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REPRINT: On Globalization

by Rod Amis

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[EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article originally appeared in the 23 December, 1998 edition of the G21.] As I have spent the last few years embracing the "Information Age," being an evangelist for the Internet, and the trend toward globalization, much of what I have to say in this essay will come as a shock to some people who know me. Those who have read my writing here and elsewhere may consider this extended reflection a contradiction. But also, most people familiar with my work know that I base my conclusions on the experience of my own eyes/life, the visceral. For them, this exercise will make absolute and consistent sense. My conclusion: I am beginning to believe that the global society portends the death of democracy. Bear with me as I make my case. As regular readers of this magazine know, I have converted myself into a "virtual" enterprise. My existence and livelihood no longer depend on what I (sometimes) have referred to as "meat space." Rather, my survival depends entirely on producing information/content here on the Internet. I can accomplish this from anywhere which has the appropriate technological infrastructure (phone lines, ISDN, T1, a desktop computer, the appropriate software.) I do not report to a geographical office. I work from "home." (Meaning, wherever I am at the time that has an Internet connection.) Over the past six months, I have produced the work I need to earn a living from California, Maryland, Connecticut and New York, respectively, without interruption. As the joke goes, I could work from the Gobi Desert if phone lines were available. What this means is that I have no social, political, or economic connection to the communities in which I reside and work. Which, further, means that I have scant interest in their educational status, how they treat their people, or what their economic situation is. I am not one of the stakeholders in any community, per se. It has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on my ability to gain my livelihood and thus my continued prosperity or lack thereof. I am a disconnected "Brain Lord" as Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron's treatise of a few years back would have it, without the need of the larger society around me --- as long as there is a technological infrastructure. (As a Black man, this puts me in august company. Unless you consider my debts.) Stay with me on this.	SELF-REGULATION OF THE WEB? "You've Got Mail!" Where do I fit on "The Bell Curve?"
I don't care about your local economy. Where can I connect? ABOUT US dubya-dubya-dubya nomoreplease dot com 404 Not Found on This Server.	Ramp this argument up from the personal to the political, and the global. Consider the situation if we are not just looking at Rod, the citizen, but at Coca Cola or General Motors or Nike, the corporate citizens. In case you did not know this, corporations have the same rights as individual citizens, per the U.S. Supreme Court. So if you are a multinational or trans-national corporation like those I have listed above, you have much the same situation as I described in Life of Rod. All you need is the infrastructure. The social, political and economic well-being of individual countries or communities has NO IMPACT on your well-being. Your corporation is not a stakeholder in any community, anywhere. Whether a country is a democracy or a dictatorship is not a Talking Point. As long as there is stability --- meaning the infrastructure exists to support your livelihood consistently -- why should you care about life on the street? Are you starting to get my drift? It is not because I don't understand the corporate mentality that the G21 is so consistently anti-corporate, but because I do. If anything, and my resume here bears this out, I was educated, trained, worked and thrived in the belly of this Beast. My writing elsewhere bears this out. I know of what I speak. The salient question is: What can be done about this form of malignant, treadmill immorality?
What about Mother Earth? In this century the population of the planet has tripled. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson talked about 2.5 billion people on the planet when I was sixteen years old. Today there are approximately 6 billion people here. The population of Earth has more than doubled in my lifetime! The rainforests, which supply our oxygen and protect our ozone are diminishing at such a dramatic rate that I don't know of any institution that can keep up with depletion any longer. And that is the "higher immorality" which dominates today. "The 'higher immorality' for [C. Wright] Mills was a 'structural immorality' built into the institutions of power in our society --- in particular the treadmill of production. 