With apologies to world historians who specialize in this area, and who have more elaborate information and ideas on the matter, I would place the history of globalism into three eras: prehistoric; civilized; and modern.
In the prehistoric era social bands were the dominant grouping of humans. They started in Africa but diffused throughout the globe. Their globalism consisted of inhabiting new places that required them to adapt their beliefs and behaviors to new environments. This was an era of great diversification overall, and at the global scale a significant expansion of knowledge, though each separate social band was characterized by a limited subset of cultural knowledge, beliefs and behaviors.
The dawn of recorded history coincided with the formation of cities that facilitated commerce. These are all the ingredients world historians ascribe to the advent of civilizations. City states replaced social bands as the dominant grouping of humans. The exchange of goods through commerce also meant an exchange of knowledge occurring between civilizations. In consequence, a greater variety of cultural beliefs and behaviors coexisted within these city states, though the advent of dogmatism, formal religions and academic schools of thought limited the potential diversity somewhat.
During this era of globalism civilizations imitated another if they believed this was to their advantage. For example, the Japanese imitated much from the larger and more dominant Chinese Empire during the post-classical period. Western civilization also borrowed from the Chinese Empire during this period, as well as from the Ottoman. Conquests occurred where one empire imposed their will on another, but the conquering empire was as likely to change in their beliefs and behaviors as those being conquered. Persia, Rome and Arabia showed much greater tolerance for the religion and cultures of the conquered than current nation states such as ours. The Chinese Empire imported Buddhism more easily than they exported Confucianism.
Nation states replaced city states in western civilization, ushering in the modern era of globalism. Paternalism replaced imitation as the mode of global outreach. Capitalism and colonialism coevolved to facilitate a new approach to commerce that led to the “core” and the “periphery,” the developed and the developing or, in language we do not like to hear, the exploiters and the exploited. The previous global era of imitation meant people adopting change on their own initiative at their own pace, the new globalism means forcing change at the timing and discretion of the most powerful nation states.
The most recent entries on The Middle Class Forum exposed some myths modern culture holds about natural humans, myths propagated in large part by the Enlightenment. One of these myths is that humans have “short” lives. This misguided interpretation of longevity applies to entire cultures as well.
The geographic landscape during the modern era of colonial globalism changes rapidly. The change in national boundaries may slow down or even halt; mass media and culture may even cause homogenization between nation states; yet the relative status of nation states is likely to continue changing. Those who think we can create a Pax Americana that rivals the Pax Romana in longevity are likely to be mistaken. Even if possible, the havoc that neoconservative folks would spread across the globe for the sake of American-dominated “peace” would likely be horrific. We should not be so cowardly about losing our status of #1; it has occurred continually, generally for the better in the global scheme of things.
Empires lasted longer during the civilized era of imitation globalism. The ability to assimilate different cultures was no doubt one reason for their longevity. The allowance of change at a culture’s own pace, on more their own terms, was another. Folks tend to get a little cranky about being forced into things, even when we think it is for their own good.
Yet even the Chinese Empire was a mere historical blip compared to the longest lasting cultures on earth. These cultures originated during the prehistoric era of diffusion globalism and are still present today. Granted, the cultures of social bands such as the Yamanas are now being impacted by modern nation states; but perhaps we can hold out hope that there is some undiscovered culture out there that has existed for twenty thousand years or more; because nation states have yet to discover force them into the global economy “for their own good;” in large part because the grand scholars from these nation states dogmatically assume their natural conditions to be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
Tags: Cultural Misinformation, Decentralized Harmony, Middle Class Culture
