Anonymous asked this question on 7/19/2000:
what do you think about the meaning of "all politics is local" and "think globally but act locally"? How do you reconcile these two statements? Are they contradictory?
madpol gave this response on 7/19/2000:
The word "Radical" comes from a Latin root that means "Grassroots."
Both statements are part of the Radical philosophy. You build a political movement from the grassroots up, one person at a time.
Empowering people at the local level emboldens them to take on issues beyond their immediate community. Do enough of that and it starts having first a national, then a global impact.
The phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally." is an instruction to promote an international agenda by empowering people in their communities, who then become the leadership and rank and file of larger movements.
Usually the bad guys are governments or Corporations doing the same thing to a lot of communities. So the strategy is to help people fight them off locally and to encourage them to pursue into other areas and share the knowledge they have gained with the next victims.
JesseGordon responded:
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