Chapter 23
Chapter 23
The Transformation of the World Economy
In 1944 The United States convened the Bretton Woods Conference to plan post war economic growth and stability. From the 1st through the 20th of July 1944, 730 delegates from 44 Allied nations got together and hammered out an agreement to create three economic organizations: the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) known as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), which became the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The Bretton Woods system of state led economics was very successful until 1971 when the US pulled out, opening the way to a market led economic system. However in 2013 economists and some politicians are calling for a Bretton Woods II the as a solution to current economic problems stemming from the 2008 crash. In Addition to Bretton Woods several other post war organizations contributed to Strayer's Dense Web. The European Common Market 1957, know known as the European Union (EU) 1994, the United Nations, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) -- a military alliance but with political, social, and economic aims and committees. Benefits of the post 1945 economic system have been free-trade, low taxes, low tariffs, and ready capitalization.
In 2003 MasterCard was accepted at some 32 million businesses in 210 countries or territories. On the downside, however there have been underfunded social programs, maldistribution of profits, unstable markets and employment, plus a brain drain from the Global South and a plethora of irresponsible Trans National Corporations (TNC). By 2000, 51 of the world's 100 largest economic units were in fact TNCs, not countries, "responsible only to stockholders, not to citizens or nations. In the late 1960's there were only 7,000 TNCs, but by 2001 the number had grown to 65,000. Accelerated globalization has led to "the most remarkable spurt of economic growth in world history ... from $7.1 trillion in 1950 to $55.9 trillion in 2003 and on a per capita basis from $2,835 to $8,753." And poverty has fallen in the past 50 years more than it has in the previous 500 years. Yet the gap between the rich and the poor has increased from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 86 to 1 by 1991. Similar gaps are see in medical care, availability of drinking water, educational and employment opportunities.
Feminism
In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication of the Rights of Women, in 1949 Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex, in 1963 Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, and fortunately, the world has never been the same since. Feminism's liberation movement has become part of the 1960's liberation movements
inspired by Che Guevara and by the "liberation theology" of Latin American Catholic priests who sometimes even joined communist rebels against Latin American, capitalist generals and their US allies. The papacy has never agreed with "liberation theology", nor does the current pope Francis I. Issues of feminism or women's rights differed among people and countries, but some degree of reform became part of countries as diverse as Morocco, Chile, and South Korea. The cry "Women's rights are human rights", the UN's declaration of 1975 as the start of the International Women's Year & decade, and the 2006 signing of a UN Convention by 183 nations to eliminate discrimination against women were highlights in the global battle. Unfortunately the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US constitution which passed both houses of congress in 1972, got only 35 states' votes of the required 38, and so failed. "To Phyllis Schlafly, a prominent American opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, feminism was a 'disease' that brought in its wake 'fear, sickness, pain, anger, hatred, danger, violence, and all manner of ugliness'". But despite Schlafly and her ilk, feminism is still a major force in the 21st century. After all, "Gaea", the ancient Greek mother goddess is also the patroness of ecology and environmentalism.
Religion: Modernity and Fundamentalism
Neither science, Darwinism, nor European Imperialism destroyed Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism. Religion remained quiescent but powerful, and after WW I, became a catalyst for colonial revolt and independence movements. "The far more prominent trends of the last century have been those that involved the further spread of major world religions, their resurrection in new forms, their opposition to elements of secular and global modernity, and their political role as a source of community identity and conflict". In general from WWI through the 1990's Spanish, Italian, and French Catholicism was very conservative, bordering on fundamentalist--as was much of the Protestantism of America and Europe. "After World War II, American Protestantism came to oppose political liberalism and 'big government', the sexual revolution of the 1960's, homosexuality and abortion rights,and secular humanism generally". But the French congress passed a same-sex marriage act on 18 May of 2013, and the first gay couple were married on the 29th of May. We tend to forget our own history of political/religious movements and social welfare when we condemn the
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in India or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine, or Hezbollah in Lebanon. In many cases these religious/political societies also offer medical and educational help for their followers. And remember that in our religious wars of the 16th/17th centuries, unbelievers and so-called witches were burned at the stake. Still, the 2012 power takeover in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood does seem to bode ill for Egypt and the Middle East. Since 1950 the 37 Christian faith groups of the National Council of Churches in the United States has been working fervently for peace and economic development throughout the world. The Roman Catholic church has also long had special contacts and efforts at ecumenical cooperation among all faiths. If religion can cause problems, surely religion can also solve them.
