Globalization was projected as the great leap of human evolution in a linear march from tribes to nations to global markets. Our identities and context were to move from the national to the global and from ‘personal to global.’ Globalization promised recognition and respect of diversity, development and prosperity, peace and security for all through an inclusive process. Unfortunately, globalization has come to mean an exclusive process of monoculture of dominant civilization, global poverty, exploitation and militarization. Thus globalization is no longer globalization where the multitudes of human cultures have come together, but rather, imposition of the dominant forces over others – thereby resulting in ‘Globalism.’
Globalism has exposed its bankruptcy at the philosophical, political, ecological and economic levels. Its ethical contradictions are based on reducing every aspect of our lives to commodities and our identities to mere consumers in the global market. Our capabilities and capacities as producers and makers of our own culture, our inherent identity as members of communities, our duties as custodians of our natural rights and cultural heritage are made to disappear and be destroyed or be usurped by dominant forces in world politics. Instead of acting on conventions of public trust and principles of democratic accountability and participation, governments and corporations have usurped usurping power from the people. Without a human face it lacks any sense of responsibility, accountability and transparency, effectively shrinking our capacity to give and share.
For instance, half the people on earth are not part of the new economy. Half the people on earth live on less than Rupees 90 a day. A billion people, less than a Rupees 45 a day. A billion people go to bed hungry every night and a billion and a half people - one quarter of the people on earth - never get a clean glass of water. One woman dies every minute in childbirth. Whereas, Americans spend eight billion dollars a year on cosmetics – two billion more than it would cost to provide basic education for everyone in the world if these funds were redirected; Europeans spend eleven billion dollars a year purchasing ice cream – yet only nine billion dollars are year would be adequate to assure water and sanitation for all people. So we live in a ‘global economy’ where half the people of the human race are not part of it, what kind of economy leaves half the people behind?
Globalism has led to disillusionment and discontentment. Democracy has been eroded, livelihoods destroyed, promises broken, rather liberalizing trade has slowed down process of economic growth. Small farmers and businesses are going bankrupt everywhere and economies in developing worlds are collapsing. The non-sustainability and political bankruptcy of the ruling world order and Globalism is fully evident. The need for alternatives has never been stronger.
