Globalization

This was written mainly to an audience of my professional peers.  So it's not along my usual lines for this blog, but I think it's worth cross posting.

I am reading "The New Chicago", a series of essays from 2006 describing the changes in the city from a social and economic perspective.  I find more and more that this is extremely relevant for any educator that wants to understand how education should work.  So perhaps an executive summary of the essay I just read about Chicago in a global context is not directly related to instruction.  But let's see if I can't find the meaning here that does impact what we do in the classroom and in the administrative offices of higher ed.

The author, Fassil Demissie, identifies five things that define Chicago in a global context.  Businesses in Chicago can expect two-way access to international markets, including labor and financial investments.  The local government is extremely pro-business and will bend over backwards to stimulate economic development.  Chicago-based firms are capable of delivering extremely high levels of business service, especially state of the art technology services that are globally in short supply.  Chicago is maintained aesthetically to look and feel like an attractive modern urban center.  Finally, Chicago is still experiencing hyper-segregation by race and social class as a result of gentrification.

The author essentially argues that these were deliberate developments (save the fifth, which was a result of the deliberate developments) in response to the de-industrialization of the American economy. Starting in the 70's Chicago, like much of America, saw manufacturing plants close and/or move overseas.  A new service-based economy emerged in its wake, redefining American life and social reality.  I think it might be relevant to mention that this period also saw the decline and near total disappearance of civic engagement, interest in politics, and faith in the government.

This de-industrialization and de-politicization itself is extremely relevant to the college educator.  New knowledge and skills are necessary for economic advantage.  It is undeniable that curriculum and program offerings need to constantly change to reflect the changing needs of our society, with which come a changing definition of a 'well-educated', 'well-rounded' person.  But if the education system is also a mechanism by which citizens become capable of participating in self-government, then we are fighting an uphill battle and losing miserably.

The content of "The New Chicago" is what I would consider 'need-to-know' as part of any undergraduate curriculum.  It's a new millennium.  Kids need to know what globalization is.  Kids need to know what neo-liberal policies look like.  F*#% 'Classic' learning.  Kids need to understand that the roots of the western intellectual tradition were grounded in paradigms that have since been rejected.  They need to see what our modern world-view is and how it shapes our modern world.  And for god's sake they need to be critical of it.  Are we happy with our world order?  Do we agree with the assumptions that underlie how we think about every aspect of our world daily?

I did not have a conclusion in mind when I sat down to write about how Chicago's global identity affects instruction, but now it is clear.  The main points, more importantly the main *points of view*, presented in Demissie's essay, need to be brought down to earth.  I have a Ph.D. and I could barely read the thing without over and over again wondering just what exactly the author might mean by an 'accumulation regime' or 'functional repositioning' or some similar smartspeak.  Seriously guys, we all get it, you're smart, now speak English.

Back in the day, someone (say, Plato, or Machiavelli, for example) would come along and break it down for people with a large vested interest in understanding the material but who lack strong intellectual or academic backgrounds (politicians, for example).  Let's break it down for the next generation.  The information currently buried in academic journals needs to be accessible, and not in the form of condescending pre-packaged corporate textbooks, but in high quality, short, lucid academic texts.  If we idolize Locke, Smith, Rouseau and the like so dearly, why not take a play out of their playbook?

The Two Party System - Abandon All Hope

An Appeal

Our government is out of control.  If our government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed, then we can no longer consent to be governed by the system. The limitations on authority and divisions of power are dysfunctional.  Our ability to petition for redress of grievances is inadequate.  

Therefore we have a monumental task ahead of us.  We must put aside our differences and focus on what we have in common, and what is at stake for all of us at this historical moment.  Both sides are being sold out by our respective parties.  The issues we agree on are being ignored, and everyone loses.  The issues that divide us are used deceptively by our so-called leaders to keep us fearful, unquestioningly loyal, and complicit.

An Appeal to Conservatives

Our so-called “conservative” politicians pay little more than lip service to fiscal conservatism.  They preach free markets and economic liberty out of one side of their mouth, then they support favoritism, corporate welfare and bailouts.  They give some companies unfair advantages over others.  Mostly the middle class small businesses suffer because of policies that completely fly in the face of our ideals of free and fair markets.  Republicans in Washington are doing very little to get out of the way of American small businesses.