The Global Environment Transformed -- "The Biophilia Hypothesis"
To recognize the earth in all its aspects as an organic entity is a philosophical or religious perception. In 1984, Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard biologist, published Biophilia, a book about the love of life or living systems. He defined biophilia as "'the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life', and suggested that the deep affiliations humans have with nature are rooted in our biology.'" He came to see the "Epic of Evolution" as a philosophical or even religious concept. Environmentalism, meaning concern about the life of the planet and all living things, began in the early nineteenth century, just as the industrial revolution was only a few decades old, close to the time of Mary Wollstonecraft and the birth of feminism. Poets William Blake and William Wordsworth decried the "dark satanic mills" as the death of the "green" England they knew. A hundred years later Rachel Carson published her book Silent Springs about the dangers of pollution, and in 1972 the Club of Rome think tank published its study, Limits to Growth. In 2010 MCLA established an Environmental Studies Program. By the 1980's Green political parties had sprung up throughout Europe, with a presence in the EU parliament. Arguments went back and forth about "global warming", with scientists saying that warming was 90% true, and conservative politicians and Christian fundamentalists denying it. In 1992 the UN created the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which came up with the Kyoto Treaty binding countries to emissions reduction targets through 2020. 191 nations have signed on, including the EU, but not the US. The treaty came into effect in 2005 despite the US, but since the US is the source for 25% of greenhouse gases, UNFCCC has only achieved a partial solution so far. The US non-participation is supposedly based on a concern for American jobs and workers, unnecessary restrictions on our economic growth, and the fact that developing countries have no pollution limits placed on them. Of course they are not the world's major polluters.
The Transformation of the World Economy
In 1944 The United States convened the Bretton Woods Conference to plan post war economic growth and stability. From the 1st through the 20th of July 1944, 730 delegates from 44 Allied nations got together and hammered out an agreement to create three economic organizations: the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) known as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), which became the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The Bretton Woods system of state led economics was very successful until 1971 when the US pulled out, opening the way to a market led economic system. However in 2013 economists and some politicians are calling for a Bretton Woods II the as a solution to current economic problems stemming from the 2008 crash. In Addition to Bretton Woods several other post war organizations contributed to Strayer's Dense Web. The European Common Market 1957, know known as the European Union (EU) 1994, the United Nations, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) -- a military alliance but with political, social, and economic aims and committees. Benefits of the post 1945 economic system have been free-trade, low taxes, low tariffs, and ready capitalization.
In 2003 MasterCard was accepted at some 32 million businesses in 210 countries or territories. On the downside, however there have been underfunded social programs, maldistribution of profits, unstable markets and employment, plus a brain drain from the Global South and a plethora of irresponsible Trans National Corporations (TNC). By 2000, 51 of the world's 100 largest economic units were in fact TNCs, not countries, "responsible only to stockholders, not to citizens or nations. In the late 1960's there were only 7,000 TNCs, but by 2001 the number had grown to 65,000. Accelerated globalization has led to "the most remarkable spurt of economic growth in world history ... from $7.1 trillion in 1950 to $55.9 trillion in 2003 and on a per capita basis from $2,835 to $8,753." And poverty has fallen in the past 50 years more than it has in the previous 500 years. Yet the gap between the rich and the poor has increased from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 86 to 1 by 1991. Similar gaps are see in medical care, availability of drinking water, educational and employment opportunities.
