He begins by citing Merkel with Obama at her side defending globalism against Trump. They, with Thomas Friedman consider Trump's nationalism tantamount to returning to caves. equating globalization with civilization itself. It doesn't occur to them actual civilizations don't mix as envisioned. They imagine our advances will rub onto them others more than other civilizations lack of development will affect us. They traced the rise of globalization to the fall of the Berlin Wall where Merkel and Obama were talking.
But globalization didn’t bring down the Berlin Wall. Nationalism did. The pro-democracy activists wanted a country where the people had a voice. That’s the opposite of globalization in which there are no nations and only the influential figures of various stripes have any kind of impact.By the time that Merkel and Obama grasped the what Trump's victory and Brexit means for globalization, Berlin was already seeing the results of their philosophy. Migrants were supposed to supplement the German workforce. Instead, they aren't working. The refugees came for Germany's generous welfare programs and they're wrecked enough that Merkel wants to pay them to leave.
Globalization moved production to countries with the lowest standards of living and the least human rights and the most government intervention in their economies. At the same time it moved immigrants with the lowest work ethic to America and Germany for welfare programs intended to soften the economic impact of globalization on the native population.
Instead of binding the world closer together, globalization financed a renewed wave of aggression by former failed Communist states and enabled Islamic terrorists to strike deep in the heart of the West.
The ambitious dreams of globalization that once appeared to unite big government advocates on the left with free marketers on the right have become a nightmare. Their failures have led to a renewed affinity for Socialism and even Communism on the left.
Globalization interlinks economies and societies often more by their weaknesses than by their strengths. It exports instability more easily than stability and conflict more easily than progress.
Sophisticated systems are more vulnerable than primitive ones. It’s why Afghanistan and Iraq made more of an enduring mark on America than the other way around. In a globalized world, colonialism works in reverse with unstable societies exporting their instability to stable societies.I swiped too much already.
More at Sultan Knish. Recommended.
7 comments:
Knish is a pretty sharp guy.
A little wordy at times, but worth it.
A lot of truth and valuable insights there, but as with most things, globalization has it's benefits and costs. Look around you. You are surrounded with the benefits, all at half price, bought by choice and often based mostly on that price. Would you even have a cell phone if they cost 2 grand? Would there even be any outside of the defense department?
bagoh20 said...
A lot of truth and valuable insights there, but as with most things, globalization has it's benefits and costs.
It's a bit of an existential question for America: Is it good to go down in style with imported manufactured goods and imported labor?
It sucks to be old school -- to be so obviously slated for obsolescence.
" Is it good to go down in style with imported manufactured goods and imported labor? "
There is no way to avoid the rest of the world eventually modernizing and competing. That could last for a while when communication and transportation was less fluid, but it's just a fantasy to think we can stay in the mid 20th century. That period we all love so much was a quirk of history and timing. The realities ahead must be faced honestly with clear eyes. Eventually most labor jobs we know will be gone, and intellectual ones are even easier to export. The reason is obvious and nobody else's fault: none of us wants to pay more than we have to of our own hard-earned money to get things we want, and that's assuming we even have the money to pay more. The basic laws of economics are powerful and where they are fought they must be fought with oppression and lead to poverty.
I take no glee in our situation. My love of labor is life-long, and I truly feel it makes people better humans if it's not debilitating or demoralizing. I take pride in the fact that I do physical labor for a living every single day, I train people how to do it, and it's pretty much my life. But, the facts and forces are real, and it's just self-defeating to ignore them. There are things we can do to still win a good life from the challenges ahead, but getting paid many times what someone on the other side of the world gets for the same job is not sustainable. That period of easy dominance is over, and always was temporary. People need to learn, create, and constantly remake themselves to compete. That does not mean we should accept trade deals or economic policies that foolishly stab us in the back. In fact, it is that very tough reality that make those stupid policies more unacceptable and important than ever. We have to fight like the field is level now, because it is, and there is no consolation prize for losing. Time spent wishing things were different or like they used to be has never been effective for anyone in this situation ever. There is no alternative to competing, fighting, being strategic, and looking forward. That's what the eventual winners do. Besides, it's a lot more fun and satisfying to fight and win or lose than to just bitch and hope. I'm not one for hope. Hope is for quitters.
"Eventually most labor jobs we know will be gone......"
To be replaced with jobs we can't even imagine at this point in time, just as lamplighters couldn't imagine the electric future and all the jobs it would bring.....or blacksmiths, how could I forget them?
I wonder if robots could be pop-up book assemblers.
Globalism is really planetary Marxism and Trump is trying to set that shit on fire. This is one of the aspects of the cabal we are fighting against. Can I distill that down any further than it already is?Maybe is in globalism bad, nationalism good.
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