Because social and cultural limitations have been expanded beyond borders. For example, one specific event on the social network will be judged as a valuable event to a specific society or culture; on the other hand, it would be a negative value when it is perceived by different culture.

I believe that we all can do these creative activities, starting with the thought that we all have the same human values and respecting each other’s values, too. We also have to realize that this world is our collective home. This basic principle is the foundation of creating a society together. We must do the best with our responsibility, learning to listen to different ideas to overcome our prejudices. We must realize that we were born from emptiness, that we are temporarily living in this world, and we will eventually return to emptiness. But emptiness does not mean nothingness. It is a state of non-being in itself, meaning that we all support one another and we are part of each other, which is the way of how everything is created in this world.

Kamin Lertchaiprasert
14 August 2012

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