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Globalism Post 9/11
We seem to be running away from the world, and much of the world hates us for it. Such forces make America not only the world's leading superpower, but probably its most feared and hated nation. As the U.S. evolved rapidly from an industrial to a data-based economy, much of the world hasn't come along, or doesn't want to.
Our technology is running away from the rest of the planet, from genomics to supercomputing to bio-tech research to weaponry. Globalism, arguably the single most significant political issue on the planet even before 9/11, is even more critical now, even though there is little consensus on what it is or how we should feel about it or even define it. Deep-thinking billionaire philanthropist Soros jumps in with a significant new book -- George Soros on Globalization -- in which he advances some exciting and startling ideas about the future.
Anti-globalization protests have become a staple of international summit meetings, Soros points out, a sort of "fragmented potpourri of laments about life in the modern world." A ferocious advocate of open societies, he takes on what's good and bad about globalism, and how we might put it to better use. We'll take up that discussion here.
As Soros points out, 'Globalization' is a much overused term with a wide variety of meanings and contexts. Soros uses it to mean the development of global financial markets and the growth of trans-national corporations, along with their increasing power over national economies. "I believe that most of the problems that people associate with globalism," writes Soros, "including the penetration of market values into areas where they do not traditionally belong, can be attributed to these phenomena."
One could also blame the globalization of information and culture; the spread of television, Internet and other forms of communication; and the increased mobility and commercialization of ideas.
But Soros understandably concentrates on economic issues. Globalization as he defines it, is new. At the end of World War II, most countries strictly controlled international capital transactions. International capital movement accelerated in the early 1980s under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and financial markets became truly global only in the early 1990s, Soros says, after the collapse of the Soviet empire.
That period also happens to coincide with the most explosive growth of the Net and the Web, perfect engines for the new data-driven economies and systems for the rapid movement -- literally -- of capital.
By contrast, as we can see on the evening news most nights, while governments may not be able to restrict the flow of capital, they're still fairly effective at controlling the movement of people. (Although even there, the Net ultimately makes that more difficult, at least in terms of intellectual property and ideas. This kind of content is liquid, no longer confinable within territorial boundaries.
Since capital is the essential ingredient of contemporary production and economies, countries compete to attract it. It's no accident that nations who can't or won't are also incubators for political discontent and terrorism. Globalism has transformed our historic economic and social arrangements. Since capital can move anywhere in seconds, any nation-state's ability to exercise control over an economy has been radically undermined. This was a huge club the British held over the Chinese government during negotiations over the transfer of Hong Kong. The Chinese were forced to be somewhat more democratic when, with the stroke of a key, billions of dollars in capital could have fled Hong Kong in a micro-second, even if its people couldn't.
"The globalization of financial markets," argues Soros," has rendered the welfare state that came into existence after World War II obsolete, because the people who require a social safety net cannot leave the country, but the capital the welfare state used to tax can."
This was no accident, he explains, even if few Americans had any idea it was happening. The Reagan administration (along with Thatcher) was determined to reduce the state's ability to interfere in the economy and, helped enormously by globalization's rise, it succeeded.
So, exuberantly costumed demonstrations aside, globalism is not about to evaporate or even weaken, not any time soon. Quite the opposite: nation-states and their constituents now have to choose between globalism (and its attendant prosperity) or religious fanaticism. This leaves us with the central question:
Next: Is Globalism good or evil?
I goatsed this forum :)
I think we need to start a "fire Jon Katz" petition
...ships his eternal rings worldwide, I'm content. Globalism can bring me eternal life:
http://www.alexchiu.com/affiliates/clickthru.cg
That's what I'm sayin', boyeee
Oh yeah!!!
I'll get it!!!
Troll ???
I didnt know there were people here who cared about Katz !!!
You gotta be kidding me..
Rapid Nirvana
Hi my name is Kayla and this is not my experience but a friends. This is not a ghost experience but a poession! My friend lets call her Missy( i am changing her name just for her sake) well she was a councler at a camp this past year(2001) and she stayed 6 weeks and 5 different groups of kids came all ages ranging from 10 - 18. well it was about the 2nd week and it was for the 14-16 year olds . Missy had gotten through this week pretty good but she had one camper lets call her Shelly ( for her sake also) well she just had a bad attitude all week and this upsetted missy so the last night Missy saw Shelly sitting with her brother and best friend (that was all the living people) and they were crying.Missy then heard the scariest noise she had ever heard in her life ,Shelly let out the most blood-shrill scream ! Missy said
it wasnt human! But Missy said that behind them was shadows but it wasnt
human shawdos! Well missy ran to her friend Jane( name changed for her sake
also) Well Missy and Jane went over there and asked Shelly what was wrong
and Shelly looked Missy in her eyes and Missy said her eyes were so empty so
full of evil ! Well then shelly's brother told them that Shelly was
possessed! And missy and jane jumped back! Well then they took her to the
camp chaple and supposedly they prayed it out of her! Well it turns out that
the girl asked the thing into her not long ago ! After they got it out of her
she asked it back into her! They asked the "thing" what its name is and it
said some thing like in french or german meaning "many spirts" well that is
the tale hope yall liked it!
You sir, are a filthy whore!!
My next story is aout what happened a really scary night when my boy friend in the basement...what happened that night is still haunting both me and Timmy. Timmy and I were down in the basement getting a pop or two whenall the lights inthe house went out and screams filled the basement.(they were not our screams,they did not sound human either!) so we used my watch light to run as fast as we could ou of the house.I never did go back into the house until daylight.Then we found my cats huddled in my room full of fright. My computer had a strange e-mail saying "get out of the house while you can! u have 13 days before somethig BAD happens!!" We moved to a new house and have had no trouble since.