'In a civilization so business-penetrated as America,' he wrote, money becomes 'the one unambiguous marker of success... the sovereign American value.' Such a society, dominated by the corporate rich with the support of the political power elite, is a society of 'organized irresponsibility' where moral virtue is divorced from success, and knowledge from power. Public communication, rather than constituting the basis for the exchange of ideas necessary for the conduct of democracy, is largely given over to 'an astounding volume of propaganda for commodities... addressed more often to the belly or the groin than to the head or the heart.' The corrupting influence that all of this has on the general public is visible in the loss of a capacity for moral indignation, the growth of cynicism, a drop in political participation, and the emergence of a passive, commercially centered existence..." --- John Bellamy Foster Admittedly disconnected from the concerns of "meat space" as I am, I look at the Monicagate/White House scandal, and the fratricide in the American political system with a jaundiced eye. Do I have to care? No. Nothing that happens in American politics will have a direct affect on my life or my livelihood. Does General Motors have to care? NO. Nothing that happens in American politics will have a direct affect on GM's life or its livelihood But take this argument one step further: What about the future of the planet? Most major corporations are growing at 20% per annum. (Microsoft is growing at 40% per annum at this writing.) How long can this planet sustain that type of growth paradigm? A number of Leftists, including Yours Unruly, have focused on the issues of consumption and consumerism. That is very easy to understand, since you, Adult American, watch 21,000 televisions commercials a year asking you to buy, supported by about 100 corporations. But the real ecological issue is NOT consumption, it's production. Production requires the usage of the planet's raw materials: minerals, alloys, water, air, soil. These are irreplaceable. Repeat: These are irreplaceable. Or, let's put it another way: Who is planting the new rain forests? Most major corporations are growing at 20% per annum. (Microsoft is growing at 40% per annum at this writing.) How long can this planet sustain that type of growth paradigm? ANSWER: NOT LONG. So... Are we rapidly moving toward the ecological Point Of No Return? You tell me. What would a responsible society do? You are probably going to be sorry you asked that question. ANSWER: Frankly, a responsible society is based on accountability --- and accountability is localized. Instead of "down-sizing" workers, a responsible society down-sizes the reach and influence of its corporate citizens. It makes them more locally accountable. It prioritizes the needs of the community stakeholders over the absentee shareholders. A responsible society accepts that the resources of a planet are limited, and so limits the exploitation of those resources. In other words, it ends the disconnect between production, consumption, and where the consumed materials originate. A responsible society also accepts that the "Information Age" disconnect which This Writer thrives on cannot be part of the global economic system. There it is. I said it. Much as I enjoy my ability to telecommute, to have writers at this magazine from every continent in the world (except Antartica,) I also know that it diminishes the value of those writers' intellectual property. Like GM or Coke, I can compel them to compete with people desperate for exposure from around the globe. That means that I can ask them to work for exposure instead of money. They can hope that, like me, they will become paid columnists on the Internet by means of association. They can hope that they will be a "brand name" one day. And that is "the higher immorality." The immoral treadmill of the capitalist impulse reduces everyone to competitors, and every concern to production, without giving back some sort of compensatory social and civil enrichment. That is the higher immorality. And that is the threat to our ideal of democracy. There is nothing, there is nothing to promote the democratic ideal in the corporate ideology which obtains today. The Information Age promises nothing except more classism and separation from geographic communities. I should know. I'm one of its vanguard foot-soldiers. And I have no concern about your local community.	a href = Where? The World's Magazine: g21.net Event #186: Be a Spirit, Not a Ghost This Pull-down Menu will hyperjump you to all our great features. Try it! MORE of The World's Magazine. AMERICAN DREAMS The Barnes & Noble Search Engine Cartoons by Gaspirtz DAY ONE G21 Digital Internet Postcards G21 EUROPE HOT LINKS The Main Event Memoirs of The Info Age MOIA FAQ POWERSSOUND Publisher's Note SILVER SURF VOX POPULI JOIN THE G21 MAILING LIST. Get updates on new features. Take part in our Readership polls, shape the future of The World's Magazine. It's easy! E-mail The World's Magazine with the "Subject" line: SUBSCRIBE. LAST WEEK's EDITION For Deep Background visit the G21-Barnes & Noble Shop Holiday Ideas Needed? Try the new G21/E-NEWS GIFT CENTER OR get great books at the G21 BARNES & NOBLE SEARCH ENGINE The Main Event HOME Discover the MOIA Discussion List THEY HAVE STOLEN YOUR MEMORIES. THERE IS NO HISTORY. I AM A GLOBAL CITIZEN. I HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITIES.

MEMOIR ONE: The Pinnacle, by FELICITY USSHER

MEMOIR TWO: Age of Exploitation, by ROD AMIS

MEMOIR THREE: Is Microsoft Bothering You, too? by RON DIENER

MEMOIR FOUR: The Name of The Rose by ROD AMIS

MEMOIR FIVE: War on The Web by ADAM J. SMITH

MEMOIR SIX: G21 Interviews ICANN's ESTHER DYSON

MEMOIR SEVEN: The Chamber of E-Commerce by ROD AMIS

MEMOIR EIGHT: G21 Interviews GEORGE OLSEN of THE WEB STANDARDS PROJECT

THE NEXT MEMOIR