Barbed Wire by Patrick Brantlinger

Author:Patrick Brantlinger [Brantlinger, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781351347181
Google: A-1HDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-11-22T03:32:23+00:00

“In the cabaret of globalization, the state shows itself as a table dancer that strips off everything until it is left with only the minimum indispensable garments: the repressive force.”

— Subcomandante Marcos

Given the increasing power of transnational corporations (TNCs), to some observers, such as Subcomandante Marcos, the term “globalization” suggests the capitalist enclosure of the entire planet. To others, however, it suggests breaking down barriers through “free trade” and through cultural exchanges that promise ultimately to unify the world in peace and harmony. From the neoliberal perspective, the latter prospect would bring to an end the long history of imperialism, during which more powerful polities have conquered and dominated weaker ones, often enslaving their populations, exterminating them, or both. According to neoliberalism, corporations are progressive engines of globalization-as-democracy rather than engines of enclosure and empire: “Corporations are seen as virtuous as well as dynamic agents of progressive change,” writes Ronaldo Munck; “Globalization will, according to this view, lead to a decline of inequality and poverty worldwide as the market works its magic” (2). Munck points out, however, that exactly the opposite has happened: worldwide poverty and inequality have increased dramatically since the 1970s.1

Discourse about globalization can make it sound benign—the world is becoming a “global village,” as Marshall McLuhan announced in the 1960s. But he also claimed that that village was “retribalizing,” which hardly sounds benign. The processes of globalization bring people and cultures closer together (think of the ease and speed with which anyone today who can afford a ticket can fly around the world). But the same processes also weaken the power and sovereignty of nation-states, causing the rise of often virulent forms of nationalism, expressing a longing for the stability and secure identity nations are still deemed to provide.2 Instead of declining, hostilities, wars, and even genocides continue, and may even be increasing. The “war on terror,” which was ramping up well before 9/11, has been declared, by former Vice President Dick Cheney among others, to be potentially endless. Meanwhile, American imperialism marches on.

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