A friend of mine wrote this "op-ed" which I thought was a great read and a very thoughtful observation. It's also a quick read for you dinks with short attention spans. Dinks like me.
Brexit, Trump, and the Golden Dawn: The Rise of Nationalism in the Age of Globalization.
by Barbara Karakyriakou
What happens when globalization clashes with nationalism? The Brits vote to be ruled by Brits, and on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, the citizens of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural nation voted for a racist and xenophobic real estate magnate to be the next Republican presidential candidate. Meanwhile, in Greece, the cradle of democracy, a neo-Nazi party, the Golden Dawn, has gained enough popular vote to enter the Hellenic parliament.
Has nationalism become a threat? Scholars and the media argue that the cause of the rise of nationalism is the economic crisis, which resulted in high unemployment rates and austerity policies that “spurred fear,” as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy said. But is this really why Trump and his supporters want to “Make America Great Again,” or the reason that the Brits are saying goodbye to the EU? Does economic despair lead the ultra-nationalist Greek followers of Golden Dawn? Apparently, the financial crisis of 2008 was just a spark that ignited the worst fears of forward-thinking people.
In our contemporary world, people observe the elimination of barriers in communication, trade, and cultural exchange. At any given moment, some individual anywhere around the planet is eating at a McDonald’s and drinking Coca-Cola, while ordering an Uber ride through her iPhone app. This is the definition of globalization, and for some, the definition of evil.
One could argue that globalization cannot be evil, because it spreads, around the globe, products and ideas that are meant to better our lives, providing everyone the opportunity to benefit from them. How can Facebook be bad, as a Daily Mirror article suggested, when it gives me the power to instantly connect with my brother who lives in Qatar, or with my niece who lives in Greece, while I am sitting at my living room in Boston?
Still as a result, I no longer use scented papers to write letters to my loved ones, who would recognize that I am the sender as soon as they see the unique handwriting on the envelope. It is the same nostalgia that ties people, all over the world, to the concepts that they have built their lives upon, and to the past that has been the foundation of their existence. Did we rush to forget about our history and our national heroes in the name of globalization? Did we rush to eliminate our traditions, and to void our need to create communities with our own kind?
Nationalism emerged as a response to globalization. The urge to benefit from the advantages of globalization did not leave us time to address our insecurities that derive from our need to identify ourselves with cultures, traditions, and autonomous nations, as Benedict Anderson suggests in Imagined Communities. When the world became smaller, the competition among us became bigger. Some of us are willing to learn to play with the new rules, but others are concerned for the loss of values that they preserved through many generations. We rushed to believe that nationalism is of less importance than globalization, but when the problems of global politics and economics arose, the revival of nationalism became inevitable.
Comments