The Other Side of the Coin: When Globalization Threatens Human and Environmental Connections
- Freya Misiuna
- Mar 18
- 12 min read
Marshall McLuhan coined the term ‘Global Village’ in the 1960s. Sixty years later, it should be considered that perhaps the idea of reliable, swift transport of people, commodities, and communication technologies is not all for the good of the people. Corporations are arguably the most positively influenced by this concept brought to life, with these innovations practically becoming moneymaking machines... with two capital ‘M’s.
The “village” itself is becoming increasingly endangered. In terms of community, people are becoming more individualistic, and therefore not only create a society which values uniqueness and non-conformity (which is the positive side of individualism), some also stop valuing the idea of community as much as it used to be favored, which results in increases in hyper-individualism. Santos et al. discovered, through measuring the occurrence of individualist practices and values like household size and living alone since 1960 to 2010, an increase of these practices, most visible in developed countries. Though, it is important to note that developed countries usually have the most readily available data, this does not mean that the results don’t mean anything. In the same study China was found to be a country in which these practices decreased, this made China an outlier in the study, however not an outlier to the effects of globalization.
Perhaps an example of increased negative individualistic behaviors can be shown in the way that many people are immediately prone to recording serious events or grave situations instead of deigning to help. This emphasizes the growing disconnect between people, as it shows that people think more about themselves through the action of wanting to save or share a memory, instead of thinking about how the other person feels and what they need.
It is those same corporations that lead the belief that the earth is not green and full of life, against even the idea of its proposed sentience, a sentience more likely or natural than any AI that’s dreamt up and built. It is arguably those corporations that decide whether to build another nuclear power station, wind turbine, or solar panel. Likewise, it is also normally the corporations who can simply choose not to do any of those things, and to just keep coal/oil-powered stations and factories working.
However, while the environmental impact of globalization has many negative implications, that most people usually do not have a say in – where is the democracy, some would say – the social impacts are typically just as bad, or in some ways, worse.
Where does the lithium come from, that powers the so-called “green” or “eco-friendly” electric cars? Why does hydrogen’s lightness and efficiency as a gas outweigh the dangers and impacts of its production? Why do we increasingly seem to rely on fast fashion, and similar industries, when they normally secretly, or openly, enforce exploitation while also having drastic effects on increasing levels of pollution? Why do we allow the human sources of the products we use, to receive the smallest form of payment, while the corporations themselves vastly extort the prices and profit margins of the commodities the ingredients are used in?
This happens while we rarely even hear the names of the families who sacrifice their health and sleep in order to collect the crops, or mine the minerals... etc. These are the questions that lead to this point: can Vandana Shiva’s Earth Democracy highlight, not just the solutions to these problems, but the core issues in our society and industries that lead to an increasing disconnect between, not only the people and the earth, but within the human community and between ourselves and other forms of life? Our own race, turning against each other, forgetting about each other...
Who is Vandana Shiva and What Does Earth Democracy Entail?
While there are many uncertainties in terms of where these issues will lead society, and whether disconnect will threaten to continue to grow, perhaps there is hope for change, starting with people like Vandana Shiva.
Vandana Shiva is a global social justice and environmental activist, physicist, respected author and lecturer who fights against corporations buying out and manipulating local land in India and areas in that region.
She created the idea and practice of Earth Democracy, to which there belong 4 intrinsic points that must be undertaken. The first being the previous mentioned point that the earth is the “Terra Madre” and that we must therefore respect her, as “she” has rights. The second denotes that we are completely connected to the earth and should protect the “currencies of breath, water, nourishment”, as we share them. The third point follows on from that idea of sharing, emphasizing that we must also embrace the diversity of the “one humanity on one earth” and care for and respect each other as we are all equals. Finally, the last condition highlights the sentience and harmony of all threads of life, whether it be plants, or animals, that we all have rights, and that intelligence encompasses all life on this planet.
