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This week we have the partnership of Javier Garralda Arana, 4th year student of Degree at Philosophy. In his article he reflects on the global economic and political status and international relations.

Globalization is a fact. We may like it more or less, but human migrations are a natural and inevitable phenomenon. As with other species, displacements of individuals occur in ours for reasons of scarcity, 'invasive' species or similar. It very rarely happens as an ethnic phenomenon (with a few notorious exceptions, such as the Hebrew, Roma or Saharawi people) and it does not seem unreasonable to affirm that sedentary life is infinitely more comfortable than nomadism. The human being, as is well known, was born in Africa; however, it is not possible to speak of one but of several original species. In addition to homo sapiens, the Neanderthal and Denisova man also participated in the constitution of the human being, playing a decisive role in the Caucasian and Han phenotype respectively. sample Moreover, as can be seen in the brilliant essay Sapiens, from animals to gods, by the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, the Western traits (white skin, light hair and eyes) are properly Neanderthal, while Asian and Austro-Melanesian traits have more to do with Denisovans. Surprisingly, even though they were different species, their Genetics was so similar that they were able to produce a common fertile offspring (in the manner of the dog and the wolf). In light of the facts, to speak of 'human genus' brings us closer to the reality of what we are: a single, diverse animal species equally subordinated to its taxonomic categories.

I said at the beginning that globalization is a fact and, despite the dissenting voices, I do not believe it has failed. Relations between different communities have existed since the first man crawled out of the mud. It is obvious that the constitution of states and the organization of the species in territories has been and is beneficial. I will say more, it is imperative, not only to avoid homo homini lupus, but also to grant an ontological status of its own to the spirit of cultures (in German, volkgeist, 'spirit of the people'). A culture does not need its own state to be recognized. The contrary belief has not infrequently led to the confrontation of human groups, wars and genocides. These are not only political or territorial misfortunes, they are intellectual crises and distortions of what it means to be human. Thus, it is not possible to speak of a single location where the supposed first civilization took place. Rather, it is contemplated that, just as in Mesopotamia, the Indo-Gangetic plain, Mesoamerica or even the Gulf of Ghana were population centers where civilization germinated in a more or less synchronous way. This eventually gave rise to a certain political stability that would later open up to trade and relations with other peoples.

It does not seem reasonable, therefore, to go back to remote origins and thereby claim the identity of one's own community as radically different from the rest. I do not believe at all that the integration of diverse cultures has failed; I believe, in fact, that, as in the past, it continues at development. States are necessary insofar as they minimize the nature of all against all, but they are of no use if their maintenance entails a quantitative and qualitative increase in that same violence. Let me explain: political communities are cooriginary to the human species, and the modern liberal State in which we live is a way of harmonizing the coexistence of the diverse. An enlightened optimism in defense of cosmopolitanism that was muddied by the ravings of a nineteenth-century idealism. After the political misfortunes of the 20th century, Europe was plunged into a pit of misery from which it did not emerge until agreement of free trade in coal and steel (1951). The formation of the Benelux countries was another decisive impetus and culminated in the founding of the European Union in 1993. Since then, the historically most warlike continent has not experienced any particularly significant armed conflicts within its borders until the recent 2022. Its Economics and development human index grew exponentially, Europe's internal borders were opened and the trade and transit of human beings between sister cultures was facilitated. Such was its success that for a short period of time other territories followed suit, although not with the same results: the African Union in 2002, the Union of South American Nations in 2008, the BRICS in 2009?

But, to our regret, every beginning comes to an end, doesn't it? As soon as globalist movements emerged, nationalisms woke up again to stop the progress and twinning of peoples: Brexit, the procés, the seizure of the Capitol ... How much we have lived in such a short time! To be as impartial as possible, I will say that not all nationalisms are centrifugal; centripetal chauvinisms are not far behind. Such is the latest case in the USA, as well as the rise of the extreme right in Europe, the indigenisms in South America, the pan-Slavism behind the invasion of Ukraine or the Taliban coup d'état in Afghanistan that nobody is talking about anymore.

subject I am going to speak loud and clear: nationalisms, whatever they are, are a distortion of human identity. This was, is, will be and should always be the first of all identitarisms. The others only exist a posteriori and are always derived from it. As such, they are perfectly dispensable; if they do not add, at least they should not subtract. That is the reason why, at least me, I am a priori against any separatism. I think it is counter-intuitive to close oneself in an interiority that is but part, whether one wants it or not, of a growing world. Ultimately, the nature of nationalism and, in our case, of peripheral nationalism in Spain, is deeply xenophobic (although not necessarily racist). So much so that, in a report on the evolution of hate crimes in 2021 issued by the Interior Government, the Spanish autonomy leading the list is the Basque Country with 11'92 per 100,000 inhabitants; followed by Navarre with 6'80. If we trace the roots of Basque nationalism, for example, we will find the famous 8 surnames, the Rh negative or the higher frequency of group O. Something similar, although not with the same strength we see it on the shores of the Mediterranean, where Valentí Almirall invokes a sort of 'Catalan race'. Indeed, where Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Muslims have passed... To speak of 'race' is finally frowned upon in Europe, the same cannot be said of the USA, but we cannot forget that it is there that this typology of nationalism is rooted. The coexistence passes, therefore, by an integration and dissolution of subject synthetic in a modus vivendi greater in dimensions and smaller in determinations. We cannot expect some to build an insurmountable wall between previously united political communities and others to prevent their crossing in defense of a supposed culture anchored in the past that must be preserved. They are two sides of the same coin, communitarianism. That ideal that puts the good of group before the good of the individual, when the latter is ontologically prior to the former; there is no collectivity without the individual, but there is an individual without collectivity. The 'we' is given at the same time in the internship, but as such it is a fiction. It will be an individual and individualistic world that conforms to a global world. And it will not be an identitarianism because it isolates the human being in closed groups, which do not allow the individual to interact with others beyond the limits of his world. I am convinced that the future lies in the creation of supranational entities, free trade agreements and free transit of people and goods. This is not an optimistic position, far from it. Conflicts continue and will continue to exist until the end of time, the difference is that, with a little luck, the struggles will be between individuals and not between groups, as a dialectic. This is what the global world seems to be all about, a multipolar political reality that prioritizes alliances, unions and annexations over customs chauvinisms and peripheral nationalisms.


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