The Hubris of Globalism

I’m writing from California in English, but I hope people can see and recognize this wherever they are. It affects all of us.

I’m writing from California in English, but I hope people can see and recognize this wherever they are. It affects all of us.

In our consumer society, a host of goods and services that originate outside of the borders of our nation are made available at low cost. Capital can easily move across borders and take advantage of lower labor and commodity prices.

You can get tea. You can get sugar. These things are not produced locally. You can use GPS. You can send email anywhere on the planet. You can get green paint from a global market of chromium. You can get coffee, chocolate and bananas. You can get orange juice in the winter. You can share cultural references to superheroes that people in other countries will understand. You can benefit from international standards. You can play videogames or watch cartoons that originated in Japan. You can buy furniture made of hardwoods from South America. You can buy a t-shirt made from cotton grown in China and woven into fabric in Nigeria with a clever slogan on it invented by an American.

Globalization means that in your job you are not just competing with your fellow countrymen, but you are competing with people anywhere in the world who with the same skills. There is no ‘grading on a curve’. It means whereas your country might have had employment in every industry, that now the whole country may become specialized into a few industries. It means at some point, certain subjects will no longer be taught in school because your country doesn’t make that, it just buys that.

Globalization means that in your economy you are not just subject to the wealthiest people in your country who speak your language, but that your life is influenced by the wealthiest people in the world who may not care about your language, your culture, your religion, your education, your family or your neighborhood. They simply make deals with the wealthiest people in your country and that’s all they need to care about. It means when you buy their products and they fail, you can’t sue them or even bring them to court in your country. You’ll just be dealing with their agents in your country, but not the big boss who will never go to jail.

Globalization means that in your city, if it is a big enough city, or your college if it is a big enough college, that you will have to deal with gentrification. Not just affluent people from the nice part of town, but from the spoiled rich families across the globe. So in your neighborhood of nice houses, suddenly that one house on the corner now sells for a million dollars. And then Airbnb has people buying up houses to rent out to wealthy tourists, and soon there’s nothing your city council or mayor can do about it. Then their kids can afford to pay full tuition but you have to take out a loan, and there’s nothing the administrators at your school can do about it.

Globalization means you can buy bananas and coffee and chocolate, but you can’t afford college or home ownership. It means you can wear cheap clothing but you can’t get a job in manufacturing. I means you can play cool videogames on your iPhone, but if it breaks nobody in your country can fix it, so you have to get extended warranty insurance so they give you another one.

Globalization means the death of local control. And surprise surprise, the death of local politics. And if you vote to exit this regime, you are mocked as a stupid, regressive, racist, ass backward patriot, uncivilized barbarian to be ignored in the new world order. Becuz progress. Becuz the planet matters more than you. Becuz you can be cancelled.

Globalization is the Bitcoin where nobody anywhere knows who the inventor is, and nobody can be called into account because they can be anywhere in the world or even disappear from the world but the system keeps going. Globalization is the Black Mirror of the 21st Century.

The only thing that beats globalization is nationalism. Your laws, your language, your culture, your elected officials, your borders, your army, your flag, your cities and towns, your schools and neighborhoods.

Nationalism isn’t racist. Nationalism isn’t xenophobic. Nationalism means your sovereignty comes first, not the new world order. It means your democracy gets to decide exactly how much foreign exchange happens. It means international trade has to be negotiated, not just accepted blindly. It doesn’t mean we stop teaching foreign languages and literature in highschool. It means your citizenship and your civil rights don’t take a backseat to the rules of any other global cabal on the planet. It means anyone and everyone who does business in your country will be accountable to the laws and courts of your country. It means local people make choices and everybody else has to respect those choices. Nationalism is anti-colonialist. Nationalism is anti-imperialist. Nationalism means a limit on hubris. Nationalism means when some fanatic tries to organize the Xs of the world into a global revolution, he won’t be able to topple nations, because nations will be respected and nations will be strong.

Or not.

It’s up to you.

Originally published at https://cobb.typepad.com.