#globalization

[noosphe-re]

‘Identity’ is the new junk food for the disposessed, globalization’s fodder for the disenfranchised.

Rem Koolhaas, Junkspace

[thepersonalwords]

In an era of globalization, we recognize that we are part of a global society, but we have no idea how to make such a society work. So far, no unified vision or leadership has emerged to guide us in this endeavor. We have not yet found a way to expand the spiritual ideals of democracy so that they pertain to every human being, every animal, and every plant. Until we do, human civilization and the Earth's ecosystem will continue to be in peril.

Victor Shamas, The Way of Play: Reclaiming Divine Fun & Celebration

[deadpresidents]

"Lastly, I would like us all to consider some important tasks for the present historical moment, since we desire a positive change for the benefit of all our brothers and sisters. We know this. We desire change enriched by the collaboration of governments, popular movements, and other social forces. This too we know. But it is not so easy to define the content of change -- in other words, a social program which can embody this project of fraternity and justice which we are seeking. So don't expect a recipe from this Pope. Neither the Pope nor the Church have a monopoly on the interpretation of social reality or the proposal of solutions to contemporary issues. I dare say that no recipe exists. History is made by each generation as it follows in the footsteps of those preceding it, as it seeks its own path and respects the values which God has placed in the human heart.

I would like, all the same, to propose three great tasks which demand a decisive and shared contribution from popular movements:

The first task is to put the economy at the service of peoples. Human beings and nature must not be at the service of money. Let us say NO to an economy of exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys Mother Earth.

The economy should not be a mechanism for accumulating goods, but rather the proper administration of our common home. This entails a commitment to care for that home and to the fitting distribution of goods among all. It is not only about ensuring a supply of food or "decent sustenance". Nor, although this is already a great step forward, is it to guarantee the three "L's" of Land, Lodging, and Labor for which you are working. A truly communitarian economy, one might say an economy of Christian inspiration, must ensure people's dignity and their "general, temporal welfare and prosperity." This includes the three "L's", but also access to education, health care, new technologies, artistic and cultural manifestations, communications, sports and recreation. A just economy must create the conditions for everyone to be able to enjoy a childhood without want, to develop their talents when young, to work with full rights during their active years and to enjoy a dignified retirement as they grow older. It is an economy where human beings, in harmony with nature, structure the entire system of production and distribution in such a way that the abilities and needs of each individual find suitable expression in social life. You, and other peoples as well, sum up this desire in a simple and beautiful expression: 'to live well'.

Such an economy is not only desirable and necessary, but also possible. It is no utopia or chimera. It is an extremely realistic prospect. We can achieve it. The available resources in our world, the fruit of the intergenerational labors of peoples, and the gifts of creation, more than suffice for the integral development of "each man and the whole man". The problem is of another kind. There exists a system with different aims. A system which, while irresponsibly accelerating the pace of production, while using industrial and agricultural methods which damage Mother Earth in the name of "productivity", continues to deny many millions of our brothers and sisters their most elementary economic, social, and cultural rights. This system runs counter to the plan of Jesus…

Along this path, popular movements play an essential role, not only by making demands and lodging protests, but even more basically by being creative. You are social poets: creators of work, builders of housing, producers of good, above all for people left behind by the world market….

Governments which make it their responsibility to put the economy at the service of peoples must promote the strengthening, improvement, coordination, and expansion of these forms of popular economy and communitarian production. This entails bettering the processes of work, providing adequate infrastructures, and guaranteeing workers their full rights in this alternative sector. When the state and social organizations join in working for the three "L's", the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity come into play; and these allow the common good to be achieved in a full and participatory democracy.

The second task is to unite our peoples on the path of peace and justice.

The world's peoples want to be artisans of their own destiny. They want to advance peacefully towards justice. They do not want forms of tutelage or interference by which those with greater power subordinate those with less. They want their culture, their language, their social processes, and their religious traditions to be respected. No actual or established power has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their sovereignty. Whenever they do so, we see the rise of new forms of colonialism which seriously prejudice the possibility of peace and justice. For "peace is founded not only on respect for human rights but also on respect for the rights of peoples, in particular the right to independence.”…

Similarly, the monopolizing of the communications media, which would impose alienating examples of consumerism and a certain cultural uniformity, is another one of the forms taken by the new colonialism. It is ideological colonialism. As the African bishops have observed, poor countries are often treated like "parts of a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel."

