isn’t the real threat to Capitalism/ Globalization to come from the increase in Nationalism and Fundamentalism?
loving america and being a fundamentalist is just what the stupid idiots with no money do. the billionaires have no problem going right over to china and building all their factories there. they love globalizing.
long as its cheaper for me (and no ‘rights’ are being grossly vilated), right on.
as long as you dont look at whats actually happening, globalization is great. its a great word.
Most likely. As ideologies, they sure are threatened by rapid globalization. But I’m not sure of how political causes are influenced by economic globalization–it seems both ways–negatively and positively. Because, increase in economic activities fuels political activities, yet at the same time, ideologies (fundamentalism, nationalism) could be discouraged.
This is what happens when all my texts on this subject have been buried deep into my bookcase. Can’t say anything productive.
Well, I have been reading Benjamin Barber’s Jihad Vs. McWorld and I agree with his basic premise, that fundamentalism and Globalization are currently opposed to one another and that both are struggling with the other. However, he wrote the book before Putin began to dismantle the Oligarchs in Russia, as part of a program to increase the sense of nationalism there (that wasn’t why he did it per se, but that appears to be his overall goal).
If nationalism values a sense of national pride, then the leaders of said nation reap a benefit. In America, for example, it is not uncommon for Legislators to respond primarily to the wishes of lobbyists, whom, often times, represent powerful commercial interests. Corporations can buy Democracies… this is no secret. Putin had supposedly been bought, as was his predecessor, it turns out, however, that Russia is no democracy.
China practices a version of crony capitalism, meaning those in power gain the most wealth in the transition from a state planned economy to more open markets. It is possible that China may follow russia, should the business interests there run afoul of those in power.
European Unification has, most likely, gone as far as it will go. There seems to be a sufficient sense of nationalism amongst the individual members as to not quite manage to insure that another continental conflict won’t start up one day.
Iraq, with it’s vast oil reserves, runs the risks of electing a theocracy, provided that someone bothers to actually count the votes. The spread of Globalization and the democracy it supposedly needs might not be as monolithic as once thought. Not that this is necessarily good, NAFTA did not spread good will at the expense of jobs here, as the world is seemingly even more hostile then ever.