Appreciating the difference between global and local truths

HS #20   2017.3.7 

 Appreciating the differences between local and global truths

Recently a colleague sent me a video on the Archimedes screw. It’s essentially an auger - a screw enclosed in a tube. When the low end is placed in water, and it is turned about its axis, the water will be lifted to the top. Efficient and reliable, they are used in grain elevators and snow blowers and throughout industry to lift water, sludge and sewage. The Dutch used them to claim land from the sea.

An Archimedes screw is rather counterintuitive. As it is turned, the water is being raised by the ever-rising turning surface even as the water (locally) flows downhill. Thus the local movement (down) and the global movement (up) of the water are in opposite directions.

Key point: Local properties and global properties are not necessarily the same – in fact they are often at odds with each other.

Examples abound.  In art, M.C. Escher has an intriguing drawing of a rectangular castle with stairways along the four walls – each proceeding up to the next stairway. But after ascending each of the four stairways, the climber is back to the original position. The hiker is locally rising, but globally never advancing.

In geometry, the sphere that we live on seems locally to be a flat plane. Two roads heading north are laid out parallel to each other.  But those familiar with a globe realize that two parallel roads cannot both be pointing due north, since north-pointing roads eventually must meet at the North Pole.  Indeed, every so often the distance between northbound parallel roads needs to be lessened with a short east-west jog.

Philosophically, those roads may be an analogy for truth. Some truths seem to be contradictory (just as parallel longitudinal lines at the equator will appear to never meet), but may well join together as parts of a single universal truth just as  longitude lines meet at the poles.

Theologically, those familiar with the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible often remark that the God portrayed in the OT is quite different (more severe and less charitable) than the God-Man revealed in the NT. However, the OT God is a view over a two-thousand-year time span, whereas the NT revelation covers only three years. Just as a short segment of a winding highway road appears straight,  so also what seems to be a different nature of God, may just be a long-term versus short-term perspective.

One of the most interesting examples of the tension between local and global points of view is captured in the notion of Tragedy of the Commons.

Imagine a pasture area that optimally feeds 100 sheep – 10 sheep for each of 10 shepherds. With 100 sheep, all the grass is eaten and the nutrition is turned into wool.  If less sheep, some grass would go uneaten; if more sheep, the underfed sheep don’t produce as much wool, so the total wool output is less.

Now suppose one shepherd starts thinking, “Hmm – if I increase my herd to 20, the total output will decrease, but MY output will almost double, so I’m better off increasing my herd.  The others then follow suit.  They have all then acted in their own (local) best interest, but as a result they all lose.

Any politician who claims, “Your money is best kept in your own pocket” doesn’t understand Tragedy of the Commons. Our lives are better because we all contribute a little towards our great county parks. If we all thought locally (individually) and kept our money to ourselves, we’d all lose out.

On an international scale, if each nation acts and behaves exclusively in a “ME FIRST” way, each focusing only on its own welfare, then like the shepherds, everyone loses as the world warms and trade stalls.  Thus a less self-centered approach is not only better for others, it’s also better for oneself. Virtuous and smart. Win-win. That is why after the collapse of the USSR, George H W Bush spoke eloquently of the  “New World Order.” He realized we could all be winners if we acted cooperatively.

Indeed, we may all live better when we understand the truth of John Donne that no man is an island. Our lives are woven together, so, though counterintuitive like the Archimedes screw, taking others into account may be the best way to improve one’s own quality of life. Maybe, just maybe, like the shepherds, we all win or we all lose together.