It must be acknowledged that none of the grave problems of humanity can be resolved without interaction between states and peoples at the international level. Every significant action carried out in one part of the planet has universal, ecological, social, and cultural repercussions. Even crime and violence have become globalized. Consequently, no government can act independently of a common responsibility. If we truly desire positive change, we have to humbly accept our interdependence. Interaction, however, is not the same as imposition; it is not the subordination of some to serve the interests of others. Colonialism, both old and new, which reduces poor countries to mere providers of raw material and cheap labor, engenders violence, poverty, forced migrations, and all the evils that go hand-in-hand with these, precisely because, by placing the periphery at the service of the center, it denies those countries the right to an integral development. That is inequality, and inequality generates a violence which no police, military, or intelligence resources can control.

Let us say NO to forms of colonialism, old and new. Let us say YES to the encounter between peoples and cultures. Blessed are the peacemakers.

Here I wish to bring up an important issue. Some may rightly say, "When the Pope speaks of colonialism, he overlooks certain actions of the Church." I say to you this: many grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God. My predecessors acknowledged this, CELAM has said it, and I too wish to say it. Like Saint John Paul II, I ask that the Church "kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the past and present sins of her sons and daughters." I would also say, and here I wish to be quite clear, as was Saint John Paul II: I humble ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the Church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.

I also ask everyone, believers and non-believers alike, to think of those many bishops, priests, and laity who preached and continue to preach the Good News of Jesus with courage and meekness, respectfully and pacifically; who left behind them impressive works of human promotion and love, often standing alongside the native peoples or accompanying their popular movements even to the point of martyrdom. The Church, her sons and daughters, are part of the identity of the peoples of Latin America. An identity which here, as in other countries, some powers are committed to erasing, at times because our faith is revolutionary, because our faith challenges the tyranny of mammon. Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured, and killed for their faith in Jesus. This too needs to be denounced: in this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.

To our brothers and sisters in the Latin American indigenous movement, allow me to express my deep affection and appreciation of their efforts to bring peoples and cultures together in a form of coexistence which I would call polyhedric, where each group preserves its own identity by building together a plurality which does not threaten but rather reinforces unity. Your quest for an interculturalism, which combines the defense of the rights of the native peoples with respect for the territorial integrity of states, is for all of us a source of enrichment and encouragement.

The third task, perhaps the most important facing us today, is to defend Mother Earth.

Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste, and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin. We see with growing disappointment how one international summit after another takes place without any significant result. There exists a clear, definite, and pressing ethical imperative to implement what has not yet been done. We cannot allow certain interests -- interests which are global, but not universal -- to take over, to dominate states and international organizations, and to continue destroying creation. People and their movements are called to cry out, to mobilize, and to demand -- peacefully, but firmly -- that appropriate and urgently-needed measures be taken. I ask you, in the name of God, to defend Mother Earth. I have duly addressed this in my Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si'.

In conclusion, I would like to repeat: the future of humanity does not lie solely in the hands of great leaders, the great powers, and the elites. It is fundamentally in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize. It is in their hands, which can guide with humility and conviction this process of change. I am with you. Let us together say from the heart: no family without lodging, no individual without dignity, no child without childhood, no young person without a future, no elderly person without a venerable old age. Keep up your struggle and, please, take great care of Mother Earth. I pray for you and with you, and I ask God our Father to accompany you and to bless you, to fill you with his love and defend you on your way by granting you in abundance that strength which keeps us on our feet: that strength is hope, the hope which does not disappoint. Thank you and I ask you, please, to pray for me."

-- Pope Francis, address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, July 9, 2015.

[commonsensecommentary]

“Turning around the decades-long destruction of America’s industrial base will take many years, but it will never, ever happen without the kick in the pants provided by the Trump tariffs. We are seeing the end of the ridiculous reign of the globalists who have enriched themselves—and weakened our nation—by shipping American prosperity abroad.”

[diaryofaphilosopher]

Subconciously, we see an attack on ourselves and our beliefs as a threat and we attempt to block with a counter-stance. But it is not enough to stand on the opposite riverbank, shouting questions, challenging patriarchal white conventions. A counter-stance locks one into a duel of oppressor and oppressed; locked in mortal combat, both are reduced to a common denominator of violence. The counter-stance refutes the dominant culture's views and beliefs, and for this, it is proudly defiant. All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against. Because the counter-stance stems from a problem with authority - outer as well as inner - it's a step toward liberation from cultural domination. But it is not a way of life. At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the split between two mortal combatants somehow healed so that we are on both shores at once and, at once, see through serpent and eagle eyes. Or perhaps we will decide to disengage from the dominant culture, write it off altogether as a lost cause, and cross the border into a wholly new and separate territory. Or we might go another route. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

— Gloria Anzaldua, “La concencia de la mestiza”

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!

