Where did Globalization go?
Globalization was the talk of the town throughout the first decade of the 21st century. And then it just disappeared.
Globalization was the talk of the town throughout the first decade of the 21st century. Newspapers, of all languages, were filled with articles and editorials weighing the “pros and cons” of Globalization. There were weekly feature-columns on the shape a globalised world was bound to take: how much it already had and how much further it was going to. Schools and Academia organised countless Debates, Declamations and Paper-Presentation contests all year round for disciples across age-groups to argue for-and-against ‘Globalization’. (I can vouch for this with some authority, since I participated in almost half of them myself). The nearest competitor topics were arguably, ‘Pollution: A Growing Menace’ and ‘Population Explosion’, but they were more pedestrian compared to the elite ‘Globalization: Boon or Bane’.
And then, almost suddenly, Globalization faded into obscurity.
No longer were there magazine issues about the “Impact of Globalization in 21st Century”. Instead, we had new recruits on the circuit like ‘Cyber Awareness: A Modern Need’ and ‘Terrorism: The Challenge to Humanity’ dominate the roster.
An entire generation of orators, well-versed in the delicate nuances of Globalization, were left stranded with their skills being no longer relevant. The very soothsayers, who accumulated trophies after trophies, by claiming with pomposity the onset of Globalization were left bereft of their own prophecies.
What happened?
Might it be that Globalization was an event which just “took place”, and therefore the rumble around it stopped after the peak fervour?
The counter-argument against this is the fact that Globalization was never supposed to a singular event, or a one-time occurrence like the spark of a switch. No, Globalization was more envisioned as a movement, a shift in paradigm, a spread-out revolution that was going to drastically transform our lives.
It can be argued that such a transformation has already taken place; that Globalization was indeed successful, and our lifestyle has certainly evolved in ways which substantiate that claim. The world is a more connected place now than it was a decade and half ago, and it is continually becoming more connected each and every day. Social media has been at the forefront of facilitating that change and the socio-cultural amalgamation which platforms like Twitter and Facebook exhibit is a testament to that very fact.
However, the magnitude and footprint of the impact caused by Globalization is certainly debatable. For more the interconnected the world has become, there has also been a noticeable surge to don and reclaim other identities while interacting in the globalised world. The most sought-after of them has been the nationalistic identity, which has resulted in a second-coming of Nationalism as a driving force all over the world.
People want to partake in globalization, but with a blanket nationalistic identity defining them.
The can be multiple reasons attributed for this urge to reclaim non-global identities. The major one is obvious: it is extremely easy to feel lost and therefore, existentially inconsequential in the vast expanse of a global world.
As proven throughout history, humans have a deep-rooted tendency to form ‘associations’ and relate themselves to others. This almost carnal impulse to categorise ourselves has led humankind to develop various identities by latching onto concepts like race, gene, caste, colour and most dangerously, religion.
Nationalism is just another roll-of-the-dice; the ‘modern empires’ as they are called, nations are our current defining boundaries of division.
In a way, Nationalism was the inevitable product of Globalization. To draw an analogy, Nationalism is to Globalization what Decentralisation is to Centralisation: a natural, and often preordained antithesis.
Globalization mandated an ecosystem built on sharing and cooperation. The problem is, such ecosystems have a non-negotiable need for ensuring equality among its participants. This ‘equality’ is pretty elusive in a system composed of ‘nation states’ that are at relatively distinct stages of their development, and thus have contrasting needs and desires.
Compare that to a system like the Internet, which makes it easy to impose a semblance of equality, and therefore stands tall as the one true bastion of Globalization in its full spirit. Consider then that even the Internet is waging a hard battle to guard its equality and neutrality and you can understand how difficult it must be for the lesser mortals like the world of nations to maintain theirs.
However, the Internet is still a proof that the people of this world are ready to fight for Globalization even when the ‘world’ itself isn’t.