Globalists: how do we respond to resurgent nationalism?
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2017 3:28 pmSo I am happy to be called a globalist. I think nationstates are historical accidents and that we could do better. Think the big catastrophes of the 20th century were the consequence of nationalism at least as much as of particular ideologies. Prefer multilateral over national or bilateral institutions. Don't think that you've got a right to pick where your neighbour was born. All of that.
But it would be intellectually dishonest to not recognise that globalism has suffered some setbacks over the past couple of years. I am hesitant to overemphasise this: Trump won because of the quirks of the electoral college system and a couple of football stadiums worth of voters in exactly the right places. Brexit won by a small margin, driven by people who won't be around in twenty years. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that my own views are extreme relative to the views of the majority of society.
So when someone pointed me to this article, I read with interest: http://www.the-american-interest.com/20 ... globalism/
The article claims that a) lots of people attach a lot of value to familiarity, to being surrounded by people who look the same, speak the same language, follow the same customs, etc (even if most of the time, they struggle to actually define their "culture"); b) lots of people, when they see the social structures they are familiar with under threat (whether real or perceived), react by becoming more authoritarian, even when normally they aren't particularly authoritarian and don't have a particular hatred for people who aren't like them; and c) Trump, Wilders, Le Pen etc are a symptom of this, resulting from an excessive pace of the sort of globalisation that triggers these people (i.e. it's more about immigration than about free trade).
So, the article argues, globalisation may have to be slowed down intentionally to make sure people with nationalist preferences don't get triggered. It suggests that this is not a matter of preferences: globalisation will be slowed down either way... the choice is about how this happens.
The thing I find challenging about this, is that I have a very fundamental distaste for barriers to cross-border anything, including cross-border migration. Like I said above, I don't believe in a right to pick the place of birth of your neighbour. If you tell me that I'm not allowed to be part of society because I was born in a different place, I think of that as unjust.
So, to those of you who with globalist tendencies... what lessons, if any, do you draw from the events of the last few years?
But it would be intellectually dishonest to not recognise that globalism has suffered some setbacks over the past couple of years. I am hesitant to overemphasise this: Trump won because of the quirks of the electoral college system and a couple of football stadiums worth of voters in exactly the right places. Brexit won by a small margin, driven by people who won't be around in twenty years. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that my own views are extreme relative to the views of the majority of society.
So when someone pointed me to this article, I read with interest: http://www.the-american-interest.com/20 ... globalism/
The article claims that a) lots of people attach a lot of value to familiarity, to being surrounded by people who look the same, speak the same language, follow the same customs, etc (even if most of the time, they struggle to actually define their "culture"); b) lots of people, when they see the social structures they are familiar with under threat (whether real or perceived), react by becoming more authoritarian, even when normally they aren't particularly authoritarian and don't have a particular hatred for people who aren't like them; and c) Trump, Wilders, Le Pen etc are a symptom of this, resulting from an excessive pace of the sort of globalisation that triggers these people (i.e. it's more about immigration than about free trade).
So, the article argues, globalisation may have to be slowed down intentionally to make sure people with nationalist preferences don't get triggered. It suggests that this is not a matter of preferences: globalisation will be slowed down either way... the choice is about how this happens.
The thing I find challenging about this, is that I have a very fundamental distaste for barriers to cross-border anything, including cross-border migration. Like I said above, I don't believe in a right to pick the place of birth of your neighbour. If you tell me that I'm not allowed to be part of society because I was born in a different place, I think of that as unjust.
So, to those of you who with globalist tendencies... what lessons, if any, do you draw from the events of the last few years?