Thomas Friedman's Flat World - Populism and Privilege

• In Event: Poster Session: Normative Political Theory

Abstract

In 2005 when Thomas Friedman’s Flat World was published, it helped explain the phenomena of globalization whereby every country would have the opportunity to trade commodities, ideas, people, and commerce across the oceans that divide us. The international playing field was being leveled by advances in communications, transportation, and vertical integration of systems. The internet was the impetus.

Today, all around the world we see forms of populism and privilege. The 2009 “Occupy” movement in the U.S. ignited the same in Europe followed by the Arab Spring. Populism supports the concerns of ordinary people, while privilege protects advantages that are at the center of inequality. The two extremes are colliding, as political scientists dig deeper to understand the greater implications. Predicting state behavior must include the zeitgeist of the times, individualism. Individualism has increased exponentially as of the 1970’s; from women’s lib to children’s rights, from gay rights to animal rights, from the 25 custom body fits of blue jeans to the 250 types of cell phone cases, etc. Classical liberalism as well as existentialism and anarchism all put the human individual at the center of focus. Thus, the zeitgeist acts within the social and political system as a mode for self-realization.

Historically, the U.S. has exported democracy in the form of development. From the perspective of realism, development is also a strategy for assuring hegemony post- decolonization; a top-down method to increase stabilization with market-based economy to create opportunities for prosperity to all. In some cases it did, in others it did not, but in all cases it created inequality. As globalization evolved, everyone around the world could talk to anyone around the world. Ideology was shared as well as norms and customs. Markets grew, and so did the global appetite for freedom and self-expression at the societal level. Manufactures captured this trend in customization of products. Individualization led to the need for respect and acknowledgement. Therefore our coffee orders are accompanied by our personal name called out-loud and written on the cup. With a strong sense of individuality, we exercise our fullest self expression by letting government know that the confines of a two party system no longer serve our identity. There stood two candidates that no one could identify with, or dare I say that everyone could identify with on some level; two manifestations of our collective conscious. John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and Adam Smith would agree that ego-anarchism is the result of individualism. Karl Marx would rejoice in that his dialectical theory is being realized. Some of the “bourgeois” are folding back into the proletariat, think Gates Foundation, Tom Steyer, Jimmy Buffett.

Friedman’s Flat World has reached a new paradigm. It has led to islands around beliefs, resentments towards those not like you, violence to protect your identity, separation from state, isolation. From this zeitgeist evolves either a new form of democracy or an authoritarian-totalitarian regime.

For the individual who is Populist, her identity is hard earned. For the individual who is Privileged, her identity is a birthright. In a “Flat World” the choices remaining are, (1) to sail off the edge - Brexit, (2) steer conservatively towards the middle - Right Wing Nationalism, or (3) assimilate into Cosmopolitanism - Canada. Political Science must steer the ships towards waters with less ripples in order to evolve to the next level of globalization.

“There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” Audre Lorde

Author

• A.R. Pashayan, Howard University, Washington DC