Globalization

Nowadays, there is a strong tendency to see everything from the 'outside' - as if life started from the surface of your skin and went out from there. In other words, everyone talks as if there were no internal aspect to human beings, as if we had no insides. With that point of view, explanations for events and trends are always based on external factors - and primary among those are economic factors. And so globalization comes to mean only an economic process, something to do with business and markets.

Of course, globalization also means that we eat Moroccan food, and drive Korean cars, and listen to Balinese music wearing Peruvian sweaters - but even this is seen in economic terms; the products of one world market.

And that is exactly what the experts would have us think of globalization - a movement toward one world of Coca-Cola, television, pop music, formalized "democracy" and the rule of Money. For anyone who values diversity, this homogenizing tendency of economic globalization is a dangerous thing.

Humanists see economic globalization as only one aspect of a much larger process - a process that has been developing for thousands of years: the coming-together of the world. For humanists, this coming-together is part of the formation of a Universal Human Nation. And this is something much bigger than economics.

Their "globalization" is in reality a monolithic and homogenizing current promoted by economic interests and the international banks. These forces of globalization expand at the expense of diversity and the autonomy of nations, the identity of cultures and sub-cultures.

The champions of globalization would have us believe that they are building a world system that will solve all our problems through One-Great-World Market. They neglect to explain, of course, how the market will provide for human rights, justice, a green future, meaning, joy... 

So when the bankers try to put their monopoly on globalization, we should point out to them that they are certainly not in charge of human evolution, nor the new planetary civilization which is beginning to form.

That's why humanists are working at the grassroots in neighbourhoods on every continent, creating projects for diversity and unity to flourish, creating opportunities for everyone to participate in the building of the future. This is a multi-ethnic, multi-faith (incl. atheist) and multi-cultural process that leads to a new kind of confederation: the universal human nation.

As is stated in the Document of the Humanist Movement:

"Humanists... find inspiration in the contributions of many cultures, not only those that today occupy centre stage. Humanists are internationalists, aspiring to a universal human nation. ...Humanists seek not a uniform world, but a world of multiplicity: diverse in ethnicity, languages, and customs; diverse in local and regional autonomy; diverse in ideas and aspirations; diverse in beliefs, whether atheist or religious; diverse in occupations and in creativity. But a wall has arisen between humanist aspirations and the realities of today’s world. The time has come to tear down that wall. To do this, all humanists of the world must unite."

If you value personal and cultural diversity, non-violence and non-discrimination, and wish to join with others who are working to bring a new world closer to hand, join us!