GLOBALIZATION AND WAR REBUTTAL AND COMMENTARY: CURTIS WEEKS
This is not a rebuttal per se of the roundtable but Curtis Gale Weeks of Phatic Communion weaves in a number of economic, political, cultural and philosophical questions related to globalization and American foreign policy that readers may find his post intriguing and challenging.
Link Preface:
The Gaps in “Globalism”
“The Gaps in Globalism
by Curtis Gale Weeks
Globalism continues to be a hot topic, with reason. Most of the flux currently being experienced, throughout American society but also worldwide, is a result of the conflict of paradigms brought about by the growing connectivity that slices across these paradigms.
“Probably the most common use of the word paradigm is in the sense of weltanschauung. For example, in social science, the term is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception. Social scientists have adopted the Khunian phrase “paradigm shift” to denote a particular social phenomena rather than what was originally meant by Khun’s study on the practices and development of science. Even occultists, notably chaos magicians, use the term – to describe a shift in personal belief systems concerning magic (magic theory).
Some language purists feel that among “business philosophers” and advocates of any type of change whatsoever, the term paradigm is so widely abused that it bears no meaning whatsoever. Some believe it should be abolished from the English language, and formal studies of this show it as one of the most disliked words in English. “
[Webster’s Online Dictionary: Rosetta Edition]
The looseness of the term paradigm is probably a reflection of something much deeper — as well as the general dislike of the term. Phatic Communion reader Anne suggested in a recent comment on another post a simmering conflict between relativists and moralists, which might account for the flux or at least be a symptom of the flux we are currently experiencing: The looseness of the term is advocated by relativists; the support of strong paradigms (as explanations, motivations) is common among moralists even if they do not use the term.
Controlling, overarching systems either shape society or are shaped by society; or, both. The degree to which we may control the creation of these systems is hotly debated, as is the configuration of whatever systems may be created or modified (if any; extreme relativists and extreme moralists do not seem to believe we can do either.)
For the purpose of this entry, I’ll utilize the term paradigm to signify the various modes by which the world and world events are viewed and explained — although I don’t expect to use the term very much beyond this opening. Suffice to say that
Favorite paradigms represent static worldviews, and
The current flux occurs because differing paradigms are coming into conflict at a high rate, and
Although new paradigms may ultimately form during this process of flux, I will question whether the current flux will or should ultimately resolve into a final paradigm or collection of paradigms. (Although, given my penchant for meandering thought, I might not do so in so many words.)
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Flux: a result of the conflict of paradigms brought about by the growing connectivity that slices across these paradigms.
A return to the word, flux.
The term actually comes from the Latin for flow even if it is not always used to denote a flowing environment. The paradox is key. The scientific use of the word often represents a rate of flow of particles or energy; and, the idea that a rate can vary, causing and/or caused by various changes in substance, leads to the common idea of change for the term flux. We may translate this idea for use in understanding world paradigms — or, world views — and the present conflicts brought about through changing rates of connectivity. Various levels of insularity in the past limited the cultural, intellectual, and economic flow between different sets (or, sects) of world views, which in turn led to standardized and accepted modes of interaction, or the flow of these things between the parties. With an increased complexity of interactions, or of networking between parties — or of flow between parties — various paradigmatic elements began to also flow between parties at a greater rate. This has led to a destabilization of static world views. Taking again from the scientific view, we might consider what happens when new data is introduced which conflicts or modifies prior knowledge of a given event or substance: controversies occur at first, then new models are created to account for the new information, and these models persist until another introduction of new and controversial data arrives to upset that model. With greater connectivity between societies (and even, within societies), static world views also undergo such perturbations; and, with the increase in the rate of information being transmitted between societies, the cognition loop of controversy — remodeling — stasis cycles at an increasing rate.
Importantly, when considering whole societies ….”
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