[econsociology]

Donni Wang reflects on and draws neoliberal globalization, its outcomes, ant its alternatives>>

[tyger-land]

ᴀɴᴅʀᴇᴀs ɢᴜʀsᴋʏ Ocean V. 2010.

[tilbageidanmark]

A NEW MANIFESTO NEEDS TO BE WRITTEN: The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

There are only 2,700 of them, and 8+ billion of us. The math is simple, and so is the solution.

A spectre is haunting the world — the spectre of extinction. All the powers of elites have entered into a holy alliance to accelerate this spectre: The billionaires and millionaires, the American hyper-capitalists and the Russian oligarchs, the military industrial complex and white supremacists. The old Nazis are the new fascists.

It's high time to start a new liberation movement, French Revolution 2.0. For the children's sake, for the future of this dying planet - and before it's too late.

#2700 billionaires

[omegaphilosophia]

The Ontology of Culture

The ontology of culture examines the nature, existence, and fundamental structure of culture as a concept, system, and lived experience. It addresses how culture emerges, exists, and functions in human societies, as well as its metaphysical status—whether it is an objective reality, a social construct, or an interplay of both.

Key Questions in the Ontology of Culture

What is culture?

Is culture a tangible entity, a system of symbols, or a set of practices?

Does it exist independently of individuals, or is it constituted by individual and collective actions?

How does culture exist?

Materialist View: Culture manifests through physical artifacts, art, tools, and architecture.

Symbolic View: Culture exists as shared symbols, language, and values.

Dynamic View: Culture is a process, constantly evolving through interaction, adaptation, and change.

Is culture universal or particular?

Are there universal cultural elements, or is culture entirely relative to specific societies?

How do shared human experiences shape universal cultural themes?

How is culture transmitted and maintained?

Through language, rituals, education, and media.

The role of institutions, traditions, and collective memory in preserving culture.

Is culture a static or dynamic entity?

Static perspectives view culture as enduring and unchanging over time.

Dynamic perspectives see culture as fluid, evolving in response to historical and social factors.

Theoretical Perspectives on Culture

Essentialism:

Culture is viewed as an intrinsic set of characteristics that define a group of people.

Constructivism:

Culture is constructed through social practices and interactions, shaped by power dynamics and context.

Structuralism:

Culture exists as a system of underlying structures, such as language or myths, that govern human behavior.

Postmodernism:

Challenges fixed notions of culture, emphasizing its fragmented, diverse, and hybrid nature.

Cultural Materialism:

Focuses on the material and economic conditions that shape cultural practices and ideologies.

Ontological Issues in Culture

Subjectivity vs. Objectivity:

Is culture a subjective experience unique to individuals, or does it exist as an objective, shared reality?

Individual vs. Collective:

How does individual agency interact with collective cultural norms and practices?

Temporal Nature of Culture:

How does culture persist over time, and what mechanisms allow it to evolve?

Intercultural Influence:

How do cultures interact, merge, or clash in a globalized world?

Nature vs. Nurture:

How do biological factors interact with cultural influences to shape human behavior?

Practical Applications

Cultural Studies:

Analyzing cultural products, practices, and ideologies to understand societal dynamics.

Anthropology:

Exploring the lived realities of diverse cultures to uncover universal and particular traits.

Sociology:

Investigating the role of culture in structuring societies and influencing behavior.

Philosophy of Education:

Examining how culture shapes knowledge systems and learning methodologies.

Globalization Studies:

Addressing the impact of cultural exchange, homogenization, and resistance in a globalized world.

The ontology of culture seeks to define what culture fundamentally is and how it operates across human societies. It integrates metaphysical, social, and practical dimensions to provide a holistic understanding of culture's nature and significance. By addressing these questions, we deepen our comprehension of what it means to live within, shape, and be shaped by cultural systems.

[schrankartoons]

My cartoon for The Times of 7/4/25. That's not all, folks...we're going to have to endure another three years and nine months of this bad craziness.

[azspot]

In our century, American politics has been blown open by the reverberating crises of neoliberalism and capitalist globalization. They have rebounded on our society and politics in four major forms: imperial blowback and endless warfare; deindustrialization and the hollowing out of American society; the rise of an engorged, predatory, and increasingly insane billionaire class, obsessed with eugenics and immortality; and the climate crisis, now a source of regular natural disasters and swelling refugee flows. At each juncture, the Democrats have attempted restoration: to manage the crisis, carry out the bailout, stitch things back together, and try to get back to normal. It is the form of this orientation, as much as substantive questions of culture, race, and gender, that seems to me the fundamental reason the Democrats are often experienced as a force of inhibition rather than empowerment by so many voters. And it is against this politics of containment that Trump’s obscenity comes to feel like a liberation for so many.

