Global World vs Local Thinking
In the two recent centuries the world has rapidly transitioned to global interconnection in aspects economical, logistical, communicational, cultural and others -- we call this globalization. Actions and events taking place in America
almost directly and instantly impact people thousands of kilometers away, in other continents, via the turning wheels of overevoled capitalism and advanced communication technologies. These effect are a lot of times negative. An example of this is the business (often conducted illegally) of waste processing in third world countries, which kills many people in Africa and India, including
children. Culture, politics and opinions are also being exported in real time through the Internet.
Is globalization an issue? Like all things, it's something that can be taken advantage of in a positive manner, with the right attitude and will. However, there is a deeply rooted aspect of human thinking, exploited by politicians, that's making globalization a disaster -- it is the people's tendency to think locally.
Local thinking, the tendency to only care about events in one's immediate proximity, is something evolved in us for a good reason, and that is that the world has simply always worked locally. Until now, that is. It had never made sense to care about someone in another continent as we couldn't reach the people and they couldn't reach us. We couldn't influence each other, endanger each other, enrich each other. We only needed to care about our tribe, our village, our city.
With globalization this principle has changed, dangers and rewards from around the world are close. yet our local thinking stays in place. A decision an idividual, a company or a political group takes will echo throughout the whole world, in all its positive and negative ways. Is this good? It may or may not be, that depends solely on us. If there is anything clearly wrong, it is that we make decisions without realizing this global impact. Globalization is here to stay and can't be taken away, it is our mentality that needs to accustom to
globalization in order for it to be a good thing.
The moral of the story is, I guess, that the typical argument given by politics that goes "our country first" or "it's their country, not our thing", loses its logic. In our age, refusal to care about a country far away is equal to refusing to care about someone in close proximity. Refusing help to people in need in Africa is like refusing help to your starving neighbour -- it can no longer be
excused because distance stops being an obstacle to influence.
#globalization #capitalism #thoughtofday #politics
