What impact does globalization have on the daily life of China people?

Globalization is an inflammatory word. Advocates hope that it can bring unprecedented progress and prosperity to the whole world; Critics assert that it will bring poverty, war and even cultural extinction to developing countries. What is globalization? Are we really experiencing unprecedented globalization? What has globalization brought us in the past?

What is globalization?

Globalization is a process, which means that the flow of material and spiritual products breaks through the constraints of regions and national boundaries and affects the life in every corner of the earth. Globalization also includes the cross-border movement of people. The flow of people is the highest integration of material flow and spiritual flow.

Scientific and technological progress is the driving force of all social changes, and the progress of transportation and communication technology is the support of globalization. The progress of transportation promotes the globalization of people and material products, and the progress of communication promotes the globalization of spiritual products. Of course, the functions of these two technologies are often inseparable. Internet can mobilize capital, and ships can also spread the spirit.

Aside from the factors of technological progress, globalization is the globalization of capital, and it is also the globalization of capital "ism", that is, the globalization of profit first-Marx discussed the essence of globalization 50 years ago. In addition to wartime, capital pursues profits crazily around the world, 24 hours a day, and enjoys it. Therefore, globalization so far is reflected in the expansion of the market economy system all over the world. All other aspects of globalization, including the international capitalist movement, stem from the globalization of capital. If the expansion of the world market is inevitable, so is globalization. Since globalization affects life in every corner of the earth, people certainly want to have their own distinct positions. The complexity of globalization lies in that different things will produce different results in different space and time. These four kinds of variables are infinite. Since people can't predict all the variables, they can only decide their position by ideology.

For many supporters, globalization is an ideology based on the ideal of world harmony. Supporting globalization means respecting "market rules" and conforming to the historical trend. For many opponents, anti-globalization is an ideology based on the ideal of an equal world. Anti-globalization means opposing widening the gap between the rich and the poor and opposing hegemony. Ideological tendency is human nature and an important driving force for human progress. But I don't want to talk about ideology here, I just want to talk about things.

We are experiencing unprecedented globalization?

Is globalization worse in the imperial era than in the American era? If McDonald's and KFC can reflect globalization, Chinese restaurants landed in the world in the last century, and now their popularity is far less than that of American fast food. I suspect that today's globalization is exaggerated by the rapidly expanding "press".

At present, globalization is mainly caused by the rapid progress of communication technology, and traffic technology has not made great progress. /kloc-From the second half of 0/9th century to the beginning of 20th century, the transportation technology represented by ships, railways, automobiles and airplanes made a qualitative leap, and the international exchange of people and materials increased geometrically. At that time, immigration was easy, immigration management was not strict, and passports were dispensable. At that time, the United States began to be full of immigrants, that is, at that time, China people began to wear western-style clothes, switch to western-style pen and ink, carry guns, live in houses, use foreign matches, make nails, go to South Asia, go to the west and go to the East.

Even capital flows may not be able to stay away from the old times. 100 years ago, many people in China saved money, withdrew money and borrowed money from banks opened by foreigners. At that time, money was freely convertible. Capital export is regarded by Lenin as one of the main characteristics of traditional imperialism. It is said that today's globalization is reflected in the flow of "financial capital" on an alarming scale. More than 654.38 trillion dollars are gambled and speculated in the world financial market every day, and the global "hot money" is as high as 400 trillion dollars every year. But what does this mean? Today's international trade volume is only $8 trillion. Will international financial gambling affect life in every corner of the world? Capital is one of the three elements of economy, and its fundamental significance lies in promoting the efficiency of the combination of labor and means of production. However, how much efficiency has the "capital" used for international gambling promoted? The pillar of globalization is industrial and commercial capital, not "gambling capital".

The use of electricity, the rise of broadcasting, the appearance of telephone, the popularity of press and publication, and even the later television era, the progress of any of the above communication technologies may not be less significant than the Internet. Therefore, the globalization of spiritual products in the past is no less than today, and the diversification of spiritual products is no less than today. Otherwise, how could the democratic ideas, the ideas of producers and even other ideologies spread around the world in 19 and the 20th century? In addition to the huge "financial capital", it is said that today's globalization is also reflected in the prosperity and popularization of the Internet. Internet makes information transmission fast and convenient. But having information obviously does not mean having knowledge, and the increase of information does not necessarily increase the diversity of ideas. Today, Americans have no better ideas than Vietnam War or India. The concept of intellectuals in China today is not necessarily more diverse than that in the Warring States Period 2300 years ago. Compared with today's universities, didn't Peking University in the 1920s have more diversified ideas? Of course, the concept of China people is more diversified now than it was 20 years ago, but this is not the result of the Internet.