Personal responsibility, similarly, is a concept to which our party barely gives a passing glance.  When it comes to big banks and the Fed, the conservatives in Washington have no problem using tax dollars to socialize the risk inherent in irresponsible investing and lending.  Golden parachutes and other forms of bailouts pose a moral hazard orders of magnitude greater than any of the social welfare programs of the left.  

Republicans have consistently expanded federal spending on social programs and regulatory activity, despite their claims of being the party of ‘small government’.  Government payrolls have increased under every recent Republican administration.  There is no shortage of examples, either, of Republican legislators and judges taking a very broad view of the constitution when it’s politically convenient.  State’s rights?  Ron Paul is the only politician in Washington with a track record that even remotely resembles a dedication to limited federal government.

Search your hearts, Tea Party Patriots.  If you’re really looking for fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free-market economics, the Republicans have sold you out, and you know it.

An Appeal to Liberals

Business and financial regulation in Washington is a joke.  The Democrats have done so little to truly push for corporate accountability it’s sickening.  Progressive ideas about taxes, foreign trade, corporate regulation, and the international banking system are paid even less than lip service in Washington.  If the Democratic party is the party of progressivism, there is nothing left for a progressive beyond utter despair.

Social policies have been carefully measured and approached hesitatingly at best.  Democrats seem to have the guts to push gay rights legislation only after it becomes extremely safe and politically convenient.  Oddly enough, it is Ron Paul again who is probably the only legislator in Washington who has ever been willing to take a truly progressive stance on social issues that matter.  Beg, plead, call and write day and night, your Democratic legislators will not likely push civil liberties issues until it’s convenient for them.

Against a rising tide of privatization in education and healthcare, the Democratic party has been largely silent.  The department of education under Obama’s administration has pushed nothing short of a corporate agenda.  The fiery opposition to the healthcare bill has largely obfuscated the fact that it represents corporate healthcare and insurance interest far more faithfully than it represents the healthcare needs of average Americans.

Protectionism, foreign interventionism, corporate welfare, the war on drugs...is there anywhere our party is actually willing to stand up for us?  Sorry, not unless it fits conveniently into the agenda of the Democratic Party’s corporate sponsors.  Our party is bought and paid for.  Just like the Republicans, we’re being sold out, and we all know it.

A Bipartisan Appeal

We all believe in constitutional government.  We all want a balanced state power whose authority is defined by law and kept within the parameters we, the people, have set.  Yet both major parties distort and exaggerate our ideological differences to distract us from the fact that we no longer have control over our government’s exercise of authority at any level.  We are being herded, coddled, and penned like sheep.

None of us want to see despotic global powers, horrific human rights abuses, abject poverty, torture, genocide, and unnecessary war.  We all want our military to be a global force for good.  Yet both major parties present blatant lies in order to justify unnecessary, aggressive military actions that have cost trillions of dollars and billions of human lives, including American military personnel and civilians, despite majority popular opposition.  They play on our fears and doubts to pit us against each other when we could all easily agree that we do not want to cause death and destruction.  We are being manipulated and used.

Every single one of us, as Americans, believe in our basic freedoms.  Human rights, civil rights, political rights, and economic rights.  Foremost among all of our rights, we believe in our right to Democratic participation in the process of government.  We all want decentralization, a system that places meaningful political power with individuals at local levels.  And yet, while we are left to squabble over our petty differences, more and more political power is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, our voices becoming less and less meaningful in the political process.  We are not just being corralled - we are being fleeced as well. 

The ultimate indignity, the crowning accomplishment in our two-party system as an act of total dominance over the people with no accountability to anyone and no hope for meaningful dissent, is our country’s foreign trade practices.  While we are pitted against each other in the ideological battle over free trade and free markets versus human rights and social justice, neither side is getting what they want from either major party.  Both parties support, and always have supported, economic policies that violate our most conservative notions of laisses-faire free markets and at the same time our most liberal notions of social and economic justice.

We are at a standoff.  If we choose to perpetuate the two party system as it currently functions, we condemn ourselves to a future of political impotence, meaningless elections, pointless squabbling, and mutually assured destruction.  The only way out is for all of us to stand down at the same time.  We will never regain any real control over our government as long as our party loyalties override any desire we might have to reform the system we know to be corrupt.

