going global: americana for sale (this is mokey poo)

week 8: friedman (advantageous/disadvantageous)

“[...] its utopian possibilities and its dystopic realities,” (friedman, 2007, p. 261). great quote regarding friedman’s take on globalization. i’m feeling it.

some folks say, “hey, what’s wrong with globalization? look at the chinese. nike is providing those kids jobs. we make economies better.” yes and no. okay, so maybe there are some advantages to globalization. for one, a lot more people around the world will be speaking english, so i won’t really have to learn korean if i make a trip there in about 15 years. also, if i want my mcburger and i’m in new delhi, i’ll be able to score one. how cool is that?

boom! let’s burst that fairy tale bubble. here’s why globalization is disadvantageous — call me crazy if you’d like to: slowly, but surely, our world will no longer be made up of many different countries, but a large one world government. we will all have the same currency. international borders will not exist. so, no, you won’t need a passport to travel to france, but there are drawbacks to this. namely, the absolute control over just about every facet of our lives that we will be handing over to a conglomerate that really only cares about maintaining their position at the top of the pile.

skeptics, be skeptical. a couple of years ago in an economics class, a classmate gave a presentation on an upcoming oil crisis that was being predicted by economists. he claimed that by 2010 gas prices would reach $7/gallon. some classmates laughed. i cried quietly, realizing that i would see some serious shit go down in my lifetime, after already witnessing 9/11 and the unjust war that ensued.

*in case you’re wondering, my allegiances are beyond left. i’m in outer space. on the fringe of the cosmos looking for god so i can ask her some questions.

here we are, back on earth, in a romanticized existence, still chasing utopia, drowning in dystopic muck. sucking and swallowing it all. not one drop spilled.

for us, the average folk; the other 90% that isn’t wealthy; the people, there is nothing really advantageous about globalization. why has the cost of living gone up, and our wages gone down? why are we fighting terror? how do you fight terror? what is terror? is it an atomic bomb, like the two we dropped on that one island that makes reliable cars? is it scaring  the public into handing over their civil rights? is it lies?

we had a discussion last week about the significance of scholarship in the humanities that made me question studying in this field. i know better, but when you’re faced with an uphill battle against a savage beasts like transnational corps, the federal reserve bank, our evil empire, what do you do? do you buck it all until you croak, or do you simply just give in?