The two world wars and the cold war lasted for 80 years, which cut off the globalization process of the world and made the international exchanges resumed after the cold war seem sudden and novel. I am not a historian, but I wouldn't be surprised if a historian told me that in the last century and the beginning of the last century, the international exchange of people, goods, capital and spirit was higher than today.

Of course, I'm not saying that the future globalization will not surpass the past globalization.

What does globalization bring?

Whether we are in an unprecedented process of globalization or not, the past experience is enlightening. The historical experience of globalization can be divided into four categories: moral problems; Income problem; Convergence and divergence; Internationalism and nationalism. The following four characteristics of globalization correspond to these four problems.

1. Globalization without the rule of law and morality. The marketization within any country is mature with the gradual maturity of the legal environment. However, international marketization is not carried out under the rule of law and cannot be "mature". As long as there is no world government, the so-called rule of law in the international market is impossible. When legislation, judicature and law enforcement are all one, only idealists expect fairness, and only those countries that are most capable of profiting from unfairness talk about how fair the international order is. Without a global government ruled by law, the so-called "global governance" cannot be a governance that embodies international justice.

2. Unpredictable globalization of national profits and losses. It is difficult to talk abstractly about the conditions gained or lost in globalization. Powerful countries, weak countries, big countries and small countries may all benefit and suffer. Traditional China was defeated by globalization, but it also rose rapidly from globalization. The British empire has risen and declined in globalization. At present, although the United States has always been the biggest beneficiary of globalization, it tends to be indifferent to globalization because the United States is beginning to feel the price.

3. Stimulate the globalization of pursuing differences. The convergence caused by globalization is superficial, but the differentiation caused by globalization is profound. The pursuit of differences is the most profound feature of the era of globalization. Globalized capital is inhuman. It brings fierce social changes and stimulates the rise of various ideologies, and it is also bound to be accompanied by fierce conflicts among social groups, ideologies and even nation-states. In the past, globalization brought prosperity and progress, great revolution, civil war and "world war".

4. Promote nationalism and the globalization of national boundaries. There is no doubt that all kinds of modern internationalism originate from globalization. However, globalization has brought stronger nationalism, passports and customs, barriers to personnel exchange, "sacred" national borders, more advanced weapons and stronger national defense. In the past globalization, nationalism, especially nationalism, won, not internationalism. Today, we see the rise of the theory of "United States of Europe", the use of European currency, the consolidation of European borders, the establishment of European customs and the unification of European defense. What stimulated this new "Western European nationalism"? America, Japan, Western Europe ... Which one is still talking about internationalism? When people have extended the battlefield of border security to outer space, who can say that globalization has destroyed national borders? Once upon a time, the Olympic Games and the World Cup, which were established for the joy of the whole people, actually became the national arena, and the competition between countries even became the capital of internal competition among nation-states.

conclusion

For "economic benefits", people moved from vast, scattered and self-sufficient villages to cities. They live next to each other and live together, but only by haggling over every ounce, competing and fighting with each other can they survive. People in the city look no different, but everyone is looking for something different in their bones. Only by being different can we stand out in the competition for survival. Cruel market competition has gradually turned more and more "villagers" into people who lack morality and justice. They worship all the "civilization" brought by capital, or they worship capital itself at all. People naturally forget that the lives of the poor in Afghanistan and the poor in the World Trade Center are equal. They will light candles for more than 2,000 "civilized" lives in new york, but they will never think of burning incense for more than 4,000 "barbaric" victims in Afghanistan. Humans can openly declare that selfishness and the law of the jungle are their nature, which can lead to "the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people." Such humans have to use steel security doors instead of fences that separate families, and police armed to the teeth instead of elders who mediate neighborhood disputes. When a poor and vast global village becomes a prosperous and narrow global village, their respective "national interests" naturally become the highest norm in international relations, and force naturally becomes the premise of security and order. ▲