Exit Right

[thepersonalwords]

A world without radio is a deaf world. A world without television is a blind world. A world without telephone is a dumb world. A world without communication is indeed a crippled world.

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

[deadpresidents]

“Let us begin by acknowledging that change is needed. Here I would clarify, lest there be any misunderstanding, that I am speaking about problems common to all Latin Americans and, more generally, to humanity as a whole. They are global problems which today no state can resolve on its own. With this clarification, I now propose that we ask the following questions:

Do we realize that something is wrong in a world where there are so many farmworkers without land, so many families without a home, so many laborers without rights, so many persons whose dignity is not respected? Do we realize that something is wrong where so many senseless wars are being fought and acts of fratricidal violence are taking place on our very doorstep?

Do we realize something is wrong when the soil, water, air and living creatures of our world are under constant threat?

So, let’s not be afraid to say it: we need change; we want change.

In your letters and in our meetings, you have mentioned the many forms of exclusion and injustice which you experience in the workplace, in neighborhoods, and throughout the land. They are many and diverse, just as many and diverse are the ways in which you confront them. Yet there is an invisible thread joining every one of those forms of exclusion: can we recognize it? These are not isolated issues. I wonder whether we can see that these destructive realities are part of a system which has become global. Do we realize that the system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature?

If such is the case, I would insist, let us not be afraid to say it. we want change, real change, structural change. This system is by now intolerable: farmworkers find it intolerable, laborers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable. The earth itself – our sister, Mother Earth, as Saint Francis would say – also finds it intolerable.

We want change in our lives, in our neighborhoods, in our everyday reality. We want a change which can affect the entire world, since global interdependence calls for global answers to local problems. The globalization of hope, a hope which springs up from peoples and takes root among the poor, must replace the globalization of exclusion and indifference!

Today, I wish to reflect with you on the change we want and need. You know that recently I wrote about the problems of climate change. But now I would like to speak of change in another sense. Positive change, a change which is good for us, a change – we can say – which is redemptive. Because we need it. I know that you are looking for change, and not just you alone: in my different meetings, in my different travels, I have sensed an expectation, a longing, a yearning for change, in people throughout the world. Even within that ever smaller minority which believes that the present system is beneficial, there is a widespread sense of dissatisfaction and even despondency. Many people are hoping for a change capable of releasing them from the bondage of individualism and the despondency it spawns.

Time, my brothers and sisters, seems to be running out; we are not yet tearing one another apart, but we are tearing apart our common home. Today, the scientific community realizes what the poor have long told us: harm, perhaps irreversible harm, is being done to the ecosystem. The earth, entire peoples, and individual persons are being brutally punished. And behind all this pain, death, and destruction there is a stench of what Basil of Caesarea called “the dung of the devil.” An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire ecosystem, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home.

I do not need to go on describing the evil effects of this subtle dictatorship: you are well aware of them. Nor is it enough to point to the structural causes of today’s social and environmental crisis. We are suffering from an excess of diagnosis, which at times leads us to multiply words and to revel in pessimism and negativity. Looking at the daily news we think that there is nothing to be done, except to take care of ourselves and the little circle of our family and friends. What can I do, as collector of paper, old clothes, or used metal, a recycler, about all these problems if I barely make enough money to put food on the table?

What can I do as a craftsman, a street vendor, a trucker, a downtrodden worker, if I don’t even enjoy workers’ rights? What can I do, a farmwife, a native woman, a fisher who can hardly fight the domination of the big corporations? What can I do from my little home, my shanty, my hamlet, my settlement, when I daily meet with discrimination and marginalization? What can be done by those students, those young people, those activists, those missionaries who come to my neighborhood with their hearts full of hopes and dreams, but without any real solution for my problems?

A lot! They can do a lot. You, the lowly, the exploited, the poor and underprivileged, can do, and are doing, a lot! I would even say that the future of humanity is in great measure in your own hands, through your ability to organize and carry out creative alternatives, through your daily efforts to ensure the three L’s (Labor, Lodging, Land) and through your proactive participation in the great successes of change on the national, regional and global levels. Don’t lose heart!”

— Pope Francis, address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, July 9, 2015.