We must demand democratic control of the political agenda.

We must demand full access to sources of relevant information.

We must demand a meaningful voice in the national political discourse.

We must demand a system where all people have the necessary means to participate.

These are basic principles of Democracy.  These are principles everyone of every party affiliation in America can support.  And yet attaining these would constitute a radical change in the current system.  Search your heart and you will know it is true - we are a long way from being a Democratic Republic.  We deserve better.

No meaningful change can take place without increased transparency.  Light must be shed on current practices by comprehensive, impartial media.  Our education as citizens must include learning what we need to know in order to be effective citizens.  Otherwise we simply do not have the means to participate effectively in our government.  Neither party supports this, and no major party politician is even talking about this.  We are being intentionally kept in the dark.

No meaningful change can take place without giving a voice to all.  The same comprehensive, impartial media must allow for an expression of all views through free, open dialogue.  We cannot claim any true control over the legislative agenda otherwise.  Our voices cannot be drowned out by the stories hand-picked by the major parties for their own benefit, with whatever spin suits their whims.  Neither major party supports true Democratic media, and we are not even talking about it.  We are being intentionally silenced.

No meaningful change can take place while the ability to spend money determines control of the agenda, opportunities to participate, and ability to voice opinions and preferences.  Americans idolize the rich and famous.  Economic success is something we all strive towards.  But should the privilege of political petition, the expression of opinions and preferences, and the ability to suggest legislation or affect the agenda, be reserved only for those in our society who can afford it?  “Class warfare” is just another divisive ploy being used to pit us against each other when we have a clear common goal that happens not to align with the agenda of either major party.  We are systematically and intentionally being left out of the system.

If you are an American, then you must demand more truly Democratic control over the process.  Demand that the people be allowed to debate and decide the issues that really matter.  Take back control of our military.  Take back control of our economic system.  Take back control of our government.  Let’s get back to debating the issues on which we disagree when we’ve addressed the fact that, for now, such debate is essentially meaningless, a deliberate distraction from the fact that we have lost everything we’ve ever had that resembles Democracy and freedom.  Let’s do this before our government drives us into economic, social, and diplomatic ruin, when it might be too late.

Finding Opportunity

It's interesting to note, before I lay out the substance of this entry, that since my last entry I have made significant personal progress towards making the system work for me - for us, the 99%.  I have been quite happy waking up every morning thinking about how I'm going to succeed on my own personal journey of social entrepreneurship.

I have been doing some brainstorming.  Not the kind where you just think of whatever off of the top of your head.  I'm talking more about one of those eerie storms where you sense it coming for hours, the sky and the wind give no sign of when it will hit, and then BAM! Thunder and lightning.  Very exciting.

I came up with a couple of lists.

List number one: Topics every adult person should be aware of and educated about in order to be an effective participant in the political process.

• How power is divided among the branches and levels of government
• The two political parties and the electoral system.
• Law enforcement, arbitration, and the justice system
• Taxes, budgets, and government spending
• Civil liberties, political expression, and the media
• Foreign policy and the military
• Economic policy, currency, and banking
• US History
• Public services, public spaces
• Marriage, children, families, and elderly care
• Immigration
• Licensing, regulations, and audits
• Natural resources
• Labor

Sounds pretty comprehensive, right?  I've been kicking around ideas for how to deliver this curriculum to high school graduates who are not college ready while also bringing up math, reading, and writing skills to "college and career ready" levels.  It would kill two birds with one stone.  High school students do not get the education they need and deserve.  So it's no wonder apathy is so high, among those for whom these issues should be the most important.  When it comes to civic engagement and democratic participation, our society is bankrupt.  I'd like to do something about that.

List number two: Things I would like to know about corporations and other businesses.

• Do they exploit foreign economies and promote imbalanced trade agreements?
• Do they have a stabilizing or destabilizing effect on global economies and societies?
• Do they outsource jobs?  
• Do they discourage organized labor?
• Do they provide their employees with living wages and benefits?
• Do they significantly displace smaller local businesses?
• Do they have a stabilizing or destabilizing effect on local economies?
• Do they uphold democratic ideals and allow for a democratic society?
• Do they preserve the environment and conserve natural resources?
• Do they have a stabilizing or destabilizing effect on public institutions?
• Do they do business fairly and respect consumer rights?
• Do they spend lavishly on unnecessary luxuries and executive compensation?
• Do they discriminate in their hiring or business practices?

