This article by Silbey deals wit themes of globalization, postmodern
colonialism, and justice in the global setting. This
is an article that can relate to a group of youngsters feeling sorry for poor people around the world. Silbey shows how people are grappling with the difference between solidarity and charity, with their own patriarchal and colonial attitudes towards workers around the world, with manifestations of racism and class privilege in their own organization, and with strategic issues about whether to target corporations or the global capitalist system itself. Through this examination, the author hopes that people will perhaps be more motivated by guilt than sympathy, but it is still basically an emotional appeal on either level. Themes of globalization and
colonialism have been prevalent in the media in the last few years, and more and more
people are getting educated about this situation and the ways it can be applied to situations that are most likely familiar to them. Silbey's work links this media scrutiny with advances in education that are proposed in terms of students asking questions and showing empathy for the people of the world. “But the more we focused on the larger why? questions, the harder it was to contain... It was impossible to separate our teaching about wretched
conditions for workers around the world from all the factors that produced the desperation that forces people to seek work in those conditions. These factors include the history of colonial domination of much of the world that took self-sufficient economies and horribly distorted them” (Silbey). Railing against the inherent evils of colonialism may at this point be the academic equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel, but it is worthwhile that some of the sections of Silbey’s work also look at solutions, instead of merely pointing out and rehashing the problems.