Considering these four points as something disconnected from the way we are currently living, is perhaps unsurprising, but also arguably an inhumane way of being on and part of this planet, as what Vandana Shiva encapsulates in these points is not just theory, but in some way it is the code by which we could create a more realistic utopia. It is something that doesn’t seem as impossible as the word suggests it is. It is, conceivably, the antithesis of the systematic code of conduct through which the machinery of corporations and capitalism turn the cogs of the materialistic consumer-based world they want to create.
Dramatic? It can’t be denied, but that doesn’t mean it can’t hold truth within itself.
Terra Madre and One Earth Family
Since the beginning of humanity, it has become more than apparent that humans have survived and thrived by relying on the earth, whether through agriculture, or by hunting on it, so why have we stopped acknowledging this as much?
It is arguably not the lack of understanding, but the distance which emphasizes society’s disconnect to the earth; according to the UN 55% of the world’s population currently live in urban areas. Machinery has long been replacing traditional means of farming, soon threatening to replace the farmers that used to own a lot of the land. This, combined with agribusinesses buying out farmer’s land, makes farming a much rarer job than it used to be, and further reinforces the growing disconnect between society and the food we consume. A disconnect to our food sources means that it becomes harder to regulate the fertilisers and chemicals used to upkeep them, and the pay the workers of the farm receive. Small family farms smaller than 2 hectares do produce a large amount of food globally (according to the FAO), but this is being undermined by certain actors like states and organizations, that prevent farmers from owning the seeds of crops, meaning that they have to continue to buy them even while the prices increase. Likewise in other areas, people are being pushed out into the periphery, like clothing factory workers in South East Asia, or Jasmine pickers in Egypt.
When looking into the causality of these circumstances, you might be able to see technological advancements, a growing middle class, a larger working class, and growing unemployment…
But even further in the shadows, perhaps globalization can be seen, accompanied by its old pal: capitalism.
According to the philosophy and practice of Earth Democracy, these developments following the greed-focused aspects of globalization, are against the basic elements of equality and the proposed oneness of human beings, as well as the violation, instead of gentle treatment, of the earth.
Where Does Globalization Come into Play?
It is now highlighted that globalization is, in one way, considered the making of the planet and its society into a global village, but where does the argument lead from there? How has, and is it, creating more disconnection in our society?
Globalization has arguably accelerated the process of industrialized capitalism, and furthermore, has increased exploitation of people. However, colonialism has long existed before globalization, especially the modern type, and there was a tremendous amount of exploitation then.
While most of the world has access to technology now, and as mentioned previously, communication has been made easier, the spread of useful, and reliable information is not guaranteed. In “third-world” countries, people are often not aware of certain facts and are oblivious to the most important bits of information that may be seriously entrenched in their lives. On the other hand, with the rise of improving AI types, and even before this time, the parts of the world that are more reliant on technology, which now also encompasses most of the planet, can no longer be sure if what they’re looking at online is correct. Now it no longer just relates to words, but also to information derived from photos and videos that look almost lifelike, and almost no different to a photo or video a human would take.
While McLuhan’s view of globalization’s possibilities foresaw a gleaming future of industry, equality and communication, other views that are more modern and have now had time to see where this took the world have a different angle on it. In one article, Daniella Musicco-Nombela made excellent points on how globalization threatens both people’s rights and the land’s rights. She reinforces the key ideas made by Vandana Shiva, highlighting the issues rooted in the modern version of globalization and the “global village”, suggesting we instead also learn to embrace the reality that our world is not the centre of life itself, and that there is a whole universe beyond. This emphasizes the need for humans to not be too individualistic or self-centered, because outside of our material body, there are many other humans to connect with.
Following the point made earlier about the idea of McLuhan’s “village” starting to represent global disconnect rather than community. It could be said that the village has seemingly turned into a metaphor for the decreasing number of companies and increasing number of umbrella corporations that own many for themselves. This is also a reflection of what is happening to farmers whose land is being bought out for agribusinesses to grow more crops and own more of the industry. Bill Gates himself owns over 250,000 acres across 17 states in the US, and while he created Microsoft and owns many companies and drives industries, we have to ask whether he actually cares about nutrition and land stability and health, or whether he only focuses on crop yields. This happens while farmers whose land was in their family’s possession for generations get bought out because they get outcompeted by businesses most of whose sole priority is making money. And this is not a one-time occurrence, when billionaires have the funds, they can typically buy anything they want and use it for anything they want. Who can question them?
