- Ponmala
Seeing the whole world as one global city is the conceptual goal of globalisation. This term came into popular use in the 1990s. The integration of economies, markets, scientific research and cultures of different societies was its ultimate goal. From the start of the 21st century, the stress was on the globalisation of economies, which involved goods, services, data, technology and capital. The main focus was on the removal of cross-border trade barriers. This was orchestrated by the Western countries under US leadership with the goal of tapping into the highly protected markets of third world countries. Clearly a matter of their selfish interests.
The Indian state of Kerala took a hard beating due to the deleterious effects of globalisation. The prices of all the cash crops like rubber, pepper, cardamom, clove, ginger etc., on which Kerala’s economy heavily depended, crashed. The only benefit worth mentioning that India derived from globalisation was in the information technology sector: it helped the migration of IT jobs into India and migration of IT professionals to the West, especially America. The third world country that benefited most from globalisation was China, which attracted huge capital that immensely boosted its manufacturing sector.
Globalization, once envisioned as a path to a ‘global city,’ is being replaced by a ‘globalization of selfishness.’ The nations that championed global integration are now leading a return to protectionism, prioritizing self-interest over shared ethical values.
Perhaps the most consequential aspect of globalisation was the pooling of global talents in the field of scientific research and technological innovations. The United States of America profited most from this development, making it the leader in research and development by far. The World Wide Web, which ushered in the information epoch that significantly impacted business, education and social interactions on the global level, is a case in point.
But now America, which spearheaded globalisation, is laying the axe to migration of capital and of professionals. Under Trump, it wants to produce all that it needs within its own territory and it wants tech companies, on which it enjoys monopoly, to hire only US citizens. Protectionism is returning now with a vengeance, only this time around it is espoused by the developed countries that made the most of globalisation for over a quarter century.
Selfishness in its worst form is called narcissism. It is a personality disorder that makes an individual think that the world exists for her/him and for her/him only. And when a narcissistic ruler applies that to his nation, we have present day America. But why blame America only? It is also true of all the countries ruled by elected narcissistic dictators. And their number is growing by the day.
The fundamental basis of democracy is the surmise that the majority of a country’s citizenry will elect rulers who will act selflessly and uphold ethical values. But for that to work, the majority of the people should have a selfless attitude and a commitment to ethical values. If they instead show preference for narcissistic rulers, just because the latter is willing to protect their selfish interests, giving ethics the cold shoulder, then we have the first move towards the globalisation of selfishness. Sadly, that seems to be happening on a war footing now.
A hardened and active criminal makes money through unlawful means and distributes a portion of it to the large number of poor people who live around him. He stands for election and wins on a huge margin, again and again and again. This encourages others to take to crime and win elections on the merit of crime-fed charity. Their numbers thus steadily increase in the houses of representatives. We thus have an Indian parliament that can boast of 46% of members having a criminal background, 27 of whom have been convicted after a long-drawn legal process. That is how the globalisation of selfish interests begins at the local level.
The rise of narcissistic rulers, elected to serve a people’s selfish interests, is eroding democracy and global cooperation. This ‘globalization of selfishness’ threatens to escalate into catastrophic clashes, leading us down a path towards Armageddon.
When the people of a country like America, which controls 25% of the world’s economy, elect people solely on the criteria that they can safe-guard their selfish interests, at the cost of democratic and ethical values, the globalisation of self-interest gets a huge impetus. ‘America First’ (‘first’ here actually means ‘only’) inspired ‘Israel First’, ‘Arabs First’, ‘Europe First’, ‘Japan First’, ‘China First’ – and why not ‘India First’? And with that the concept of globalisation as a vehicle to creating a global city is gone with the wind and the globalisation of selfishness takes wings and covers the entire world.
It is when the selfishness of a people coalesces in an individual that we have a narcissistic ruler. We already have about a dozen of them. And, believe me, when they clash the world will shudder violently. That clash could even trigger Armageddon – the end of the world. A narcissist who believes that the world was created solely for him or her could end up thinking the world should end with him or her. Suicides have been happening from the day thinking man emerged on the face of the earth. But, until recently, people committed suicide by taking their own lives. But now, the tendency to commit suicide by taking other people’s lives along with one’s own has been growing. Thus, we have people killing themselves after committing mass massacres by shooting or driving into crowds or by crashing a passenger plane. We also have jihadis who choose suicide as a means to achieve the joys of heaven: they kill scores of unsuspecting innocent people as a sacrifice to Allah while they kill themselves – the most pernicious expression of narcissism one could think of.
And suppose one of the narcissistic rulers who have their fingers on the nuclear button decides to commit suicide after killing as many as his stockpile of nuclear bombs can! Should it happen, the blame for it should fall on the people who elected him to serve their selfish interests. The world surely will end one day. And what will most probably cause it to happen is the globalisation of selfishness.
