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– Is One World Possible?
– It would seem that the answer to this question should be in the affirmative. We live in an era of globalization, which manifests itself in an unprecedented strengthening of integration processes in the economy, in politics, in culture. Nothing like this has ever happened in history: integration has never reached such a scale. Nevertheless, among the many scenarios for the future, projects for a harmonious global society are far from the top of the list.
What does this have to do with? Globalization today is a very controversial and ambiguous phenomenon, and the state of the modern world does not inspire much hope for future unity. The world remains divided, warring, and plagued by a variety of global problems, threats, and risks. And globalization does not eliminate them, but, on the contrary, often exacerbates them or even creates new ones. For example, global (supranational) economic structures do not reduce, but increase inequality between the rich “North” and the poor “South,” create even more intense competition, divide the world into those who are part of the global economy and benefit from it, and those who cannot.
National states, economies and cultures often perceive globalization as a threat to their existence, do not give up their positions, and this gives additional impetus to the aggravation of ethnic and religious conflicts, the flowering of traditionalism and fundamentalism.
Globalization in its current form is rightly called “asymmetric”: indeed, it does not encompass the entire world equally, not only connecting, but also dividing. The development of globalization has so far been spontaneous and unpredictable, it is impossible to control this process, and it is obvious that it brings not only positive but also negative results, increasing the situation of “global uncertainty.
We must not forget, however, that globalization is far from over. In the language of synergetics, we are now at a bifurcation point (or polyfurcation), i.e. at the branching point of the development path. How globalization will continue to evolve is still unclear. But this is what inspires not only apprehension, but also hope. As the famous Russian scientist Ilya Prigozhin said, “the bone is still cast,” i.e. the future is undecided, which means that a unified world can become a reality – development can follow this trajectory.
Is there any reason to make such assumptions? In my opinion, there certainly is. Despite all its flaws, globalization is for the first time in history creating universal interdependence, a very important factor that now affects our well-being. Just a few centuries ago, events in, say, Japan or China had no impact on France or England.
Cultural contacts and trade relations certainly existed in ancient times, but societies were quite autonomous and self-sufficient. Now the situation has changed dramatically. Financial and political crises, economic ups and downs, natural and man-made disasters in some remote corner of the world can affect the lives of other countries or humanity as a whole. Local events cause unpredictable and large-scale consequences.
This means that the world becomes a system and the laws inherent in systems come into play: no element exists by itself, but only in close connection with others. The process of strengthening our interconnectedness and interdependence will obviously increase. And this, in principle, creates the foundation for greater social transformation and the transition to a unified global society.
– What is “one world”?
– I want to focus on a very important aspect of the unity of humankind: what exactly is one world? What can it be? And at what price will unity be achieved?
The word “one” is not a strict scientific term; it has a very broad meaning. And, if we use it to define the new world order, it will definitely need clarification, because the idea of a single global society has many different interpretations. For example, the famous American scholar Francis Fukuyama drew a picture of a homogeneous world unified by the Western model, in which national states disappear and cultural and religious differences are erased. Ф. Fukuyama rightly called it “the end of history”: a world without diversity is incapable of development; it is a historical dead end. Even more depressing is the very widespread idea of a global society ruled tightly by a world government and a globalist elite.
Both scenarios are essentially anti-utopias and raise fair doubts: is such a unified world necessary? But such conceptions of unity give a wrong and simplified picture. Unity is not really the same as uniformity. We have already said that the world becomes a complex system, and all complex systems are necessarily internally heterogeneous. They cannot be otherwise: these are the conditions of their existence. Take natural systems as examples: the biosphere, biogeocenoses, organisms (especially higher animals or humans), all of which are made up of a huge number of completely different components that are closely related to one another, depend on one another, have some degree of freedom, and yet form a single, highly integrated whole.
Society is also a complex differentiated system. However, unlike natural systems, the social system is much less integrated, or rather, the integration is superficial and unstable. Man has a developed ego-consciousness, the ability to express his will; he has, especially in our time, a pronounced individualism and egocentrism. Group and personal interests very often diverge from the interests of society, the “right” behavior is combined with attempts to realize one’s own selfish goals, despite all the protective measures (coercion, punishment, prohibitions, encouragement) invented by society.
Obviously, it is the lack of integration, of social solidarity, that is the main problem for a single society and for society as a whole right now – it is even more acute here. What, in fact, is the main flaw of globalization? In the writings of scholars, whether sociologists, economists or political scientists, the word “egoism” began to appear more and more frequently. Indeed, globalization is taking place against the backdrop of an acute clash of totally divergent interests. Selfishness and flat pragmatism largely determine the behavior of individuals, nation-states, and the vanguard of globalization: transnational and multinational corporations.
Global integration and global interdependence inevitably imply that the interests of humanity as a whole and each element of that whole must come first. But so far this is not happening: other people, countries, ethnicities, religions remain, as a rule, “others,” and the concept of “humanity” is an abstraction. Our consciousness and social relationships are completely out of sync with the increasing systemic nature of society.
Unity is not achieved by eliminating diversity; the main obstacle is our separateness and egocentrism. In a unified global world, all nation-states and cultures can persist – provided that the relationship between them is structured in an entirely different way than before.
