The Status Quo Must Go

I'm back, with the rest of my take on the end of Chapter Three in "Caritas in Veritate." I posted a sort of 'part one' this morning:

• " 'The Breaking-Down of Borders' "
  (July 30, 2012)

I love language: what word mean; what they imply; how they're put together to express thoughts, attitudes, and feelings. I also think communication works better when folks agree on what words mean: or at least understand what others think they mean.

Globalization: It's (what else?) Global

Here's what I think "globalization" means:

• Growth to a global or worldwide scale
  (Princeton's WordNet)
• A common term for processes of international integration
  • Arising from
    • Increasing human connectivity
    • Interchange of
      • Worldviews
      • Products
      • Ideas
      • Other aspects of culture
  (Wikipedia)

Back to the Way it Was??

I'll admit to a bias about living in the 21st century. On the whole, I like having artificial hip joints, Internet access, and reason to believe that America's nation-wide drought will result in higher food prices: not mass starvation.

I like living in the Information Age.

I also like being able to live near the center of the North American continent: and meet people all over the world. Some parts of the Internet are a virtual 'bad part of town:' but that has more to do with free will and original sin than the technology. And that's another topic.

Today's world is very different from the one I grew up in: which upsets some folks. I don't think every change since 1962 was a good idea: but I wouldn't turn the clock back a half-century, even if I could.

Getting a Grip About Globalization

Today's emerging global culture is hard to ignore. I've got opinions about it; and about attitudes I see:

• I do not think
  • Globalization is a
    • Capitalistic plot to colonize the world
    • Commie plot to enslave the world
  • Folks would benefit by being dragged back into the 'good old days'
    • I remember the 'good old days'
    • They weren't
• I do think globalization
  • Is happening
  • Can hurt folks
    • If done without ethics
  • Can help folks
    • When pursued with
      • Ethical standards
      • Charity

(Not) Dealing with Change

Not all folks who are convinced that some vast conspiracy is making the feel bad yearn for a rose-colored 'good old days;' and not everyone who thinks the world was wonderful until change happened is a conspiracy buff.

But I've run into a fair number of folks who seem to really believe that the world was just fine before 1960, or 1850, or thereabouts: and that every development since then is 'somebody's fault.'

Change isn't always easy to deal with, but change happens. I think it's better to accept and deal with present realities. Nostalgia is fine: but I want to remember the past, not live in it.

Individuals Making a Difference

Like I wrote this morning, I think folks can't, as individuals, force everyone else to do things 'my way.' For starters, there are too many 'my ways:' they tend to cancel each other out.

These days, even established autocrats have trouble with their subjects. I'll get back to that.

I do think that each of us decides what we do: and what we do affects our part of today's global society. Bottom line? Individuals count.

Even if there are about 7,000,000,000 of us alive today.

Maybe particularly since there are about 7,000,000,000 of us alive today. Again, I'll get back to that.

'I Can't Help It?'

In a way, deciding that nothing I do affects present and future events lets me off the hook. If vast, impersonal, world-wide forces determine what happens: I can sit back, relax, and complain about 'globalization,' or whatever bogeyman is popular at the moment.

That'd be convenient, but the 'I'm helpless' attitude doesn't appeal to me. Or make sense.

Maybe strictly deterministic world views are mildly popular because they allow folks to violate ethics: and say 'I can't help it, it's the way things are.' Or maybe not.

Evaluating Globalization: a Human Approach

Back to Benedict XVI and "Caritas in Veritate." The Pope apparently thinks human beings can make decisions, and act on them. I think that's why he says it's a bad idea to use "a deterministic standpoint" for evaluating globalization:

"...As a human reality, it [globalization] is the product of diverse cultural tendencies, which need to be subjected to a process of discernment. The truth of globalization as a process and its fundamental ethical criterion are given by the unity of the human family and its development towards what is good. Hence a sustained commitment is needed so as to promote a person-based and community-oriented cultural process of world-wide integration that is open to transcendence...."
("Caritas in Veritate," 42)

Good News, Bad News, and Globalization

Is Globalization good, or bad? Benedict XVI says 'it depends.' I agree:

"...Despite some of its structural elements, which should neither be denied nor exaggerated, 'globalization, a priori, is neither good nor bad. It will be what people make of it'[104]...."
("Caritas in Veritate," 42) [emphasis mine]

My attitude toward globalization is cautious optimism. A few generations back, many folks depended entirely on whatever food they could raise. With a good harvest, they'd have enough until the next season. With a poor harvest: they didn't, with lethal results for the young, the old, and the ill.

