The problem with who decides how screwed we are

It's been a while, but if the events of the last week and months don't prompt a resurrection of this blog then nothing will.

Whither the global mindset?

I don't know if this is a common delusion, or if I was exceptionally naïve, or if we all were and it's both, but ever since I started learning German at age 12 it seemed like the world was bound to an inexorable and inevitable shift toward greater unity. Integration was only going to increase, not ever backslide - not only because that's just what was happening but because the alternative, from a purely practical view, wasn't conceivable. 

 

And ever since, I don't know, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was three in 1985, it seemed like the world was on a straight and direct path toward expanding women's rights and the dissolution of gender.

And ever since doodling "MLK Jr." on my notebooks in my (very white and Midwestern) fifth grade class I felt we were all very fortunate to live in an era when segregation had been eliminated and everyone was holding hands in a giant rainbow.

But now there's been a very practical series on Marketplace about "peak trade" and the potential downturn in globalization. And I'm attending Foreign Policy Association panels where people are arguing that for the first time in a generation, NATO is preparing to discuss "real war." And nations are becoming increasingly fearful of of the consequences of open borders, whether open to citizens or capital. 

(One of the few bright spots in this FPA panel yesterday - besides its stellar composition - was that it took place in view of a portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That helped.)

It's disappointing, and I'm not the only one who thinks so - look how the Remain voters in England skewed older, or how the collective-minded Bernie supporters skew younger. I - we - have been told as long as I can remember that the world would only become more closely knit as our working lives progressed. That's what we're ready for. That's what we're embracing. But it's not happening. In fact, it's the reverse - younger decision makers are those with the most to lose or gain over their lifetimes as a result of the decisions we're making now, in 2016, which will reverberate through history, but their voices are being drowned out by 90 year old nostalgia victims who won't live long enough to experience the consequences of their decision.

The social and economic fate of a generation is being controlled, and stunted, by impossible emotions. We could be progressing, and laying the groundwork that in future generations will overcome the current political and cultural divides between nation-states, but instead we're withdrawing and becoming fractured because retirees and xenophobes in the most powerful countries on earth are scared.

We're not stagnating - we're moving backwards. When are we going ahead?

US implications...

It's never the end of history, I guess. Despite the alarming parallels between racist and fearful voting blocs in the US and UK, I'm getting a mite of solace (and no more) from something Gideon Rose, the editor of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday about the astonishing, unpredicted outcomes of both Brexit and the GOP race. He noted that while in Britain, they had exactly one shot to get it right and they blew it, here Trump has only been victorious in the primaries so far - his "win" is an upset only to the Republican party. Obviously there are caveats: We have to stress the "so far" part, and Britain may have been merely the first in a string of "E(U)xits" by France, the Netherlands, etc. But with that said, events in the EU and especially the overt racism which no longer feels the need to disguise itself should be enough to convince thousands of would-be Trump voters that their decisions have terrifyingly real consequences.

The only problem with that, though, is I'm not sure they're paying attention.