The three most important forces that impact the 21st century are communism, individual’s freedom & world peace. These three factors and their place in history have acutely shaped the way of the current world. Communism in and of itself is not a huge dominating factor in the world today, but rather it has affected American politics in complex and complicated ways. Individual freedom and world peace are the things that people are currently striving for and is seemingly closer than ever in the technological age. The most important struggle right now is of the people to rein in national and even global inequality. Inequality hurts everyone, especially as all nations’ economies are more interconnected.
First we will examine communism’s role in the world as we see it today. Communism was viewed as such an inherent evil anything or anyone that associated it was irreparably damaged. It is for this reason that Jack Abramoff and others reframed the traditional political “left” as communist sympathizers and proponents. By creating an enemy at home Abramoff and his team of lobbyists were able to effectively defund the political left. These actions made it easy for conservative lobbyists to gain the nations trust. After all no one would want to trust a bunch of communists. The devastation that Abramoff had set in motion wasn’t immediate visible, but now that it is it is clear that his use of communism as a scare tactic was incredibly effective. His actions made it possible to effectively buy congressional staffers. If not for such a potent enemy Abramoff would have had much more difficulty in vilifying the traditional left. Communisms’ destructive omnipresence can be sensed in the following speech excerpt by Winston Churchill,
“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour'”.
It is clear by his language that the threat posed by communism was real and immense. Furthermore it was insidious in more ways than just the obvious; the fear of communism was used to push the national dialogue towards the political right. There has not been any rival event that has re-centered political dialogue, and as a result American politics is out of touch with the common American. Most Americans agree that our political system is broken and the reason such sentiment exists is because of the disconnect between politicians and their constituents.
The next factor that is shaping the current century is the emphasis on individual freedom. Individual freedom is at the heart of the global protest movements. When people started to realize that others were just as anxious as they for equal opportunities and justice they started to mobilize. Even as early as 1776 Adam Smith was talking about how people need to handle their affairs in the ways that best serve them, and that it is the foundation of our current monetary system. He states,
“In order to avoid the inconveniency of [not having reasonable amounts to barter], every prudent man in every period of society, after the first establishment of the division of labour, must naturally have endeavoured to manage his affairs in such a manner, as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for the produce of their industry.”
What he means is that there must be an item that stores the value of goods, but is separate from goods themselves so that this item can be used to purchase any amount of any good. He gives the example that a rancher who needs salt would not be well served by buying a cow’s value worth of salt. This principal shows the need of individuals to manage their own affairs in ways that best suit them. Du Bois compliments this idea when he talks about the need of black folks to self actualize in ways that best fit them. He says,
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.”
His strife would strike a chord with the global protests against a purposeful disenfranchisement of the lower classes. In fact the global protests, from the Tunisia and Egypt and Libya to New York and Greece and England, the goal is the same- citizens are tired of “having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in [their] face. That is if they ever found their way to the door in the first place. It is a widely known fact that the gap between income inequalities is widening, even in developed nations like the United States. This income inequality and policy that continues to perpetuate it have led many to take to the streets to take back their opportunity.
Even as protesters occupy squares worldwide the emphasis on peace has be an uplifting and incredible aspect of each protest. More generally peaceful civil disobedience is the only functional way for citizens to take back their political systems. First we saw it happen in Tunisia and Egypt. Now we see it in New York and Los Angeles. Oakland has even had overwhelmingly peaceful protests, unfortunately most of the violence in the face of these protests has come from police departments. Protesters aren’t the only example of peace’s world takeover. President Obama has similarly taken on a quagmire of a task in the name of peace. He has tried to revive failing Israel-Palestine peace talks. The need for peace has been echoed around the world. There are, of course, certain countries that would prefer not to have peace imposed on them, but there seems to be a widely recognized movement that calls for peaceful conditions to allow individuals to take full advantage of their natural freedoms. Kennedy too, at a time of severe distress, invoked a peaceful option to what would otherwise be a devastating situation. An excerpt of his speech on the Cuban missile crisis is as follows,
“The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are--but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high--and Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission. Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right- -not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.”
“World peace” has always been the ultimate goal, however now more than ever, it is a goal shared by the entire world’s people and they can talk about it together. Technology’s “world flattening” properties have made it easier to realize that all people share many of the same characteristics. It is possible to see people from other countries as inherently similar to ourselves, instead of being told that we are all so different.
Works Cited
Churchill, Winston. “Their Finest Hour.” The History Place. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. <http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/churchill-hour.htm>.
Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. “The Souls of Black Folk .” Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2011. <http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DubSoul.html>.
Kennedy, John F. “The Cuban Missle Crisis.” The History Place. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. <http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/jfk-cuban.htm>.
Smith, Adam. “Wealth of Nations.” Library of Economics and Liberty. Liberty Fund Inc., 2000. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html.
Photo credits:
http://simplygab.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-this-end-of-cyber-cold-war.html patriotism
http://wbrymer.blogspot.com/p/cold-war.html stop communism
http://weirdovideo.com/wv68/content/propaganda-your-job-germany-1945 liberty
http://totallycoolpix.com/2011/10/the-occupy-wall-street-protests/ boy w/dollar
www.huffingtonpost.com/ 2011/ 10/ 03/ occupy-wall-street_n_992905.html girl arrested
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/blog/qrswave/occupy-wall-street-tahrir-style ballerina
www.addictinginfo.org/ 2011/ 09/ 21/ why-is-the-free-press-ignoring-the-wall-street-protests/ people before profit
www.urbanchristiannews.com/ ucn/ 2011/ 10/ president-obama-addresses-wall-street-protesters.html crowd
www.actnowny.org/4072/pre-occupied-wall-street/ we the people
www.onlinemovieshut.com/online-movies/casino-jack-movie-cast casino jack
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/09/from_revolution_to_war?page=0,3 tahrir square
Photo credits:
http://simplygab.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-this-end-of-cyber-cold-war.html patriotism
http://wbrymer.blogspot.com/p/cold-war.html stop communism
http://weirdovideo.com/wv68/content/propaganda-your-job-germany-1945 liberty
http://totallycoolpix.com/2011/10/the-occupy-wall-street-protests/ boy w/dollar
www.huffingtonpost.com/ 2011/ 10/ 03/ occupy-wall-street_n_992905.html girl arrested
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/blog/qrswave/occupy-wall-street-tahrir-style ballerina
www.addictinginfo.org/ 2011/ 09/ 21/ why-is-the-free-press-ignoring-the-wall-street-protests/ people before profit
www.urbanchristiannews.com/ ucn/ 2011/ 10/ president-obama-addresses-wall-street-protesters.html crowd
www.actnowny.org/4072/pre-occupied-wall-street/ we the people
www.onlinemovieshut.com/online-movies/casino-jack-movie-cast casino jack
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/09/from_revolution_to_war?page=0,3 tahrir square