Today, the children and grandchildren of those who survived drought and famine may have access to a global market: if their local, regional, and national leaders cooperate. I don't see the having the option of not starving as a bad thing: even if it does mean changes in lifestyle.

On the downside, greedy folks on various rungs of the economic ladder now have opportunities to swindle and cheat. Ethically-challenged people isn't new: what's changed is the methods we can use, and how many victims get hurt.

But I prefer to look at the benefits: and do what I can to reduce the risks.

"Protagonists, Acting in the Light of Reason..."

"...We should not be its [globalization's] victims, but rather its protagonists, acting in the light of reason, guided by charity and truth. Blind opposition would be a mistaken and prejudiced attitude, incapable of recognizing the positive aspects of the process, with the consequent risk of missing the chance to take advantage of its many opportunities for development...."
("Caritas in Veritate," 42)

'We've never done it that way' isn't, I think, a good reason for not trying some new process. I don't think ideas are good because they're new: but I don't think new ideas are always bad, either.

I think we need new ideas today: because the status quo, 'the way it's always been,' isn't good enough. Encouraging change without direction won't do, either:

"...The processes of globalization, suitably understood and directed, open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale; if badly directed, however, they can lead to an increase in poverty and inequality, and could even trigger a global crisis...."
("Caritas in Veritate," 42)

Wealth, Redistribution, and the Big Picture

"Redistribution?!" I'm an American, and spent my teens in the '60s. When I see "redistribution," I think of a workers' paradise: which looked good on paper, but hasn't worked out to well. I think Russia and it's old holdings will eventually recover: and that's not quite another topic.

But I'm also a Catholic, and realize that there's more to the world that American during the Woodstock era.

"Redistribution" doesn't necessarily involve turning the streets red with the blood of bloated capitalists. Given the radically unequal current distribution of wealth, I don't see an acceptable alternative to changing the status quo. (June 4, 2012)

"Correct the Malfunctions"

Globalization can be a good thing: giving more people in more places a measure of prosperity.

For example, I think we have opportunities to make droughts an inconvenience, not a lethal threat. But we also have opportunities to make life even harder for people.
The status quo, the way things are today, must change. Justice, if not charity, demand that. But we'll need to be careful about the changes.

Here's my last excerpt for today. I've put an even longer version at the end of the post.¹:

"...It is necessary to correct the malfunctions, some of them serious, that cause new divisions between peoples and within peoples, and also to ensure that the redistribution of wealth does not come about through the redistribution or increase of poverty: a real danger if the present situation were to be badly managed. For a long time it was thought that poor peoples should remain at a fixed stage of development, and should be content to receive assistance from the philanthropy of developed peoples. Paul VI strongly opposed this mentality in Populorum Progressio. ... The world-wide diffusion of forms of prosperity should not therefore be held up by projects that are self-centred, protectionist or at the service of private interests. Indeed the involvement of emerging or developing countries allows us to manage the crisis better today. ... Globalization is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon which must be grasped in the diversity and unity of all its different dimensions, including the theological dimension. In this way it will be possible to experience and to steer the globalization of humanity in relational terms, in terms of communion and the sharing of goods."
("Caritas in Veritate," 42)

Hope, People, and Information Technology

Back in my 'good old days,' Americans got news from newspapers, magazines, and three television networks: four, counting PBS. Through a combination of deadline pressure, culture, and time zones, newspaper editors tended to look at what The New York Times editors had decided was "new" that day: and that's what Americans read.

