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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2649 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: President Trump has officially withdrawn the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership

Remember when you were in history class and you'd read about this empire or that, expanding as far as possible? Romans, Persians, Chinese, British, French, etc.? They did it so they could have as many resources under their control as possible, for the purpose of making money, keeping trade fluid, and so on. What's been slowly learned over time though is that keeping massive empires is hard, and literally bloody, work and you tend to piss people off in the process.

Globalization/globalism is embracing ideology around trade that allows both companies and governments to make money and keep trade fluid, without resorting to trying to conquer other people through military means. It's much easier, much less bloody, and you're nowhere near as likely to be viewed as "the bad guy" by near as many people. Are there still shitty things going on by shady people? Yes. Is there still room for improvement? Fuck yes. It's still better than empire building though.





kleinbl00  ·  2649 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's not globalism, that's imperialism.

Globalism is the philosophy that international networks take precedence over local networks, and international players take precedence over local players for purposes of efficiency and benefit worldwide.

user-inactivated  ·  2649 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hmm. Like politics and governance, I feel like globalism and imperialism are tightly intertwined. Maybe that's why I got the two confused.

kleinbl00  ·  2649 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Imperialism benefits the British Empire.

Globalism benefits the British East India Trading Company.

Imperialism benefits Texas.

Globalism benefits Texas Instruments.

Imperialism benefits John Doe at the expense of Jian Do.

Globalism benefits John Deere at the expense of John Doe and Jian Do.