A friend and I just had a conversation over coffee and muffins. It was a conversation about a lot of things, very Macalester-ish of course, which made me realize the opportunity cost of being here. But our conversation ended almost too soon, but possibly rightly so because it has left me with a new idea that I haven't really thought of too much before.
The future of the West seems to lie in some sort of right-wing ideology that is growing only more extreme. In fact, maybe, the entire world is heading down that trajectory. At the risk of subjecting myself to a harsh leftist discourse, I'm wondering if it would be too naive to term this trend an inevitable result of capitalism. Anyhow, this trend in the West is becoming characterized by racist slurs, anti-immigration movements and laws, Islamophobia and a general fear of the other.
Human fear has always existed, particularly racist, otherizing claims yet in our 21st century world, we like to believe we have overcome these divisive ideologies. And maybe this is exactly the problem - the fact that we believe in having achieved a sort of 'enlightenment' in this realm only because the world is too globalized to be otherwise. What fails to be possibly noticed is the ways in which we view globalization.
Academic discussions suggest that globalization is not only a transformation of the world economic system to make it more connected but also a force that enables more rapid exchanges of ideas and value systems in order to form a tolerant universal one. But the increase in the fear of the other in the West, particularly, makes me rethink the claim of tolerance and universality. For the state of these trends right now makes it seem like globalization is primarily a new economic system with ideological change only a by-product, almost like an afterthought of the analysis that academics and liberals decide to throw into the mix. Because if ideological change really was as important as the economic one, would we necessarily be facing this increase in fear of the other? Would we have to struggle so much to resist the conservative nature of these value systems?
So maybe, I'm thinking, the world has globalized so rapidly and deliberately in favour of economic progress that people and cultures and traditions have had no time to catch up. For it is extremely challenging and presumptuous to believe that merely the existence of a new economy can provide a liberalization of thought and belief systems. Just because globalization has allowed Indians to study in the US and earn in dollars, and the Hispanics to seek security in the US, and the Turks to find job opportunities in Europe - that is really a bid to increase efficiency with the by-product of providing refuge to immigrants - does not mean that this tangibility of the new economy has really created a shift in the way that we see these communities with respect to our national identities. Our communal immaturity to resist what we do not see as part of a shared understanding can't be erased solely by tangible shifts in jobs, lifestyles and capabilities.
This trend in events then suggests how wrong the pure capitalists are in believing that markets will always create a better ideology for the world to follow. To undermine the prominence of existential questions in society is to strip away the humanity of just living. If this isn't addressed, there almost seems to be no point in contributing to this global economic system that seems to further the cause of the fearful and insecure. So maybe what we need then is not a movement against politics, not a movement against the economy, not a movement against globalization but rather a positive movement for the resurrection of the human spirit, one that allows us to embrace the ideals that govern our coexistence.
Resistance is beautiful, but maybe it's time for something with more constructive elements rather than those that have motivations of opposing or destroying or dividing.
Maybe it's time to create, to spread, to accept. Maybe, then, the responsibility of this generation is to posit construction as its objective of social transformation rather than destruction or overthrow, for that may just follow naturally.
Hopefully the attempt towards having these positive motivations could result in more good than has ever been achieved before.
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