Globalization and extremism -- join the dots
In the US, it’s Donald Trump. In Hungary, Viktor Orbán. In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. With right-wing authoritarian leaders and extremist political parties gaining strength, people who care about equality and the future of the planet have good reason to be worried.
To counter this trend we need to address its root causes – not the personality traits of individual leaders or the unique conditions that fuelled their rise. In short, we need to look at the process of economic globalization.
While its supporters portray globalization in terms of international collaboration and interdependence, it is actually an economic process by which diverse cultures and economies are amalgamated into a single, global monoculture dominated by huge businesses and banks. Critics of globalization acknowledge its role in expanding the obscene gap between rich and poor, but there is little recognition of globalization’s profoundly personal impacts: in country after country, it is leaving the majority feeling increasingly insecure – not only economically, but psychologically. And insecure people can be highly susceptible to false narratives purporting to explain their precarious situation.
