Internationalism: Where can I find some?

[pecksniff]

Who said anything about global or political? You didn't; if that was your intention, the first post should have defined your intent more carefully. In any event you could have made a decent argument that Consumerism was the downfall of Communism

My first post expressly excluded neoliberal economic globalization, because it does not tend toward a global political union. But you're right about Communism. By the 1980s it was obvious even to people with access only to state-censored media that Western capitalism was better at delivering consumer goods -- delivering which was the sole justification for Communism, which had no message of personal spiritual salvation or anything like that. Everybody always had a job and an income, which was more than the West could claim -- but if you have money in your pocket and can't buy things with it, what's the point?

 

[pecksniff]

But now, the political effect of consumerism is to motivate every country to maximize its exports of consumer goods in competition with other countries. That does not lead to global political union.

 

[SimonDoom]

I sometimes find myself wishing Napoleon had won all his wars. Then there would have been a united Europe, at least. A bad Emperor is better than none.

What? You're not being serious, right? There should be no emperors, anywhere.

I would be scared of the prospect of a world government, because the result almost certainly would be giving up basic freedoms that we as Americans have always enjoyed. I see no upside. We're much better off with a world full of many, separate sovereign states.

 

[pecksniff]

What? You're not being serious, right? There should be no emperors, anywhere.

Some of the best periods in human civilization were under the rule of emperors. Most periods of human civilization were under monarchies of some kind.

I'm not making a case for monarchy as against democracy, only for unity as against fragmentation. A Napoleonic Europe would certainly by now be a constitutional monarchy if not a republic, and would have avoided the world wars and the unspeakable horrors of nationalism. (Napoleon's regime was distinguished by Jewish emancipation.)

As for "basic freedoms," remember that one of the first things the UN did after its foundation was issue a Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- and there is no reason to think it would have been ignored or discarded if the UN had evolved into a genuine world government. In terms of human rights, that would have been the very best thing that could have happened to humanity.

 

[UltraMAGAKing]

That is not an internationalist movement. It does not tend towards a global political union.

Neither was/did communism...... you guys lost because your system doesn't work.