Then along came cheap long-distance telephone connections, fax machines, communications satellites, and Twitter. Today, Americans can share information with folks all over the world: not just those whose opinions and social connections make their ideas acceptable to the elite of a small coastal subculture.

America has a sometime-grudging tolerance of ideas and people who aren't of 'the right sort,' which I think has helped my native land slide into the Information Age: instead of being thrown in.

Places like Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, and Syria, aren't finding the transition quite so easy: putting it mildly.

Today, anyone with access to the Internet can:

• Share ideas
• Broadcast information
• Dscuss problems
• Suggest solutions

In my youth, only a few well-positioned people had that sort of 'voice.' Sure, quite a bit of what's online is silly. But I think many folks have a great deal more common sense than 'the masses' are imagined to have: and that's still another topic.

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More posts about "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth)
"Caritas in Veritate"

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Related posts:

• Building a better world
  • " 'The Breaking-Down of Borders' "
    (July 30, 2012)
  • " 'A New Order of Economic Productivity, Socially Responsible and Human in Scale' "
    (July 16, 2012)
  • "Working Toward the 'Civilization of Love' "
    (May 14, 2012)
  • "Street Performers and Making Progress"
    (May 6, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Slow Progress is Still Progress
    • The 'Hammer of God' and Rebound
    • Passing Along Simple Truth
  • "Hope, Joy, and Working for a Better World"
    (September 13, 2011)
• Assumptions
  • "Catholic Bishops & Religious Freedom in America: a Reality Check"
    (July 3, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Beware the - Lizard Men?!
  • "Catholics aren't Calvinists"
    (May 7, 2012)
  • "'Nazi Pope,' Urban Legends, Academic Standards, and the News"
    (April 17, 2012)
  • "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (June 12, 2011)
  • "Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, India, and the Lizard People"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 14, 2009)
    Particularly
    • Someone to Blame
• A new global culture
  • "Supporting Freedom, and Other Subversive Activity"
    (June 22, 2012)
  • "Bahrain and the Information Age"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (February 19, 2011)
  • "Tunisia, Twitter, Change, and Staying Sane"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 23, 2011)
  • "Cultural Chaos, Divisiveness, and CNN"
    (April 1, 2010)
  • "What is an Information Gatekeeper?"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (August 14, 2009)
    Particularly
    • Cultural Chaos! Divisiveness! I Like It!

More:

• "Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences"
  John Paul II (April 27, 2001)
• "John Paul II, Interview published in the Catholic daily newspaper La Croix"
  (August 20, 1997)
• "Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation"
  Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect; Alberto Bovone, Secretary; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (March 22, 1986)
• "Populorum Progressio"
  Encyclical of Pope Paul VI on the Development of Peoples (March 26, 1967)

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¹ Excerpt from "Caritas in Veritat:"

"...It is necessary to correct the malfunctions, some of them serious, that cause new divisions between peoples and within peoples, and also to ensure that the redistribution of wealth does not come about through the redistribution or increase of poverty: a real danger if the present situation were to be badly managed. For a long time it was thought that poor peoples should remain at a fixed stage of development, and should be content to receive assistance from the philanthropy of developed peoples. Paul VI strongly opposed this mentality in Populorum Progressio. day the material resources available for rescuing these peoples from poverty are potentially greater than before, but they have ended up largely in the hands of people from developed countries, who have benefited more from the liberalization that has occurred in the mobility of capital and labour. The world-wide diffusion of forms of prosperity should not therefore be held up by projects that are self-centred, protectionist or at the service of private interests. Indeed the involvement of emerging or developing countries allows us to manage the crisis better today. The transition inherent in the process of globalization presents great difficulties and dangers that can only be overcome if we are able to appropriate the underlying anthropological and ethical spirit that drives globalization towards the humanizing goal of solidarity. Unfortunately this spirit is often overwhelmed or suppressed by ethical and cultural considerations of an individualistic and utilitarian nature. Globalization is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon which must be grasped in the diversity and unity of all its different dimensions, including the theological dimension. In this way it will be possible to experience and to steer the globalization of humanity in relational terms, in terms of communion and the sharing of goods."
("Caritas in Veritate," 42)