7/25/97, Rene Barendse wrote:
>Hope these long historical exposees don't put off those readers out there
>who are more interested in contemporary politics - so I better not enter
>into the `Axial Age' here which is a long, long time ago indeed - I am
>intending to come to Sydney next year, Richard, hoping to discuss it with
>you then !
Could this be a reference to me? (I talk about contemporary things, but am
not from Sydney, in any case...) If so, let me just clarify my position.
We are all living in the very midst, the climax nearly, of the most
ambitious, radical, and successful (unfortunately) world-system of all time
- past and possibly future.
Globalization embodies the consciously integrated knowledge of past
economic experience, and of political and imperialist activity. It is
state-of-the-art world-system technology in action. If you ignore the
rhetoric, and the tactical political posturing, and look at the results -
and that part of the available literature which is strategically relevant -
you can observe the development of a very savvy regime. A global system
which is designed to manage rebellion at various levels of intensity, which
keeps peoples divided even as global integration proceeds, and which has
learned to maintain control (at the 90% level) via scientific
tailored-for-segment propaganda rather than force.
My friend Ray is a geology professor at San Francisco State University.
One day he was teaching about earthquakes when - would you believe it - the
building started shaking. He had the good wits to immediately rush the
class to a vantage point from which the quake could be most usefully
observed. In all, the fortuitous event enriched the course, and not just
on the day.
Globalization is a world-system earthquake, shaking us as we speak, and I'm
simply mystified why it isn't more of a common topic on wsn. Its own
architecture and dynamics are fascinating, and it would seem also to
provide a canonical reference scenario against which to contrast historical
precedents.
We've talked a lot about the rise of Europe, for example, but I don't
recall even a single comment or question about whether that rise might in
fact trace a direct parentage to today's globalization process.
I'm fascinated by long ago, but my quaking environment keeps bringing my
attention back to the present.
rkm