Prying Apart the Jaws of That Crocodile Phrase: Globalization

Definitions are limiting, and for good reason. After all, when a word comes to mean everything, the truth is that it actually means nothing.

Globalization is the latest victim. Everywhere you turn, it's globalization. Trade policy? Globalization puts Americans out of work. Ecological disaster? Globalization.

This happens for two reasons. First, it's easy. Do you have an idea, are you trying to explain something going on in the world around you? You can either blame it on the terrorists, or sound more civilized and appeal to the catch-all: globalization.

The second reason is that nobody really has any clue as to what's going on. And caught in a torrential downpour of uncertainty—sad wars without end like Darfur and the Congo, two billion people around the world living on less than two bucks a day—otherwise intelligent minds reach for the nearest, biggest, umbrella they can grab: globalization.

Here, then, is a proclamation that we either start spending the time to pry apart the jaws of that crocodile phrase and begin to explain exactly what is going on, or, even better, we come up with original ways to look at the world. Some will be insightful, some will be wrong. But propagating an ambiguous, cloudy term that means so little (another, is the oft-remarked 'international community,' because what in the world is that, other than a cheap generalization?) spits out vapid thoughts, empty ideas, if any at all, and if there's anything the world desperately lacks is just an inkling of which way is up.

Because globalization is really just a synonym for the Internet.

[Photo of protester in downtown Mexico City, 2007, taken by Ana Bast.]

Comments

[sinbad]

It might suprise you Andy, to know that there are "no alligator jaws being clamped shut" preventing you from explaining what is going on with the world. You even have comfort in your own web site. Have at it !!!!

[chefboy-r-d]

This site is like the DNC. Lots of talk about big things to come, things to do, people to see, meeting to attend and bold action planned, but stuck in neutral. In fact, that is how obamma got this far. Liberals can relate real good to abstract. Like art, it can mean what you want it to mean. Like seeing castles in clouds. Abstract is so cool man.

[chefboy-r-d]

The NYI promised new and different ways to look at the world. And he delivered.

Vola! Satellite pictures!!

[mekham]

Oddly, when globalist explainers explain what it is that they do, they tend to mention areas that have long been part of the traditional definition of Globalization- science, politics, tariffs, technology, sexual studies, environment, slavery, economics, foreign languages, geography, anthropology, religious studies, sports, and world history. ...to name a few.

Writing under the headline "The Disciplined Undiscipline of Globalization " it clear that global studies is not a discipline but a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary area of study, that is, the world in its diversity and complexity... a MINDSET.

Andy seeks to understand Globalization through multiple perspectives, and at times through a holistic, integrated, interdisciplinary lens."

In short, "It is what it is"

[turner]

Hey, who wants to talk globalization when we can Dream about the fact that the first black or the first woman is gonna be President.

I have been waiting for this moment ever since I was caught up in the emotion of listening to my father talk about JFK. The first Catholic, man. What a rush. And now the first black or first woman. Who needs globalization when it is RIGHT HERE.

If only the first had some PuertoRican in them. That would be the best. Man, even a Rican with a touch of a limp. Could there be better?

Well, all the above with a dash of film star would be good, wouldn't it?

Oh, make that a porn film star. Yea.

[joe]

In the general enrichment of the United States over the last quarter-century of Globalization, it is hard to ascertain one’s politics by one’s financial circumstances.

Being a Democratic leader running for Commander in Chief does not suggest any greater intimacy with poverty than a Republican’s, or any greater reluctance to indulge in the rarified good life. If anything, the Democratic party (the Obama nexus) is increasingly an alliance of those who want federal entitlements, combined with the elite who are willing to hand them out—precisely because their own financial circumstances mean that tax increases hardly affect their standard of living.

Indeed, whereas indulgences in gambling, sex, or drugs may have embarrassed conservative Republicans, the hypocrisy for Democrats lies in the combination of high living and condemnation of the present economic system. Al Gore leaves a bigger carbon foot-print than most of those he condemns. Rev. Wright disdains the middle class—perhaps because he lives as if he were in the upper-class. (is it an escalator or an elevator??)

The Clintons talk ad nauseam about “fairness,” but weren’t about to stop at $50 million when $100 million could buy so much more. And the addition of her naming a "Poverty Czar"??

[joe]

What were the odds that a top Obama adviser, and then the top Clinton adviser, would find themselves in trouble with their respective campaigns over the issue of globalization.
Globalization, if you haven't figured it out, is the cover word for Trade.

As it reveals, democrat leadership have no gripes about the G word. But their focus group leader knows the far left comes unglued about it. All the consternation about globalization is just breadcrumbs for the lemmings.

All agreaved, Vote for me and I will lead you to the promised land.

Right.

[freddy]

Joe, are you saying that obamma and hillary are just jerking our chain?

[joe]

I'm afraid so Freddy.

[freddy]

...........those bastards

[turner]

Oh no!!!

But are they really a black man and a woman?

[joe]

For sure!!!

As real as one could expect. But the realness ends there.

There is a tape recorder in each candidate that pumps out the results of the poll taken yesterday. Great software actually, it inputs data from all the talking heads and converts it into policy. Shelf life for that policy is only til the next poll.

Incidently, poll is short for politician, and now you know why.

[freddy]

...to think that they are just making stuff up. Politicians are not like that are they? I know Ralph Nader is a straight talker. Maybe I will vote for him.