The Collapse of Globalism

John Ralston Saul, author of “Voltaire’s Bastards”, thinks there is a wrong-headed assumption out there, amongst those who are running the world, that economics is the foundation of Civilization. He believes this assumption has damaged and perverted the world.

He expresses this view in his book “The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinventing of the World”. Notice that he uses the term ‘globalism’, not ‘globalization’. There is a difference. Globalization, and he acknowledges this, is something that has been occurring since the beginning of Civilization. That event is about the world growing smaller and more interdependent as a result of people and nations engaging each other in common pursuits, such as trade, travel and communications. It’s also due to the expansion of Civilization. Columbus’ discovery of the New World was an act of globalization. Globalism, though, is something else. Saul uses the -ism suffix to distinguish and portray this event as an ideology, like a religion. Globalization is a natural, evolutionary process. But globalism, as he sees it, is the manipulation of this process by zealots and ideological wonks who think they know best how to run and organize the world. This ideology is based on the idea that, you guessed it, economics is the foundation of Civilization. Advocates of this ideology have peddled it as a cure-all for what ails the world. They believe that the market forces of globalism are the answer to everything, as though it was the holy grail of human governance. However, Saul feels very strongly that the imposition of this ideology on the world has gravely injured it and is not the panacea it has been made out to be. He sees it as a failure and its collapse as a sign that the world might be coming to its senses in rejecting it.

I understand Saul’s peeve. If you have read any of his books and articles you may also understand where he is coming from. I wouldn’t quite call him a conspiratorial thinker but I get the impression that he thinks that we have been misguided by a number of influential philosophers and tacticians about what direction the world should take, as we have been misled about globalism. This thinking of his became apparent to me when I read his book Voltaire’s Bastards. From Voltaire’s play “Candide” comes the notion that we live in the best of all possible worlds and all is for the best, a belief expressed by Dr. Pangloss, Candide's teacher. This is how I see it: Saul believes this notion prevails and he faults it for making the world vulnerable to all kinds of misadventures in human governance, like globalism. He thinks this attitude has left the world with few guide lines about how it should proceed and conduct itself because it projects a laisser faire, anything goes attitude. He thinks that this worldview has given carte blanche to all kind of hair-brain ideas about how the world should be run. He thinks Pangloss’ worldview supplanted the more sensible Enlightenment worldview which believes that the world can be a better place. It beat out the Enlightenment because Pangloss’ worldview is more alluring, simpler to understand and easier to consume, like fast food is. Enlightenment ideals are sophisticated ones, requiring reflection and hard work to implement them. Had the Enlightenment philosophy been followed instead, the world would be a better place. However, Pangloss’ philosophy prevails and Saul believes this has left the door open to charlatans and snake oil sales men to ply their less than credible grand theories about how the world should be run. This is how the world got saddled with globalism. Saul thinks that things would have been much better if we had followed the Enlightenment vision of how things could be instead of Dr. Pangloss’ vision of how things are.

Saul see globalism as something like a business plan, hatched in some back room solely to profit from the world. Behind globalism is privatization and free market economics. He thinks the world has been dubbed into thinking it is the best thing for what ails it. It’s all about market reform and he sees this being done at the expense of democracy. In his book, “The Doubters Companion”, Saul lists a number of ideas and concepts that have been infused in us without our being aware. And people have accepted them as given, without challenging them. One concept is “corporatism”, an autocratic, fascist institution that he says has replaced democratically elected governments as the principle form of governance. He defines it as an institution that “has been for some time the only real threat to democracy”. Well, he sees globalism in the same light. They are synonymous. Globalism is corporatism on a worldwide scale.

In Voltaire’s Bastards there is a chapter entitled “The Hijacking of Capitalism”. I found this chapter ironic because it seems that Saul is playing both sides of the street. I would have expected him to be against capitalism, especially with his anti-globalism stance. But he isn’t, according to this chapter. However, he is incensed with modern day capitalists because they contradict themselves. It is quite apparent that Saul believes in the original meaning of things. And he believes in the original meaning of capitalism which espouses laisser faire, free market economics. In this chapter he takes capitalists to task for betraying this concept because today’s capitalists believe governments should intervene and bail them out when things go bad for them and capitalism. Modern day capitalists seem to want things both ways, Saul says. What a bunch of hypocrites! The irony is that Saul supports capitalism in it original form but he doesn’t support globalism which is a manifestation of capitalism’s original intentions. However, it is quite possible he dislike globalism because he thinks it is a bastardization and a distortion of capitalism?

As for Saul’s belief that economics is not the foundation of Civilization, I think he is very wrong. Why, without this discipline being dealt with first nothing much else is possible. It is husbandry of humankind, and Civilization. It is the only disciple that furnishes us with the essentials to survive and continue. It is the only endeavour that puts food on the table, cloths on our backs and a roof over our heads. The institutions of corporatism and globalism which Saul despises have evolved to insure that the economic foundation of Civilization is maintained and that the economic imperatives of the modern world are met. These institutions may have despicable features about them, and I for one know, but as Dr. Pangloss' wisdom suggests, they are the best possible institutions for humankind's most essential task, considering the idiosyncratic characteristics and circumstances of humankind. And if the world is reinventing itself, as Saul suggests in the title of his book, it is reinventing itself in its own image. That means more globalism. Perhaps, though, this time it will have a friendlier face and a more enlightened disposition. Globalism is here to stay. It is the byproduct of the inevitability of globalization. It is the facilitative economic arm of globalization.

Intellectuals generally have a disdain for economics. For them it seems to be an imposition perpetrated by an elite bunch who think they understand the true nature of the world. They feel it gets in the way of the finer things of life. However, little do they realize that it is what affords the finer things of life, and life itself. Some intellectuals seem to think economics is irrelevant. Fortunately they are not running the world. However, intellectuals are essential people too because they reminding us that there is more to life besides economics. As the saying goes, man does not live by bread alone.