"Keep in mind, this country was founded on the notion of independence – a very good principle. It was good enough for our heroic Founding Fathers, and it is good enough for me.

They believed a nation could only be free if it was sovereign. As colonists, they understood what it meant to live under the yoke of domination by a foreign power."

Tags: independence, globalism, globalization, sovereignty on 2008-05-08 -All Annotations (0) -About

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JOLLYBLOGGER: A few thoughts on globalization from Os Guinness

Tags: globalization on 2008-05-08 -All Annotations (0) -About

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What is globalization?

Not the spread and integration of market capitalism. It is not rooted
in the economy, it is rooted in the technology of communications. At
it's heart is the speed, the scope and the simultaneity of our modern
communications.
Globalizatoin is the process through which because of the speed, scope,
and simultaneity of our modern communications we can now conduct our
human affairs anywhere in the world regardless of time, space and
government.
The first modernity was the industrialization which could be summarized with the word "production."

At the heart of globalization is not production but communication. This
means the twin currencies of our time are mobility and connectivity
Rather than globalization
creating one world, our world is more diverse, fractured and conflicted
than ever before. You can say yes to modernity or no to modernity.
Iran can call America the Great Satan and yet the most popular program
in Iran is Baywatch.
Features of life in a global world

1. We are living in a world that is moving on and melting down. Moving
on - never have so many people been virtually human perpetual motion
machines as they are today. We have not conquered history, but we have
effectively conquered geography. The old categories of close, near,
and far away mean less than they used to.
Melting down of institutions - the difference between a solid world and
a liquid world. Example - traditional marriage was till death do us
part, a very solid institution.
There is a meltdown in Christian institutions.
Modern people say - no ties, no tears. The great American mantra for all problems is "move on."
We are living in a world where life is fired at us point blank. We
have a 24-7 lifestyle with no margins. Kenyans - all westerners have
watches, no westerners have time. Africans don't have watches, but
Africans have time. Philippinos say westerners have gods on their
watches. We have the clock culture enthroned. The clock is probably
the most decisive European invention ever. Our world is drven by
time.
The calculating, consumer mentality is in everything. It would be
silly to buy a stock and keep it till death do you part. This
mentality affects friendships, marriage, church, etc.
Challenges to the global elites.

1. A loss of reflection - we all know far too much and are going far
too fast. Few of us have time to think. So we are in a world of
coaches, consultants and one page executive summaries.
How in such a world do you have wisdom, the fear of the Lord and a
framework that gives you context, not just facts. The higher you go
the more you are tempted to a lack of reflectiveness. This is why so
many of our leaders are not statesmen, they are politicians.
An erosion of roots - people who lived in face to face community in the
past could be held accountable. We have gone from neighborhoods to
virtual community.
blindspots in the secular gospel of globalization.
Wasted humans - Human waste - every order creates disorder - some fit
in and some don't. In early modernity Europe shipped its unwanted
around the world - more than 50 million people. What we see today is a
reduction of outlets - no where to send people and a reversal of flow -
the counter colonization of the world.
Three factors contributing to a perfect storm of evil.

We are seeing the greatest crisis of human rights of all times. Many
Christians don't see this. Early modernity had a characteristic evil -
the English workhouse. Mid-modernity had a characteristic evil - the
Nazi gas chambers. We are in advanced modernity - our characteristic
evil is the American shopping mall, and internet shopping.
There are 200 million in bonded slavery. There are more
slaves today than when Wilberforce abolished it.
responses or outcomes

1. Let's press on regardless - the secularist response. The problems
are always exaggerated. Science and technology will always bail us out.
The final throw of the dice is a post-human future - highly controlled,
largely robotic, human controlled future. This is the TINA approach -
There Is No Alternative.
2. Look elsewhere
3. Go back to where we went wrong and go forward responsibly.
Many ordinary people, including Christians, find globalization
overwhelming and depressing. The answer, above all is the sovereignty
of God. Globalization means we are in a world of gigantic forces and
gigantic fears. Only one power is greater - the Lord's. Two of the
great truths in Isaiah:

1. Have faith in God

2. Have no fear