Globalization and Values
- Submitted by: cutestud007
- Views: 664
- Category: English
- Date Submitted: 02/23/2011 12:10 PM
- Pages: 6
- Report this Essay
What Values Will Guide Our Future in an Era of Globalization?
by Craig Runde
Finding a common human unity is a long road…
While globalization is seen as one of the most serious threats to human freedom, to economic democracy, ecological health and much more, it may not be all bad. It may, in fact, depend on who’s doing it, and why.
In his book, Predatory Globalization, Princeton Professor Richard Falk, writes, “The phenomenon of globalization represents mainly material developments that reflect the expansion of technological capabilities to a global scale, as well as the de-territorialization of these capabilities due to informatics and the Internet.”
Major problems arise because this process is largely guided by neo-liberal ideology which stresses, “privatization, minimizing economic regulation, rolling back welfare, (and) reducing expenditures on public goods…” Falk sees the net effects of this kind of “globalization from above” as social and economic injustice, environmental degradation, and heightened materialism leading to cultural and spiritual decay.
Others have also noted these problems. In The Post Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, David Korten highlights the increasing problems of the dominant form of globalization where the principle of ‘profit’ is more important than that of ‘life’. Pope John Paul II, meeting with President George W. Bush, also noted our predicament: “The Church cannot but express profound concern that our world continues to be divided, no longer by the former political and military blocks, but by a tragic fault line between those who can benefit from these opportunities and those who seem cut off from them.”
Although the economics of globalization appear dominant at the moment, they are not uncontested. The sustained protests against the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and other ‘globalizing’ institutions, demonstrate a broad-based, international backlash, part of what Falk refers to as...
by Craig Runde
Finding a common human unity is a long road…
While globalization is seen as one of the most serious threats to human freedom, to economic democracy, ecological health and much more, it may not be all bad. It may, in fact, depend on who’s doing it, and why.
In his book, Predatory Globalization, Princeton Professor Richard Falk, writes, “The phenomenon of globalization represents mainly material developments that reflect the expansion of technological capabilities to a global scale, as well as the de-territorialization of these capabilities due to informatics and the Internet.”
Major problems arise because this process is largely guided by neo-liberal ideology which stresses, “privatization, minimizing economic regulation, rolling back welfare, (and) reducing expenditures on public goods…” Falk sees the net effects of this kind of “globalization from above” as social and economic injustice, environmental degradation, and heightened materialism leading to cultural and spiritual decay.
Others have also noted these problems. In The Post Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, David Korten highlights the increasing problems of the dominant form of globalization where the principle of ‘profit’ is more important than that of ‘life’. Pope John Paul II, meeting with President George W. Bush, also noted our predicament: “The Church cannot but express profound concern that our world continues to be divided, no longer by the former political and military blocks, but by a tragic fault line between those who can benefit from these opportunities and those who seem cut off from them.”
Although the economics of globalization appear dominant at the moment, they are not uncontested. The sustained protests against the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and other ‘globalizing’ institutions, demonstrate a broad-based, international backlash, part of what Falk refers to as...