And so it ends?

The news of the past few days leaves me interested and excited. The French have had a massive strike aimed at stopping “Darko’s” efforts at streamlining the French economy. There are strikes at a British an oil refinery that have spread to other parts of the country over the issue a foreign contractor winning a bid and intending to use Portuguese workers. Meanwhile in America the stimulus package has suddenly found itself attached to protectionist measure, aimed at slowing imports. Depending on who you talk to it could be as simple as foreign steel being stopped, or as dastardly as blocking all manufactured goods.

What fun what fun what fun.

This is not the end of globalisation, the word never meant anything coherent in the first place, but it should represent an end to a certain way of thinking about globalisation.

People are now more fully aware than ever about how in the past few decades money has found unobstructed paths throughout globe. They are suddenly conscious that money is after profit and unconcerned with such niceties as national interest or quaint ideas of obligation.

With this awareness comes wariness and at times anger when they see foreign companies impinging on their space. Now that everyone is a little bit scared about the big bad world, they are falling, ever so slightly, into themselves and the collective bosom of the nation state once again.

Save us! Oh save us!

I am not clever enough to predict where this is heading. Mr. Obama made protectionist noises during his battle with Mrs. Clinton, and now house Democrats have attached the ideas to said stimulus package. Will he follow through and throw up tariff barriers? I doubt it on a universal scale, but wouldn’t be terribly shocked if we saw gates and obstructions thrown up in certain sectors. Canada the most likely to benefit.

Gordon Brown’s words from Davos don’t seem to indicate any massive change of tactics from where he has been over the past decade and a half. He seemed quite pleased to claim an end to the cyclical nature of the economy, and now that it apparently continues he seems incapable of finding new directions and strategies.

Those on strike are more clear in their ideas, plainly horrified by foreign workers taking British jobs, and are advocating a new, British first direction. Interestingly one union leader felt the need to clarify that it wasn’t about racism, just jobs. Whether this is criticism being levelled at the strikers in Britain I don’t know, being in France as I am, but I think it reveals eerie possibilities.

Are we about to see a shift to the right? Not in terms of economy, as I have no idea how classically right-wing economic positions could be supported given all the things we have recently seen, but in terms of society, culture and what those terms mean, especially as it pertains to the exclusion of others.

I’m going to be optimistic and say racism will not flourish; Obama was just elected president wasn’t he? But people are scared as they see terrorists at the gate, and maybe inside the house, and now foreign masses looking to steal jobs. Globalisation isn’t what it was cracked up to be, and there could be a series of very negative responses to ideas of foreign capital flows, cross-border jobs, and even foreign aid if things get too harsh and difficult. Or, people might look up and realize there is an elite who haven’t been leading for the people’s interests as previously advertised. On the other hand there’s a chance that this recession could simply be deep but very short, not allowing any time for concerns to fester.

I’m generally a pessimist when it comes to any notion of people (Canadians being my main frame of reference) overcoming sedentary and distracted lives to mount any change to the system (whether revolutionary or something more relaxed). If things drag on, however, with people losing jobs and money, they won’t be able to afford previous distractions, and who knows what they’ll do with their new found time or who they’ll blame for the problems.

But what the hell do I know? It’s more likely that hyper-intelligent cats will become the overlords of humanity, than I am going to accurately predict anything.

Who could have guessed that a skinny cat with big ears and a funny name could one day become the first feline Emperor of Earth? All hail Emperor Barack Hussein Tufty!!!