Noam Chomsky: Globalization Marches On (Growing popular outrage has not challenged corporate power)

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Globalization Marches On
Growing popular outrage has not challenged corporate power.

By Noam Chomsky


Shifts in global power, ongoing or potential, are a lively topic among policy makers and observers. One question is whether (or when) China will displace the United States as the dominant global player, perhaps along with India.

Such a shift would return the global system to something like it was before the European conquests. Economic growth in China and India has been rapid, and because they rejected the West’s policies of financial deregulation, they survived the recession better than most. Nonetheless, questions arise.

One standard measure of social health is the U.N. Human Development Index. As of 2008, India ranks 134th, slightly above Cambodia and below Laos and Tajikistan, about where it has been for many years. China ranks 92nd—tied with Belize, a bit above Jordan, below the Dominican Republic and Iran.

India and China also have very high inequality, so more than a billion of their inhabitants fall far lower on the scale.

Another concern is the U.S. debt. Some fear it places the U.S. in thrall to China. But apart from a brief interlude ending in December, Japan has long been the biggest international holder of U.S. government debt. Creditor leverage, furthermore, is overrated. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5697/globalization_marches_on/

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. I think that we need a new global financial system

the global market seems to be very susceptible to even minor problems in the electonic age.

A world govenrmnet consensus could stabilize. Leave the finacial policy to the governments of the world.

Take the power out of the global dominating corporations.

[varelse]

2. "The big picture" looks pretty grim (nt)

[amborin]

3. K&R

[truedelphi]

4. Another ominous sign - Clinton (Bill that is)

Was on C Span at a Global Health Initiative Summit. So it is all so groovy - bringing health to the poor. With a Global Food Distribution system as well.

Let's globalize everything. Make sure that CODEX is operative in all the nations. make sure that no fifty something women are eating organic dandelion greens till they are proven to be safe (Which will coincide with the moment that the inner goodness of dandelions is patented.

Globalize. Globalize. Globalize.

[Robeson]

5. Why would the patricians feel threatened by the plebians?...

...we're just working insects to them.

[nilram]

8. ouch -- the truth hurts.

stop it, you're bugging me.

[OhioChick]

6. K&R n/t

[Blue_Tires]

7. kick for truth

[Newest Reality]

9. Fancy continuing to be nothing more than livestock?

This is our challenge and a clear concern for the impending tyranny of our future. Even if we don't care about us, is this what we want for generations to come? Do our children and their children inherit a dark, gray world of something worse than Serfdom? Does our dystopian sci-fi have to become, in horrifying hindsight, prophecy? Without a rapid shift in our mindset and lifestyles and a firm, decisive reaction, we will earn a great loss of a magnitude most likely unparalleled in history.

What is most troubling is that, should the trends we see continue without a complete collapse of the system, (by its own weight) the results may forge a global scenario that may be difficult or even impossible to escape, change, or resist without some stroke of luck or some form of unexpected mutation.

I am not just basing that perspective on Noam's report. I know that the system(s) of the world are complex and dynamic, but the picture of Dorian Gray is there, in our collective attic, and it is a clear visage of what is brewing, for all those who care to look.

From the end of the article:
"The future depends on how much the great majority is willing to endure, and whether that great majority will collectively offer a constructive response to confront the problems at the core of the state capitalist system of domination and control.

If not, the results might be grim, as history more than amply reveals."

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. kick and recommend

[xchrom]

11. Recommend