I started writing this as a comment on Megan’s blog post about technology and globalization, but then got a little carried away, and decided to make my own post out of it.

Globalization is definitely dependent on technology, but technology has been growing for all of time. Sometimes I think we overlook the fact that block printing, paper making, telegraphs, etc were all forms of technology that helped enable globalization. In a comment to one of my blogs, Seth brought up an interesting point that we like to look back on the good aspects of the past, and forget the bad. Is it possible that when we look back at globalization in the past we overlook that it was having similar effects. Globalization comes with modernity, so there has always been fear of losing jobs, culture, etc. Obviously today it is on a much more massive scale, but even the environmental movement can be seen in the same light. I know that it seems like in today’s world, because of economic dependencies, the environmental movement is having increased publicity. More people seem to care about global warming, recycling, and finding alternate sources of energy. When I brought that up in class, Professor G pointed out that cleaning up the environment was a major movement in the 70s too. Instead of examining the same issue in the past, we tend to look at where it is today and magnify it. 

As Friedman pointed out in his book, globalization has been happening since people began migrating around the globe. The spread of ideas is inevitable, it just seems like today it is on steroids, mainly because of technology. So, though they aren’t interchangeable, it is hard, almost impossible, to imagine globalization without technology because they are so interrelated.

We’ve recently been discussing the impacts of globalization on culture. 

I think a lot of people’s fear is perceived. With all progress we lose something. Whether it be an old tradition, or the importance of certain values to a society. Many times we feel nostalgic about these losses. 

Take a look at the 50s. Often “the good old days” are referenced when speaking of today’s problems. We look back at the 50s, and remember the best parts, like family values. Those that are emphasized by TV shows and other stereotypes. We think of housewives cooking and cleaning, and being concerned and involved in their whole family’s lives. Today the number of stay at home mom’s is much lower than before, and so mother’s have a lot less time to devote to those type of things. 

Not to say that mother’s today don’t care, but when they work full time, it’s a lot harder to bake cupcakes from scratch for their children’s birthday. We see that as a negative, but isn’t it a positive that women are now able to work and support themselves? 

Society makes great strides that are usually for the greater benefit, but we mourn the loss of smaller things. It’s impossible to say that modernization is entirely good or entirely bad, but it is an inevitable process. 

A lot of times, change is gradual, and things are drastically different before we even realize. Globalization seems to be speeding up the change, and making it harder for people to deal with it, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

This election was an historic one. More people voted than in any other election. All Americans recognized the significance of electing Barack Obama into the white house. What I think many people failed to realize was that other countries were just as interested in this election as we were. 

We discussed this point in my sociology class the other day, and it made me wonder if the increased foreign interest has anything to do with globalization. Of course other countries usually discuss who the next American President will be, but I would assume that it makes as much of an impact upon the citizens as it does when we are told who the next Prime Minister of England is…I mean it’s good to know since we are pretty closely tied with them, but I don’t really care.

This election, however, peaked the interest of many average citizens worldwide. I think that globalization has allowed others easier access to our election news. Given that this election was arguably the biggest news topic of the last few months, I’m sure it was hard for anyone scanning any news source worldwide to not see at least something about the campaigns. In addition, people worldwide now have a bigger interest in what happens in America, because American companies that will be affected by the outcome of election are their employers. I wonder how many middle class Indians were pulling for McCain, because Obama plans to end tax cuts to those companies who send work overseas.

So, because I’m feeling a little behind on blogging, I spent some time watching youtube videos about globalization. Surprisingly, there are several out there.

After watching a few of these videos, I’ve been given a lot more to process. One thing is that globalization is about more than economies and opportunities becoming equal, it’s also about power. As other countries are becoming economically stable and their standards of living improve, their presence on the world stage also increases. I think this is one fact that Americans have realized, and is probably most worried about, although it is never implicitly stated. Of course we’re used to being one of the wealthiest nations, and we are enjoying the benefits of globalization, like better jobs and higher wages. But what of our status as a world superpower. We’re sort of it right now, but I think it’s a major source of fear as to what will happen when we are equalled by several other countries. Not only is it a blow to our ego, but what are going to be the political ramifications? Right now, we have more play over other countries, but what is going to happen when we are just as dependent on other countries as they are on us right now. I’m not sure that will ever happen, but it would seem that our power will be limited by the improvement of other countries.

Another point that was raised by these videos was that though wages have increased, and the percentage of the world living in poverty has decreased, the actual number of people living in poverty has stayed virtually the same. Because our population is increasing so rapidly, the percent might be lower, but there are still a startling number of people worldwide living on less then a dollar a day.  So while we can see that globalization has been helpful to increasing wages, it isn’t a means to ending poverty.