World is Flat: Stormy Weather on a Global Scale

Globalization is a powerful reality. While it brings much prosperity, it intrudes ever more on various proud and ancient cultures. Tom Bandy described the phenomenon on a listserv as the collision of two major weather fronts. Having spent most of my life in the central United States tornado alley, this conjures up images of devastating storms and violent tornados.

Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat" tells of ten factors that are "flattening" the world. (See yesterday's post.) He is describing the integration of half the planet into one interdependent community. This integration is creating tremendous economic benefits for most of the people involved, but it is also challenging long-held cultural values in many of these places, including the United States. Those not involved in the integration are quickly becoming isolated into impoverished regions.

Almost a century ago, Marxist-Leninism (ML) emerged in Russia as a response to feeling humiliated and oppressed by both monarchical rule and the sweeping tide of capitalism in the early 20th Century. The Russians, and later the Chinese, sought out disaffected societies and tried to instigate a revolution against capitalism. They wanted to usher in a workers' paradise. The collapse of the Soviet Union, starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, spelled the end of any major storm front between communism and the free market world. However, another storm front was right on its heels.

Friedman writes of Islamo-Leninist in his book. Many Islamic nations have a proud and ancient past. Yet around them, they see nations who do not value their culture achieving unprecedented prosperity. The cognitive dissonance between "having the true religion" while a widening array of "infidels" are rapidly prospering is very distressing. Some Muslims have sought integration between the two worlds, but others will have none of it. They aim to destroy the globalization juggernaut and usher in an Islamic paradise. Their means is the exportation of terror cells worldwide to disrupt and "close up" free societies. The explosion of a nuclear weapon in a major city would almost certainly bring globalization to a standstill. Would it stop it altogether?

Meanwhile, another potential storm front is China. China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and has had massive economic growth ever since. However, China has tightly controlled the level of capitalist activity it allows and is still under the control of a totalitarian government. What will happen when a sizeable middle class develops that begins to demand political freedom as has occurred ever where else free markets have penetrated? Will the "walls fall," or will there be retrenchment? This can potentially be a devastating storm front for globalization, although it is not immediately threatening.

So, what does it mean to be a Christian in this time and place? As a Christian, I think the dream of an Islamic utopia is another expression of a desire to return to Babel. So is the dream of a communist totalitarian society. On the other hand, is not the rule of the world by global corporate agendas another way of uniting the world at Babel? What does it mean to give witness to the New Jerusalem today?

More to come.

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