If globalisation is failing, it could be due to a simple human characteristic - people don’t like being told what to do.
Writer Caitlin Johnstone describes the pattern in her Substack column. She writes:
“The more control you exert over your citizenry, the more likely they are to put someone else in charge at the earliest opportunity. The more control you exert over your employees, the more likely they are to want to go work someplace else. The more control you exert over your friends and coworkers, the more likely they are to turn against you. The more control you exert over your family, the more likely they are to avoid you. The more control you exert over your lover, the more likely they are to stop loving you. The more control you exert over life, the more likely you are to suffer.”
At the centre of the globalisation agenda is control of the individual for the good of the global population. Its motives are idealistic, as well as opportunistic - good for some, bad for others. Overall, global solutions tend to cut the individual out of the equation.
While a global free market has benefited large corporations, its impact remains mixed for workers, cultures, and small businesses around the world, according to Jason Fernando, writing for Investopedia.
An article in National Geographic says the downside of globalisation can be seen in the increased risk for the transmission of diseases, or in the kind of environmental harm seen as a result of palm oil plantations in the tropics.
On the upside, richer nations now can—and do—come to the aid of poorer nations in crisis. Increasing diversity in many countries has meant more opportunity to learn about and celebrate other cultures.
By and large, it’s feared that a globalist takeover will affect finance, housing, healthcare, energy, transportation, food - all forcing compliance and telling us what to do.
The gist of opposing philosophies emerged at these recent international events
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 held in Switzerland
The World Council for Health’s inaugural Better Way Conference held in England
The one thing that was common to both very different gatherings was acknowledgement that power lies in the individual.
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 brought together more than 2,000 leaders and experts from around the world, all committed to a “Davos Spirit” of improving the state of the world.
“The political, economic and social circumstances of our meeting are unprecedented,” said World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab in his opening remarks.
Here's what happened. Six agenda-setting themes emerged during the week, which aimed at a new era of ‘global cooperation’.
But the World Economic Forum admits it needs populations on board to implement its policies, the key being a digital future.
“It will be a digital world”, promised founder Klaus Schwarb at Davos..
Addressing this dream of a digital future, United Nations Development Programme administrator Achim Steiner said, “I think we need to continuously focus on giving individuals the sense that they matter, but they can also matter to what happens next. And I think that, to me, remains a sort of departure point in anything we do and wherever it takes you, that is your life's choice. But believe in the power of one, believe in the power of the community, the society, the human family to change what happens next.”
Columbia University professor Joseph E Stiglitz says it was clear, at this year's gathering of business and political elites in Davos, that the longstanding vision of a world without borders is no longer credible.
“Now that globalisation has peaked, we can only hope that we do better at managing its decline than we did at managing its rise”, he writes.
“After four decades of championing globalisation, it is clear that the Davos crowd mismanaged things. It promised prosperity for developed and developing countries alike. But while corporate giants in the Global North grew rich, processes that could have made everyone better off instead made enemies everywhere. ‘Trickle-down economics,’ the claim that enriching the wealthy would automatically benefit all, was a swindle – an idea that had neither theory nor evidence behind it.”
Better Way Conference
The more modest Better Way Conference, held in Bath, England, brought together some 65 leaders in the international health field, for three days of learning, exploring, creating, and collaborating in a ‘solutions-focused’ event.
The conference mapped out a vison of integrative healthcare and wellbeing, rooted in sovereignty, informed consent, and personal empowerment. Resources
“We believe in a healthy world, where everyone enjoys information transparency, access to proven medicines, and real action in the face of disease – while respecting each individual’s personal health decisions, without fear of discrimination or persecution. We believe in a world where we keep our water and air clean, food uncontaminated, and families together.”
And the conference called for governments to respond with peaceful engagement.
“It is their responsibility and duty to their citizens to listen and collaborate when issues inspiring protest arise. Aggressively quashing protest movements does not encourage constructive dialogue or positive progress, and may result in an escalation of the protesting itself.”
In the end, bridging the big divide that characterises this ideological war, it is a given that the individual matters and holds power.
“Civilizations come and go, rise and fall; the individual remains.” - US investigative reporter Jon Rappoport
“Believe in the power of one in order to change what happens next.” - UN programme administrator Achim Steiner
As an aside:
Look up the opposite of globalism:
isolationism protectionism seclusion isolation solitude privacy segregation sequestration solitariness aloneness insulation retirement secludedness separation separateness quarantine withdrawal privateness concealment detachment retreat secrecy reclusiveness shelter reclusion peace remoteness hiding peacefulness quietness aloofness purdah quiet independence standoffishness desolation pride peace and quiet an ivory tower freedom from interference lack of interruption lack of disturbance
https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-opposite-of/globalism.html
Then look up the opposite of democracy:
dependence heteronomy subjection unfreedom colonialism hegemony extreme impotence inability incompetence limitation restraint weakness subjugation subordination subservience serfdom enslavement bondage indenture servitude oppression thrall chains enthrallment peonage yoke bonds thralldom servileness slavery suppression vassalage servility conquest serfhood repression submission thraldom
https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-opposite-of/democracy.html
Sources:
Caitlin Johnstone
Investopedia
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/globalization.asp
National Geographic
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/globalization
Stop the sellout
https://alignact.com/go/stop-the-sellout-of-us-sovereignty-to-the-who
WEF 2022
New era
Davos
Deglobilisation
World Council for Health
Resources
https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/resources/page/3/
Digital future
After Davos
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/what-is-needed-after-davos-2022-leaders-change/
World Council for Health vision
https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/about/
Peaceful engagement
https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/news/2022/03/excessive-force/44543/
Individual vs globalism
https://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/individual-vs-globalism-2/218370