[mneee]

La Globalización

La globalización es un fenómeno complejo y multidimensional que ha transformado la manera en que los países, empresas y personas interactúan en el mundo. Implica la creciente interdependencia económica, cultural, tecnológica y política entre las naciones. Aunque la globalización ha generado muchas oportunidades, también ha traído desafíos significativos que afectan a todos los niveles de la sociedad.

¿Qué es la Globalización?

La globalización es el proceso mediante el cual se intensifican las relaciones entre los países, facilitando el intercambio de bienes, servicios, información, personas y culturas a escala global.

.1 Tipos de globalización:

Económica: Apertura de mercados, comercio internacional, inversión extranjera.

Cultural: Difusión de ideas, costumbres, música, cine, comida, idioma.

Tecnológica: Acceso y expansión de tecnologías digitales y de comunicación.

Política: Cooperación internacional, tratados, organismos multilaterales.

Social: Migración, derechos humanos, movimientos globales.

Historia de la Globalización

.1 Primeras etapas

Edad Antigua y Media: Rutas comerciales como la Ruta de la Seda y el comercio árabe.

Edad Moderna: Expansión marítima europea (siglo XV-XVII), colonización y comercio transatlántico.

.2 Globalización moderna

Siglo XIX: Revolución Industrial → mejoras en transporte y comunicación.

Siglo XX:

Post Segunda Guerra Mundial: creación del FMI, Banco Mundial, ONU.

Década de 1990: caída del bloque soviético, internet, neoliberalismo económico.

.3 Globalización actual (Siglo XXI)

Digitalización de la economía.

Global supply chains (cadenas de valor globales).

Auge de China y otras economías emergentes.

Beneficios de la Globalización

.1 Económicos

Crecimiento del comercio internacional.

Acceso a nuevos mercados.

Reducción de precios y mayor variedad de productos.

Inversión extranjera directa.

.2 Sociales y culturales

Intercambio de ideas, valores y conocimiento.

Mayor conectividad entre personas.

Difusión de derechos humanos y causas globales.

4.3 Tecnológicos

Rápida difusión de tecnologías.

Innovación y transferencia de conocimiento.

Colaboración científica internacional.

Impactos Negativos y Críticas

.1 Desigualdad

Aumento de la brecha entre países desarrollados y en desarrollo.

Desigualdad dentro de países (ricos más ricos, pobres más pobres).

.2 Pérdida de soberanía

Empresas transnacionales con más poder que algunos gobiernos.

Dependencia de mercados externos.

.3 Homogeneización cultural

Pérdida de lenguas, tradiciones y diversidad cultural.

Predominio de la cultura occidental.

.4 Impacto ambiental

Aumento de emisiones por transporte internacional.

Explotación intensiva de recursos naturales.

"Basurización" de países pobres (desechos tecnológicos, textiles, etc.).

Casos de Estudio

.1 China como fábrica del mundo

Ventajas competitivas: bajo costo laboral, infraestructura, políticas de atracción de inversiones.

Producción masiva para empresas de todo el planeta.

.2 Tratados de libre comercio

TLCAN (hoy T-MEC): Integración económica de EE. UU., México y Canadá.

UE (Unión Europea): Mercado común, libre circulación de bienes y personas.

.3 Globalización digital

Empresas como Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple dominan mercados globales.

Trabajo remoto, educación online y redes sociales como elementos globalizados.

Retos Actuales de la Globalización

.1 Crisis económicas y pandemias

COVID-19: Demostró la vulnerabilidad de las cadenas de suministro globales.

Inflación global: Interdependencia que genera efectos dominó.

.2 Nacionalismo y proteccionismo

Auge de políticas antiglobalización (Brexit, Trump, etc.).

Restricciones al comercio y migración.

.3 Sostenibilidad

Necesidad de prácticas económicas que respeten el medio ambiente.

Acuerdos internacionales sobre el cambio climático.

.4 Ética y derechos humanos

Condiciones laborales injustas en fábricas.

Trabajo infantil y explotación en países en desarrollo.

Futuro de la Globalización

Globalización 4.0: Conectada a la Cuarta Revolución Industrial.

Re-localización: Algunas empresas están trayendo la producción de vuelta a sus países.

Globalización verde: Necesidad de integrar sostenibilidad en los procesos globales.

Multilateralismo o multipolaridad: Emergencia de potencias como India, Brasil, China.

Conclusión

La globalización ha cambiado profundamente al mundo. Ha traído avances, crecimiento y conectividad sin precedentes, pero también ha generado desigualdades, tensiones y desafíos éticos. Enfrentar estos problemas requiere una globalización más justa, sostenible e inclusiva, que beneficie a todos, no solo a unos pocos.