The over simplification of a complex process; Globalization and human nature

The debate over globalization does seem to boil down too two overly simplified worldviews that reject and accept different aspects of the process of globalization and predict completely different futures. Globalization being a buzz word that is dominating a majority of the discourse that is being produced in today’s academia usually must be defined before a comprehensive model or explanation arises out of the arguments of today’s thinkers. Those definitions usually vary in their language and more often than not they emphasize desperately different parts of a whole movement that is sweeping the globe. However these thinker’s do want their thoughts to be listened to and do want to write their language in a manner that most communicates their meaning and so, if one commonality is to be found in the varying definitions of globalization, then it is simply that the process (or movement, epoch, trend, etc.) is complicated.

Studying the complex puts students of global affairs in a precarious position, we are regularly asked to intake competing definitions of the same process and explain away or reconcile the world as it is, as well as the world as others perceive it to be. Fortunately for us, human nature has a storied tradition of taking the complex and breaking it down in two, a right and a wrong, a good or a bad, a us or a them. Globalization is a complicated process that is directly changing human nature. Globalization is a complicated process that is a victim of human nature. Both are accurate.

I will not waste time discussing Globophiles or globophobes. I leave the work undone only because I think the message translates better when the reader of this (You) fit the pieces together. If you come into this reading with a basic understanding of where these two positions come from and what they believe or say about globalization then that is all you need. Human nature breaks down complicated arguments into simple positions that it rejects or accepts. As a human who reads and makes up his/her own mind we form our opinions by counting how much of something we can agree with versus what doesn’t sit well with us.

Well I submit a simple argument that answers a complex debate. The more arguments I make to defend my position the more opportunities a human has to judge and dismiss the entirety of my position based on the parts that sum up my whole.