Globalization Downsides:
In my youth globalization was not yet fully implemented. Different parts of the world had distinct entities. Now, we live in a world rapidly becoming one work force, one culture, and one set of prevailing values. You can travel elsewhere to see different geographical or building sites, but that is mostly it. The food, the hotels, the means of communication, the culture, the dress etc. is becoming more and more homogenous. It used to be Americans were the ones with all the money. Not so true anymore. It used to be foreign cultures used to be unique, primitive, and peaceful. Not so true in most places anymore. In the past, poor meant the absence of modern 'stuff' but people lived off the land and had strong social bonds. Even in the poor areas of cities the people had little but they felt safe and had strong social bonds. The crime in poor areas was mostly one of theft.
The three forces impacting the most on this globalization and the forces driving the nature of this globalization are irresponsible reproduction (overpopulation), communication devices, and the absence of global minimum wages. None of these three are generating the kind of globalization which will bring freedom, justice and prosperity to all. Humanity is kind of paralyzed by the nature of these forces.
I suppose, in theory, everyone is all for responsible reproduction. In reality, people still cling to it being their own personal right to reproduce as often as they want, with anyone they want, and let the chips fall where they may. Of course it is the offspring of this mindless mentality who pay the price. We understand the consequences of overpopulation in other species and understand the consequences of it to the offspring, but when it comes to our own overpopulation we pretty much shrug and say nothing can be done about it. The amount and degree of human misery accumulating across the globe from irresponsible reproduction is staggering. We are no longer looking at poor primitive societies who live off the land BUT masses of humanity with no food, no homes, no personal safety, no supportive social structures, no clean water---not really anything which can give much meaning or contentment to their lives. The reality is so appalling as to force us to look away, gate ourselves away from such a reality, and pretend we don't see it. Obama's "Yes, We Can" seems irrelevant to reality here.
No labor market can generate prosperity for an entire population without minimum wage laws. The lack of minimum wage laws in a global environment slowly turns every country into a country with a third world labor force. Wherever labor can be reduced to non living wages is where products will be produced. It is no mystery why America is losing it's manufacturing base. It is no mystery why corporations are downsizing, eliminating health care insurance, doing away with or reducing pension, and paying wages so low that people have to work several jobs to survive. And yet no one seems to get it, or if they do, they react as they do to global overpopulation----they pretend the problem will solve itself or is illusionary. Instead, we pretend major issues are one of religious dogmas, 'family values', gay marriage, tax cuts, school prayer, immigration, law and order----everything but the basis of the problem.
When you take the two above problems, combine them with modern communication methods, add increasing numbers of desperate people living lives of futile desperation, you end up with every dissident group empowered to become terrorists. It hardly solves anything to attach vile names to these desperadoes and their comrades---those who thrive on violence---since desperate people can be reasonably understood to get to the point where death is no longer feared, and they are angry and bitter enough to take as many of their perceived enemies with them as they can. It becomes a feeling of "I have no hope, no escape, but those of you born into situations of luxury are going to go down with me." And of course there are those who have legitimate mental disorders who are attracted to terrorism. With modern communication methods, requiring no physical meetings and unlimited access to destructive technologies on the internet, it becomes nearly impossible to arrest them. With massive efforts you may eventually track down symbolic leaders who have masterminded certain terroristic acts, but how many #2's and #1's do you kill before you realize it is of little practical significance. When captured, which is more rare, you can torture them unmercifully but what exactly do you expect to get from them? They really don't know exactly where anyone is, or what the individual terror cells are up to, or when or where the next attack will come. In conventional wars you can kill off enough individual soldiers to defeat a uniformed army supplied with sophisticated weapons. Those days are gone. America has enough weapons, including smart bombs, missiles, satellite cameras, etc to pulverize identifiable troops. But the troops sought are not uniformed, they don't amass together in one spot, there is little central control over them, each cell of terrorists plots their own nasty little deeds---mostly simple little homemade bombs left here and there or delivered personally via their own body. The capture or death of the so-called leaders means little to the individual terroristic cells. Terrorism today is more a way of life, a means of taunting your enemy, a means for desperate hate filled young people to be 'somebody' instead of a 'nothingburger' devoid of hope and bitter over his/her circumstance in life.
In the last analysis overpopulation and lack of global minimum wages is the basis of terrorism and will continue to be the basis of terrorism. Those with nothing to lose now have the basis to take down at least some of those with much to lose, and perhaps eventually to cause enough chaos to collapse empires, to cause them to implode upon themselves as empires in history always have. All the environmental and natural resource problems descending upon us from all sides are essentially the product of human overpopulation. Here is a stunning piece of information I picked up during a visit to the Natural History Museum in Chicago: The normal rate of species extinction during the long period of evolution is one species lost every four years. Today, we have 30,000 different specie becoming extinct every year, that is 82 per day. I guess many would simply shrug and say "So what? Who needs them? Most are just tiny little worthless creatures." Maybe, but I doubt it. The more one examines the brilliance of God's evolutionary process the more one sees the intricate balance needed for stability. Most human concepts of God are extremely self serving, with humans some sort of preferred and special creation, however we came to be. God likes us best of all His evolutionary creations, we are to have dominance over the earth, take what we want, behave as we wish, etc. Maybe the dinosaurs thought that too, or lacking that power of thought, at least acted like it.
There have been 6 mass extinction periods in evolution, all for differing reasons. In the worst, 90% of all land species became extinct. We now have a human generated period of mass extinction. Evolution, no doubt, will continue as it has for billions of years. I would like to see myself as more important in this process, but I accept the unearned good fortune that has come my way in this minute period of evolutionary existence. To predict evolutionary future is just beyond human capability, so after a bit, I do what seems most reasonable---I feel grateful and then take a nap.