Feminism
In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication of the Rights of Women, in 1949 Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex, in 1963 Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, and fortunately, the world has never been the same since. Feminism's liberation movement has become part of the 1960's liberation movements
inspired by Che Guevara and by the "liberation theology" of Latin American Catholic priests who sometimes even joined communist rebels against Latin American, capitalist generals and their US allies. The papacy has never agreed with "liberation theology", nor does the current pope Francis I. Issues of feminism or women's rights differed among people and countries, but some degree of reform became part of countries as diverse as Morocco, Chile, and South Korea. The cry "Women's rights are human rights", the UN's declaration of 1975 as the start of the International Women's Year & decade, and the 2006 signing of a UN Convention by 183 nations to eliminate discrimination against women were highlights in the global battle. Unfortunately the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US constitution which passed both houses of congress in 1972, got only 35 states' votes of the required 38, and so failed. "To Phyllis Schlafly, a prominent American opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, feminism was a 'disease' that brought in its wake 'fear, sickness, pain, anger, hatred, danger, violence, and all manner of ugliness'". But despite Schlafly and her ilk, feminism is still a major force in the 21st century. After all, "Gaea", the ancient Greek mother goddess is also the patroness of ecology and environmentalism.
Religion: Modernity and Fundamentalism
Neither science, Darwinism, nor European Imperialism destroyed Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism. Religion remained quiescent but powerful, and after WW I, became a catalyst for colonial revolt and independence movements. "The far more prominent trends of the last century have been those that involved the further spread of major world religions, their resurrection in new forms, their opposition to elements of secular and global modernity, and their political role as a source of community identity and conflict". In general from WWI through the 1990's Spanish, Italian, and French Catholicism was very conservative, bordering on fundamentalist--as was much of the Protestantism of America and Europe. "After World War II, American Protestantism came to oppose political liberalism and 'big government', the sexual revolution of the 1960's, homosexuality and abortion rights,and secular humanism generally". But the French congress passed a same-sex marriage act on 18 May of 2013, and the first gay couple were married on the 29th of May. We tend to forget our own history of political/religious movements and social welfare when we condemn the
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in India or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine, or Hezbollah in Lebanon. In many cases these religious/political societies also offer medical and educational help for their followers. And remember that in our religious wars of the 16th/17th centuries, unbelievers and so-called witches were burned at the stake. Still, the 2012 power takeover in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood does seem to bode ill for Egypt and the Middle East. Since 1950 the 37 Christian faith groups of the National Council of Churches in the United States has been working fervently for peace and economic development throughout the world. The Roman Catholic church has also long had special contacts and efforts at ecumenical cooperation among all faiths. If religion can cause problems, surely religion can also solve them.
The Global Environment Transformed -- "The Biophilia Hypothesis"
To recognize the earth in all its aspects as an organic entity is a philosophical or religious perception. In 1984, Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard biologist, published Biophilia, a book about the love of life or living systems. He defined biophilia as "'the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life', and suggested that the deep affiliations humans have with nature are rooted in our biology.'" He came to see the "Epic of Evolution" as a philosophical or even religious concept. Environmentalism, meaning concern about the life of the planet and all living things, began in the early nineteenth century, just as the industrial revolution was only a few decades old, close to the time of Mary Wollstonecraft and the birth of feminism. Poets William Blake and William Wordsworth decried the "dark satanic mills" as the death of the "green" England they knew. A hundred years later Rachel Carson published her book Silent Springs about the dangers of pollution, and in 1972 the Club of Rome think tank published its study, Limits to Growth. In 2010 MCLA established an Environmental Studies Program. By the 1980's Green political parties had sprung up throughout Europe, with a presence in the EU parliament. Arguments went back and forth about "global warming", with scientists saying that warming was 90% true, and conservative politicians and Christian fundamentalists denying it. In 1992 the UN created the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which came up with the Kyoto Treaty binding countries to emissions reduction targets through 2020. 191 nations have signed on, including the EU, but not the US. The treaty came into effect in 2005 despite the US, but since the US is the source for 25% of greenhouse gases, UNFCCC has only achieved a partial solution so far. The US non-participation is supposedly based on a concern for American jobs and workers, unnecessary restrictions on our economic growth, and the fact that developing countries have no pollution limits placed on them. Of course they are not the world's major polluters.
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