Don't Talk About Globalization

In class recently and with the book, "How Soccer Explains the World" we've been talking a lot about globalization. What effects it has on international relations, on separate states, who it hurts, and who it helps. With more and more trade around the world, institutions and cooperations that involve multiple states, and more wide-spread travel, it's easy to see how the world is somehow becoming both bigger and smaller at the same time. My point is, there's no real reason to discuss the pros and cons of globalization, just ways to enhance the good and mitigate the bad because either way there's no changing what's happening in the world today.

It's impossible to go back to an era without widespread communication between people on different continents with all the technology that is now available at the touch of a button. Since people are already accustomed to the way information flows freely (for the most part) around the world, governments cannot start restricting that flow of information without major backlash from the public. I'm aware that in some states around the globe governments are controlling information their people receive and sometimes the people are given incorrect or misleading information, but the governments still give them something. If we just stared taking away people's right to knowledge it would be impossible and also unwise.

Also, now that we have this spread of information through technology, there's bound to be more growth economically which leads to greater trade between states. Once these states start trading with each other and grow accustomed to the good they import and receiving the profit from the goods they export, it becomes hard to find a state that is okay with throwing off a trading partner if no other partners are there to pick up the slack. For this reason governments will not back away from globalization.

Because both citizens and governments benefit from globalization, even though they also are hurt somewhat by it (sometimes), globalization has happened and is happening and will continue whether we agree it's helpful or not. These are facts we cannot change unless we want to become like North Korea, meaning we need to find ways to make it work in our advantage more so than to our disadvantage.