I've also been kicking around the idea of a watchdog journalism project aimed at identifying the 'bad guys' and gathering the ammunition to take them down.  I think it's obvious from the list of questions who the 'bad guys' are.  I'm not entirely clear on what it means to declare war on a company, but I think that's the right idea.  The people obviously can't expect our government to regulate corporations and keep them in line, vis a vis the above list.  Our government is bought and paid for.  But a critical mass of angry, informed citizens just might be able to tear them down. 

I'm thinking that appeasement isn't good enough.  Letting up at the first sign of concession wouldn't really significantly change the status quo.  No, I think war means war.  It's only over when one side or the other is annihilated.  I kinda like that we're talking about an economic war, instead of a traditionally violent war (guns, etc.)  Economic war is the wave of the future, after all.  So it turns out I am comfortable supporting and encouraging a radical social movement rising up to shake off the yoke of our oppressors.  In order to do that, we don't really have to shoot anyone.  In fact violence would probably be counterproductive.  We just have to put our enemies out of business.

Okay, that's enough for now.  Rest assured that, though I may not be posting frequently, I'm still scheming up ways to fight the good fight.

Fighting Fire With Fire

People like to consider America a free country.  We live in the Land of Opportunity(tm).  Indeed, many individuals have accumulated vast personal fortunes starting from nearly nothing.  The last 2 decades and the tech revolution have been proof positive that, yes, there is potential here.

I'm tired of arguing about our freedoms, our personal responsibility for our economic situation, and whether or not the enterprise system of capitalism is 'fair'.  I'm ready to start making the system work for me - for us, really, the 99%.

Steve Jobs.  Andrew Carnegie.  Thomas Edison.  Henry Ford.  The list goes on and on.  To claim that, in our society, we all have *equal* opportunity to achieve just what these people and hundreds more have achieved in life, well that's just silly.  But let's not deny that opportunity is there.

The flaw in the system is not that it provides this level of opportunity, via nearly unlimited legal protections, tax advantages, and subsidies for large corporations, with very little regulation and no personal responsibility.  The flaw in the system is that those who have taken advantage of the system have done so for personal gain, and the accumulation of private wealth.

The system can be used for other purposes.

The success stories of the most prominent capitalist heroes all have one common starting point.  They all began with an idea.  A vision for the future.  For the most part, these visions involved the accumulation of vast empires.  No loss of human dignity, no amount of suffering, seems to be a price too high to pay for success.

A more humane vision of social justice can be made reality using the same methods, the same principles, that were used to create the cruel reality of corporate capitalism.  Principles that have been proven time and time again to work.

I've read from the best of the worst describing these 'secret' principles, as they are espoused by the most prominent capitalists themselves.  These authors read worse than a self help book for gambling written by a compulsive gambler, but you have to look past that to understand.  Unfortunately the crap that they spout out in platitudes, ad-hoc theories, and pseudo-intellectual psycho babel actually works.  It has worked for the wealthiest 1% over and over again throughout history.

These little tips and tricks can definitely be transformed from methods for accumulating private fortunes into programs for accumulating social wealth and creating the societal change one might desire.  It can work for us, if we focus our attention towards the accumulation of social wealth instead of personal wealth.  I can't imagine anything more satisfying than being the world's first social trillionaire.

What would that look like?  Well, not-for-profit corporations are looking in the right direction.  But the community of social entrepreneurs, people invested in creating real change and improvement, have not found a way yet.  There are ways to accumulate an enormous amount of wealth and resources in the hands of those who would invest strategically for the betterment of society.

That is the connection between vision and execution.  Money.  And money can be had, in any amount desired, as a way of making the goal a reality.  If you doubt this, read no further.  But do not ignore history.  Do not put up a mental wall between you and the thousands of successful capitalists who accumulated immense personal fortunes by refusing to 'play that game'.  The game can be played, and the game has been won.  It has happened so many times before, and it will happen many times again.

I don't know what goals we should be setting.  I don't know how we will accumulate the wealth and resources.  But what I am telling you with deadly seriousness and utmost sincerity is that, if we follow the right steps, whatever goal we set for yourself will be achieved.