The Man Who Sold the World

Oh no, not me, I never lost control,

You're face to face, with the man who sold the world.

-David Bowie

I had my first introduction to the dilemmas facing our increasingly global civilization in seminary, from a stout little man with a thick Latino accent, Gonzalo Castillo-Cardenas.  He was a teacher of a Senior course that was part of our required curriculum: Christianity and World Cultures.  The word globalization rolled off of his tongue in a way that is still memorable, heavy, cheeky pronunciation of the b and a rolling of z.  At the time, I was not at all familiar with the complexity of the issue. It had seemed to me, for most of my life, a forgone conclusion that the world was getting more and more interconnected and the dawning of the internet only seemed to be speeding that process up.

I had been sort of blissfully unaware that globalization was not, in fact, an entirely good thing, nor were it's processes always leading humanity forward into a Roddenberry-esque, post-economic future.  Prior to taking that class, I sort of assumed that a global awareness was a good thing, all humanity blending together and moving past the tribal, national and sectarian violence of our past, how could it go wrong?

Well, actually in a lot of really horrible ways when you finally got around to it. The virtual and actual slavery of people in developing countries, human trafficking, environmental catastrophes, strife and terrorism.  I began to pay attention to the labels on my clothes, even though as a seminary student I didn't exactly have a choice in the purchase of the cheapest things I could find, I at least tried to be aware of the human cost of that "made in China" label.  And it's not just stuff that affects the poor folk on the other side of the globe, that same shift in manufacturing to places where labor is dirt cheap has also impoverished a wide swath of America as well.  The chickens of that particular fact have come home to roost in the election of the terrible tangerine.  A combination of technology and shifting production overseas has left a dearth of the sort of working class hero jobs that drove our post WWII economy, that's no secret. What might be less obvious is that it has also driven rising levels of resentment towards foreigners, which is qualitatively different than the sort of broad brush bigotry that it often looks like on the outside.

I think that's important to understand as we wrestle with the current situation. Some have said we ought to just call white nationalism what it really is: racism, but let's be clear nationalism is a different thing.  Nationalism is really what Trump managed to weaponize in this election.  His constant message has been: we're seen as weak, we're losing, we're getting taken advantage of by China and Mexico.  That message has legs; because even if parts of it are demonstrably false, it feels true to the rust belt and middle America.  Pair it with the way that the Democratic Party pretty much sold out the poor and the working classes at several crucial junctures during the Clinton administration, the way the "establishment" of the DNC and their Superdelegates were seen to shaft Bernie Sanders (a left leaning populist) and how the message of the outgoing Obama administration was "Go High" (read the road of the elite political class) and I guess Trump really isn't that much of a shock.

Nationalism and populism can be dangerous though, on several fronts. First of all, xenophobia and racism, which are inherent in the sentiments that outsiders are a threat, lead to thinking and acting in anger and hatred, which are not ever going to make the world a better place.  Second of all, globalization is a real thing, and quite frankly, it's not going to stop whether we like it or not. I admit it, if you are used to occupying a place of privilege, it is unsettling to feel your place being pulled down towards a level field of play, it does feel like you're losing ground.

The simple reality is though, that we are not ever going to go back to the way it was, thus we need to learn to deal with the way it is. I am somewhat hopeful that the age of Empires is passing away, but it will not go quietly into the long night. Our last President, while not nearly progressive enough in some ways, did actually model a rather important vision for our place in the global era: we must come to see ourselves as citizens of the world, rather than a superpower.  The trouble is we are still armed like a superpower, we still live with the expectations of a superpower (our own and those of others). The danger is that we are the old Alpha male, trying to lead the pack the way Alphas always do, except now our challengers are not just one up and comer.  Russia, ISIS, even China, none of these "enemies," are necessarily trying to take our place at the head of the pack, they are more or less looking to bring us down a peg or maybe even put us out of their misery. They seem to be asserting their claim to their own packs and would rather have us not sticking our nose in their business.

Nobody except us really wants to rule the world, probably because they apprehend the absurdity of trying to dominate global culture.  It's hard enough to keep your own yard in order. Thus nationalism's current face tends towards isolationism and looking out for "America First," a slogan with a troubling history to say the least. Putin's actions in Ukraine and Syria are essentially aimed at securing a Russian sphere of influence in Europe.  China's sensitivity about Taiwan and Hong Kong, even their tolerance of a megalomaniac in North Korea (the enemy they know), are also governed by their desire for some sense of security within their sphere.  The United States is the only nation that currently stretches it's sphere of influence pretty much all over the world, and we probably can't expect to keep it up much longer.

Trump has pulled us out of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement and has spoken against other such pacts (i.e. NAFTA).  This is one of the areas where he might even be right.  It's hard to say whether NAFTA was a success or a failure, in most objective assessments it was neither. The consensus on TPP is that, if it was implemented, it would almost certainly be a disaster for the simple reason that we cannot honestly compete with China on a level field, they drastically outnumber us and are not hindered by anything as inefficient as democracy.

However, when you apply the same nationalist values to things like NATO or the United Nations, the result is nowhere near clear.  These international relationships are not just about the economy stupid. They are about being good citizens of the world and decent neighbors who stick together in troubled times.  Can they be messy? Sure. Are things always balanced and equitable? No, we sometimes have to carry more of the load than seems fair, and maybe that does need to change, but it needs to change with us as a participant in the change, not as bitter quitters.

The world is a big, beautiful, complicated place; it is too complex for us to think we can control it.  We need to learn to be a part of it.