Fighting the Rising Tides of Nationalism — In Defense of Globalism Part 1
By: Dustin Godevais
Tags: Brexit, Globalization, Nationalism, Trump, Covid 19

Since the start of the industrial revolution, our world has only gotten smaller. Travel times from the United States to China have reduced from many months to mere hours, and the internet instantaneously connects disparate cultures across the globe.

Yet the Covid-19 pandemic has halted this seemingly indomitable trend. You can still FaceTime a friend half-way across the globe, but if you live in Seattle, you can’t visit your family in Vancouver less than 150 miles away.

With national borders closed and the WTO reporting international trade down 14%, the world is starting to feel a whole lot bigger again.

One might be tempted to dismiss these circumstances as a temporary blip driven solely by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this pandemic has merely accelerated a trend already in motion: an increasingly prominent nationalistic movement among western democracies and waning domestic support for “globalist” policies. Our politics were already converging on this outcome.

Nationalism, a term which until recently carried negative political connotations, has made a comeback in mainstream western political dialogue reminiscent of the decades preceding World War I. This trend is readily apparent in the US with Trump’s “America First” slogan and protectionist economic policies. But also abroad, consider Brexit in the U.K. and the rise of Marine LePen’s Rassemblement National in France.

In the United States, the term “globalist” has obtained boogeyman status on the political right. Some conservatives believe a globalist cabal is plotting the decline of American prestige, culture, and hegemony.

Though globalist policies over the past 20 years have failed to lift all boats, embracing nationalism will sink us all, leading us down a well-trodden path to ruin. After all, nationalism’s ultimate arbiter of right is might. Conflict will hit nationalism’s most ardent supporters hardest: the aggrieved working class. They will be doing the fighting, not the sons of financiers, not the politicians, nor titans of industry. Recall that the incredible violence of World War I cost millions of lives and billions to national treasuries in order to ping pong a flag back and forth over desolate earth. Are we doomed to repeat history?

No, we can avoid this fate by embracing globalist values and standing up to those whose short-term historical memories would usher in their very ruin.

But who are globalists? What does globalism stand for?

I have developed three values which I believe are central to defending the tenets of globalism:

· Nationality does not define character. · The arc of history is bending towards one global civilization and culture. · The most pressing problems we face today are global in scale and must be addressed as such.

Globalists should proudly expound these three pillars because embracing globalist values will better our lives as well as the next generation’s future prospects.

Nationalizing character…

At its core, globalism relies on the notion that humans are more similar in their motivations, desires, and freedoms than they are dissimilar. Cultural values may vary, but the flag you salute does not determine your character.

Humans are tribal by their very nature so cooperation with someone outside of the tribe requires empathy and understanding. Fear of the “other” has motivated some of humanity’s most horrific acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. A person’s skin pigment could lead to legally sanctioned kidnapping and enslavement.

If a specific national affiliation is considered evil, then all manner of atrocity against it becomes justifiable. Thus, globalists should reject the temptation to paint everyone with such a broad nationalist brush.

The world’s largest global metropolitan centers New York, London, Shanghai, Istanbul, etc. are powerful allies in this fight. They prove that globalism works. By combining people from all walks of life and embracing diversity of thought and experience, they power productivity and innovation. Their denizens peacefully interact (for the most part) and strive to achieve a better life. These daily interactions wear down our ability to explicitly define what “otherness” looks like in the first place.

Globalism requires us to reject our fear of the “other” and cooperate in good faith. After all, we humans share 99.9 percent of our DNA.

A global tribe…

Two powerful forces are moving us towards one global culture and civilization: the Internet and large multinational corporations.

How could a young metropolitan professional in America feel that he has more in common with a young professional growing up in China than a fellow countryman? They work for the same companies, and they consume the same entertainment. They may hold similar ambitions and face many of the same challenges. They are both familiar with the rhythms and rituals of a global metropolitan landscape.

Nationalists lament this outcome. They call it a betrayal and “unAmerican.” However, this view is dangerous and backwards looking. It relies on some pretext that your national affiliation is more important than your humanity.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” — President Trump

Rejecting this haughty attitude does not require Americans to also reject the exceptional institutions and values which guide our lives. The United States should convince the world to adopt democratic practices, free markets, and independence by example not violence.

Otherwise, we risk taking for granted the progress that we have made. History has shown us that economic and technological progress are reversible. Re: The fall of Rome, the burning of the Library of Alexandria.

Technology and globalization have increased our ability to empathize with people halfway across the globe. If we want a more peaceful, secure, and productive world, then we should not seek to reverse this trend.

Facing problems on a global-scale…

The problems we seek to solve today like climate change, averting global nuclear catastrophe, international financial crime and money laundering are global in scale and mostly beyond the address of individual nation states. Only a multilateral effort can effectively solve these problems, the outcomes of which have the capacity to increase the world’s suffering in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, end mankind as we know it.

Globalists are not naive in their high regard for powerful multilateral institutions and diplomacy. The European Union effectively ended all conflicts between nations which had fought each other for over 500 years. Climate change may seem like an insurmountable problem, but the Montreal Protocol signed by 46 nations in 1987 saved our ozone. It succeeded in decreasing or leveling-off chlorofluorocarbons and related chlorinated hydrocarbons:

Past and predicted levels of controlled gases in the Antarctic atmosphere, quoted as equivalent effective stratospheric chlorine (EESC) levels (Paul Krummel/CSIRO)

James Henry, former chief economist at McKinsey & Co. estimates that at least $21 trillion is owned by wealthy individuals hidden in tax havens. This unreported wealth represents hundreds of billions of dollars in potential tax revenue that could go towards global investments in education, infrastructure, and healthcare. These schemes are made possible by international shell companies which originate in countries with lax reporting and tax obligations. Furthermore, these shell corporations have the capacity for unlimited legal machinations, crossing international boundaries faster than investigators can untangle them.

If we each go our narrow way as nations, then we forsake the next generation and the preventable becomes inevitable.

Three uncompromising principles

We must fight the forces of nationalism at home and abroad. Through cooperation, resolve, and adherence to these three principles we can take a cogent stand against the rise of nationalism.

· Nationality does not define character. · The arc of history is bending towards one global civilization and culture. · The most pressing problems we face today are global in scale and must be addressed as such.

Part 2 of this series will take a look at globalization’s failings and why nationalist movements have gained so much support in western democracies.