Standing on the shoulders of Giants or Titans?
History is no more than a tale of relationships, networks and interactions between the actors of the past, and we are the next act. This play has been unfolding for millennia, each story unique and yet we find the same plot arcs, tragedies and comedies repeating themselves. A truism is so for a reason, and although each act may be unique, history does repeat itself. This may be because the rules have not changed essentially changed for thousands of years. The question now is have we changed the rules. Globalisation; the advent of the steam engine, electricity, radio, the internet and all the other wonders of the 20th century have changed the very nature of our interactions. We are more productive than we have ever been, we left the planet for the first time, we have almost a complete history of our species achievements available at our fingertips, information is freer than ever before and we are connected. We are connected. Yet, have things got any better? Taking the group as one the answer is yes; Life expectancy, GDP, Technology and all the other things that we measure ourselves against show this to be the case. The problem is everything is relative, even time, and there is a shockingly widening wealth gap all over the world.
The Arab revolutions of the past few months, the protests in America, Britain, Greece, Russia, Ireland, France, Germany, Brazil, China, Mexico, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Australia and almost every other country in the world, including even North Korea have one common theme; INEQUALITY. Inequality of power, money, freedom, information and anything else that people value. The financial crisis widened the gap even further, made the cuts really hurt and made people angry enough to care. This combined with the power of instant communication that the internet has provided gives an explosive combination. The number of revolutions has been growing at an explosive rate in the 20th century. Technology enables revolutions to take place faster and larger than ever before. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown in 29 days, Hosni Mubarak in just 18 days. Gaddafi, who analysts said would never fall, the strongman of the autocrats in the Middle East and North Africa is currently standing on the doorstep on his way out and it hasn’t nearly even been 2 weeks since the first signs of protests.
International Political Economy theory suggests nation-states are becoming more and more irrelevant. Multi-National Corporations rule global finances holding governments ransom. Barclays bank was just discovered to pay around 2.3% corporation tax and it was threatening the government it would move to Hong Kong if there was any more regulation introduced. A recent study found hardly any MNC’s pay corporation tax in the USA. At the same time we are seeing an increasing incapability of governments to operate at the local level. With an unprecedented level of public spending cuts the world over, entire countries facing bankruptcy and being locked in to debilitating loans with the IMF we can only expect the government to play even less of a role in local politics. So what is left for these old beasts to do, it seems they can’t even take action against one single despotic grandfather who is committing crimes against humanity in the EU’s back garden. For all the special relations and business ties they have built up they are left with the embarrassing option of proclaiming even sterner words.
Are we now standing on the shoulders of titans, have we reached a new dawn where the rules of the past no longer apply? Do nation-states mean as much as they did before? Boundaries are already blurred in the financial world and they never existed in the virtual world. Do we need a new rule book to define the relationships, interactions and networks we now find ourselves in?