If not Bill Gates, then it is likely that other companies or billionaires will decide to purchase the land themselves. Some of these corporations then do not even use the land for farming on, but for industrial means or extending urban spaces, which harms the landscapes, increases afforestation, and can lead to imporous material like cement being placed down, causing flooding when it rains heavily as there is no soil left to absorb water. This is becoming an issue in the Northern Hemisphere, but can create huge issues in areas more affected by desertification like Ethiopia. There do exist ideas for replacements for concrete, such as pervious concrete, however, while less expensive, and better for infiltration of water, it is not as durable or the best load-bearing material.
The relation this has to Shiva’s ideas and globalization is that by doing this, these big companies take the power and ability to provide their own food, or food for others away from the people. It also creates a larger veil between the people and the corporation, because they are able to do whatever they want with the land without our direct knowledge, meaning that it increases our disconnect to that land, and our food source. It could be argued that the fact that someone owns the land, even if “they” are a large business means that they own the right to not allow civilians to see or control what is happening on the farmland.
However, using the same argument, when one buys food in a supermarket, the ownership rights transfer to the buyer, therefore if the product is then owned by one of us, it is the right of whoever owns the item to have access to the details of the production and growth of the product. To rely on those same corporations that are mainly capitalistic, strengthens the divide between humanity and the earth, because we leave its care in the hands of figures who seem to be valuing money above all else in the first place.
Peter Alfandary, in his 2015 TEDx talk, argued that globalization has long been viewed mainly from an economic perspective, without as much thought about cultural values. He zooms in on situations in his past and present (which not only he would relate to), where business and discussions with people from other cultures took what he thought to be overwhelmingly positive turns, which later turned out to have less clear conclusions than he believed them to be. This highlights the natural differences that can be found among humans even if we are all connected; the differences in the way we each express ourselves and our desires in conversations and interactions. While homogenization has been discussed, as mentioned previously, the cloned city centers and TNCs that spread mainly American economic culture worldwide, talk about cultural understanding has been more limited, and Alfandary highlights this and names this “cultural intelligence”.
As Vandana Shiva emphasizes, connection to fellow humans is important, and without using (or searching for) a wide knowledge of the varieties of global consciousnesses and idiosyncrasies we might lose our ability to communicate with each other. In contradiction to this, a graver possibility lies in the fact that the threat of capitalist-based homogenization looms larger when the danger of miscommunication metamorphoses into the possibility of no longer having unique cultures, losing senses of cultural identity and developing a global culture that mainly appeals to the economic backdrop of globalization.
If globalization further disconnects us as a society because we are no longer inclined to trust what we see online, or perhaps even what we hear from others, relying solely on the main news agencies, then globalization is arguably not aligned with Earth Democracy, and perhaps should be seen in multiple lights, not just the golden one.
Globalization could be viewed as a tool of capitalism. In the search for connection and communication with each other, according to Vandana Shiva’s perception of the world, it is arguably important to note that the exploitation, lack of equality in our societies, harm of the earth. All of this is not something that can be turned around with the collective efforts of one group of people, or in just a short amount of time. The idea behind Earth democracy is rooted in the connection that humans and the planet originally have a possibility: a natural way of living in symbiosis. Many tribes did so in the past and it was considered undeveloped and antiquated, but this was mainly propagated by the colonizers of the native groups which include: the Aboriginals, the Native Americans, and Amazonian tribes. Likewise, corporations now arguably control society in a similar way.
In the process of understanding how to balance out globalization, seek its original purpose of making people connect, and acknowledge trade culture, the idea of seeing the world as a large but enclosed place should also remain open, because it is the understanding that it is open that might perhaps connect society in their differences.
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