Analysis: Anti-Globalisation and the Egoism Behind it

Ever since the beginning of world travel itself, globalisation has emerged as a hotbed topic for many economists, politicians, and historians. People constantly debate the effectiveness and purpose of globalisation, and especially in recent decades, the anti-globalisation movement has picked up steam. This article will seek to analyse and deconstruct the movement's points and most importantly, debunk the ethical egoism that this trend embodies.

What is Anti-Globalisation and Egoism?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, anti-globalisation is the “opposition to the increase in the global power and influence of businesses, especially multinational corporations.” In other words, opposing the increasingly growing international movements or establishing a bond between nations. As a result, goods and services can venture across national and international boundaries conveniently and efficiently.

Ethical egoism is a theory, first introduced by philosopher Henry Sidgwick in his book Methods of Ethics. Ethical egoism is a normative ethical position that one's fundamental moral ought to act in their own self-interest. This differs from psychological egoism, which states that people can only act out of self-interest.

What does globalisation entail?

In short, globalisation can be summarised into 3 points:

1. The liberalisation of markets around the world by the reduction of trade tariffs, and the establishment of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).

• This gives local companies access to the vast foreign market that was initially deemed inaccessible.

• Brands that were localised at the beginning, such as famous American F & B chains such as McDonald's or Starbucks, are now common in both developed countries and developing countries all across the world.

• E-commerce has quickened this process. Now, individuals can freely access goods from foreign brands on the internet, within the comforts of their own home.

2. The expedited transfer of goods and people with the advent of new technologies.

• The prevalence of air and sea travel means that products and manpower can easily be transported from one location to another, significantly reducing transport costs and increasing efficiency.

• In the past, intercontinental travel was confined to the sea. With limited shipping routes and less efficient sea vessels, cargo often took months to reach its destination. Now, transporting goods by air can take less than a day from one end of the globe to another.

3. More international cultural diversity due to increased migration.

• With increased connectivity and the ease of transportation, many individuals seek education and career opportunities overseas. Foreign countries are now just a simple plane ride away. Thus, it is relatively easy for individuals to heighten job prospects by travelling to another country to sell their skills and/or exploit a more favourable market.

• Brought along with them are their traditions, cultures, and practices that their foreign counterparts may otherwise have never experienced, thus creating a multi-diverse community.

How can globalisation be beneficial?

Globalisation is a cultural phenomenon. It reflects on almost everything such as contemporary artwork, population migration, linguistic changes, trades and so on. So the world today experiences widespread global economic interdependence and the accompanying cultural borrowing has taken place for an extremely long amount of time. Archaeologists have found trade documents from the Indus Valley Civilisation in Mesopotamia, which is all the way from Iraq to Pakistan and India. But over time, the scale of this global phenomenon has increased dramatically for a few reasons:

1. Multinational corporations have global reach and an increasing amount of power

2. Transportations have improved so that travelling and shipping are cheap and safe.

3. Governments have decreased tariffs and regulations on international trade (free trade)

Globalisation is said to lead to a longer, happier, and more prosperous life for us—not to mention the stunning change in the overall human population. In Western countries, globalisation has also led to the rise of service communities. In the United States and Europe, most people now work not in agriculture or manufacturing, but service sectors such as healthcare, retail, education, entertainment, informational technology and much more. This resulted in the changes of our psychology as well, especially those of the upper class in the industrialised world. Many also note that globalisation has also led to the celebration of individualism and uniqueness, but ever since the 1960s, the ascendance of the idea of personal freedom, with minor limitations from government intervention has become very powerful. Even the Catholic Church was on board with this new search for individual freedom, as the Second Vatican Council relaxed the church rules to weaken central authorities, made concessions to individual styles of belief and so on.

How can globalisation be unfavourable?

However, as most things are, globalisation has its downsides. As worldwide production and consumption increases, we also increase our use of resources, especially water and fossil fuel. One of the cycles that creates this phenomenon is through increasing efficiency-cheaper price-raise in demand.

This cycle looks as though there’s nothing wrong about it, but, as our demands increase, more resources, especially fossil fuel, will be capped at demand. Another downside of globalisation is our health problems. Much of the world has been ravaged by HIV/AIDS for the past 3 decades and currently, we are facing an unprecedented pandemic of COVID-19. This shouldn’t be too surprising, given the increased population density and more travel population centres. Then, there’s economic interdependence. Many experts and historians see that this escalating global interdependence is less likely to lead to war—which can be true under some circumstances—but we experience large-scale ethnic and nationalistic violence from Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Afghanistan. Of course, trading and other over-the-border activities have taken place since a long time ago, but things such as pharmaceuticals, software, financial services etc are something which represents a wholly new.

What part does egoism play in anti-globalisation?

Now, as stated in the title, egoism has a huge part in the anti-globalisation movement. But, after reading some of the pros and cons of anti-globalisation, you might find no connection between egoism and anti-globalisation. So to give you a better understanding, let’s take Brexit for example. Brexit is the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Polls produced data that showed that nearly half (49%) of leave voters said the biggest single reason for wanting to leave the European Union was "the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK". ("in the UK." meaning: "by the UK.", which implies that decisions regarding the UK should be made "on behalf of [around] 65 million UK citizens, and not [about] 500 million EU residents."Another third said the main reason was that leaving offered the best chance for the UK to regain control over immigration and its own borders. These are all very valid reasons for them to leave, as they strive to improve its economy and living conditions better as a nation, rather than improving Europe as a whole. There were some advocates of Brexit who saw leaving the EU as an economic opportunity for Britain. This was in contradiction to the Remain campaign's warnings of economic damage as a result of Brexit and differed slightly from voters feeling economically left behind by EU membership. Those who saw economic opportunity tended to be sympathetic towards the free market and free trade ideas, viewing the regulation of the EU as imposing on personal market freedom.

Some people might not consider this ‘egoism’. Just doing what’s so-called ‘the best for its country’ but that’s exactly what egoism is referred to as. Many more countries such as America under President Trump’s governing (in which America is growing more and more negative about China’s interference with its economy and China’s market expanding into its country) or North Korea (whereby the country is completely secluded) demonstrates egoism by lashing out at other countries and trying to benefit its own.

In conclusion, globalisation will always be hampered by problems of its own design, something which is omnipresent in society and which we will always be afflicted by. But, do these issues merit halting global progress? So now that you’ve read this (admittedly somewhat biased) article, what are your opinions on anti-globalisation? Should it continue or not? We are happy for you to entertain discourse in the comments section. Thank you!