Urgent in Our World Today?

¶ … urgent in our world today? Are they the same in the U.S. As in the developing world? Where will the application of an anthropological perspective be most effective?

Each country has its own problems and its own conflicts. The developing world too has their own problems that are distinct from those of the U.S. Our perspective of the developing world is that they generally seem to be at war fighting both external wars -- directed at famine and marauders -- and internal wars -- directed to fighting each other. One may say that the world as a whole is fighting various wars concurrently and that some, depending on country and context, are more severe than others. You have, for instance, wars on famine, illiteracy, obesity, cancer, pollution, overcrowding, disease, prejudice and so forth. An exponential amount of wars each of which are styled as such by the government of the country within which the 'war' is taking place. Each of these issues are important and each equally insistent since each, inevitably, feeds into the other.

An anthropological perspective would be most effective in analyzing some of these wars since, as the film clip, the War on Drugs: Winners and Losers points out, at least one of these wars is one-sided and understanding that it is so and that it may, even not consist of a war per se may help us tackle it in a more effective manner.

War consists of fighting. It necessitates having two sides, each of whom opposes the other in their struggle to win. The war on drugs, however -- a war that is typically fought in the U.S. And named so by Ronald Reagan - is a one-sided one. The general public takes casualties, whilst the police and prosecutors benefit from this war though increased budgets.

Fighting the drug war has proved to be increasingly ineffective aside from the fact that some argue that some drugs may be helpful and, is certainly, not as damaging as they are exaggerated to be. Either way, there are countries, such as Holland and Sweden, who have permitted drug use within bounds and their control of the problem has far superseded that of the U.S.

Worst of all, the strenuous and, frequently, irrational efforts of the police to control drug use has resulted in a monstrous tyrannical state. Police benefit from the proceeds and from the assets seized when they arrest drug dealers. Informants are bribed by cash rewards leading children to inform on parents. Otherwise innocent and vulnerable people become hardened criminals due to their incommensurate jail sentences. The American social inequality becomes exacerbated when White influential Americans are given drug treatment whilst their fellow citizens, from lower classes, languish in jail. Prisons have become more barbaric. Prisons spate families causing children to end up without parents and in foster homes, and people die from drug overdose due to their fear of the expense and repercussion of seeking treatment. These are just some of the ramifications of America's 'war' on drugs.