I just saw the movie The End of Poverty, and it left a definite impression. The movie starts with a very didactic, matter-of-fact tone. Statistics recounting the horrors of global poverty flash across the screen in dramatic white text set to a black background. I found the first forty-five minutes or so to be lacking in captivating the audience emotionally. And I found myself wanting to be captivated emotionally. Give me a reason to be angry! Give me something I can take action on!

Ultimately, the movie took a more interesting turn. A Kenyan farmer relayed with an anger that seemed long overdue about an American corporation that had purchased land in his local area – in conjunction with the government of Kenya – and as a result crops were devestated, malaria spread after the company unilaterally built a well, and people died. The anecdote got to the root of the problem that the movie had been attempting for its entirety to convey: that capitalism has always been, and continues to be, a tool of the wealthy to exploit the resources of the third world in order to further aggregate wealth. The movie drives the point home from numerous perspectives, and in convincing fashion.

Stories of colonial devestation from back in the 1400s. Tariffs passed down by first-world countries even as they espouse free trade. Companies and governments working hand-in-hand to seize property from rural communities. These stories are ones we don’t want to hear, we civilians living in capitalist society. But they have long been true. And they remain true today.

The formula is simple. Monied interests enter. They propose to create jobs and spread wealth. They privatize state corporations, and then buy them. They use the land, and the people living on them, as nothing more than resources – with value that can be extracted at maximum profit and minimum cost. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

So the question, then, is how do we end poverty? That’s what the movie’s title purported to be about. Well it seems to me that the problem is rather fundamental. It is, in fact, one of mindsets.

It is a mindset that says that people don’t have value beyond their calculated economic contribution.

It is a mindset that argues that the land exists to be exploited for maximum gain and minimum effort.

It is a mindset that eschews community at the hands of individual or organizational priorities and motivations.

It is, ultimately, a mindset that ignores the realities of human life across nations, values, and cultures.

People live for their families. They want to see them well-fed, and healthy, and able to make a better life for their progeny. For their children to have better opportunities, and more success, and a life of love. When we lie on our deathbeds – perilously hovering on the fine line between this world and the next – these are the things that matter the most.

And yet it seems that our global corporations that control so much wealth and power, and so many of our world’s precious resources – forget this universal truth. The motives of profit and further financial gain render individual lives irrelevant. The motives of spreading power and control supercede all notions of common humanity. The motives of wealth creation turn family farms into dust, precious children into laborers, and entire nations into slaves of economic subservience and fear.

This is not the way. It cannot be the way. We sit atop the pyramid at this brief and fragile moment in time. But when the base of the pyramid sits crumbling and forgotten, only so much time can pass before the summit’s highest point has been reduced to meer rubble in the wasteland of a forgotton earth, and a forgotten civilization.

We are no longer just cities, and states, and nations – each grouping of us fighting for individual interest, and individual profit, at individual cost. This kind of thinking cannot stand.

We have to recognize not only that our actions have global consequences affecting billions around the globe – but that everything in life comes full circle. What we have created will not be sustained on the backs of a subservient global class struggling for the basic necessities of survival we so frivolously cast aside in pursuit of our precious, material happiness.

It is ironic that in solving the problem of poverty, we cement ourselves in the kind of existence we enjoy so much today. That when lifting others out of poverty, and even more importantly helping them to lift themselves, we create the conditions that maximize our own self-interest.

Because what I am talking about is a selfishness of purpose that recognizes the truest nature of our self. That I am connected to all of you on a level far more fundamental than each of us could individually ever know. It is a selfishness that says – you and I are one – so in order to save myself and ensure my wellbeing I must take care of yours as well. You are my brothers and sisters on the journey of life, and until we recognize this true reality, the underlying structures governing and controlling our lives will always remain unchanged. That is, of course, unchanged until their underlying unsustainability proves too much for the base of the pyramid to handle. And then it all comes crumbling down.

Now I don’t mean to be defeatist, or pessimistic, in this message I relay to you today. In fact, I mean nothing of the sort. I believe that we are on a path towards true sustainability – where people work together out of common need, and common desire, and common interest. The wonders of modern technology have connected us not just at the level of product and the level of wallet but at the level of mind, and heart, and soul. A video recorded in Nairobi can change the life of a boy in New Zealand. A message written in Dakar can inspire a young child in Detroit. And a speech given at the steps of the Capitol building can reach the world.

We are connected. This fact has long been true, but its truth is increasingly manifest today. And so now we must commit ourselves with firmness and fundament to living out our lives in reflection of this universal truth.

Put the interests of your fellow man before that of your own. See the stranger sitting beside you as your brother or sister – and love them accordingly. Use the power of your wallet to shop at companies that commit to providing their workers a living wage. Shop locally. Pick up that piece of trash you walk by on your daily route. Think with an eye towards how we can make the lives of everyone a little bit better, a little bit nicer, and a little bit fuller of truth. And above all else – use the most precious resource you own – and I’m talking about your existence in this present moment – in the service of us, and in recognition of our true oneness. Yes, be selfish! But be selfish knowing that yourself includes you, and me, and the little boy from the Congo, and the little girl in Bangladesh, and the family of 6 in Senegal. Recognize our true nature in this moment and only act out of this fundamental truth.

When we restructure our societies, and governments, and corporations, and above all our lives in reflection of this reality, at this moment, and in this time – that is when we will truly end poverty on this earth and usher in the day when our true oneness is reflected as our reality in all of its glory.