Pro deo et patria

Over Thanksgiving Break I had the chance to catch up with some friends. We shared college stories, looked at photos, reminisced, etc. As much as I enjoyed hearing whatever it was that had caught their interest, the overall experience reminded me of just how exceptional my college career has been and will continue to be. Many of my peers predictably selected in state schools (U of I, ISU among them), and their stories, while entertaining, did not interest me nearly as much as I would have previously guessed. My only explanation to this phenomenon is attributed to the opportunities presented by AU, and the numerous benefits of having DC as one’s playground.

 

While at AU, we have listened to foreign diplomats, journalists, politicians, and philanthropists. We have witnessed the remarks of two heads of state, trick or treated in the foreign embassies, and attended rallies that will be forever recorded in history. Maybe it’s personal preference, but I would choose active civil engagement over beer pong any day. I feel fortunate to be a part of this environment, one that encourages service and action to further the progress of humanity.

 

On Tuesdays and Fridays, friends from home recover from hangovers while my new peers and I try to figure out how to save the world. As much as I loved my high school, I was constantly alienated by the apathy that many people adopted towards the condition of the world. For many peers back home, the world did not extend beyond the borders of the Chicago-land area. Here I am but one mind among many; a student of international studies in a campus of academics, interns, volunteers, and humanitarians.

 

I realize that I may be young, naïve, and overly idealistic. The world is a tricky place. There exist people who simply wish to inflict harm on others without any valid reason. But impacts are already being made by a multitude of actors, ranging from HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa to microcredit initiatives in South America. These groups ultimately will be driven by people who care about the condition of humanity, people who want to improve the world-in short, people like the ones at AU.

 

So, with the end of our first semester at AU, I find it exciting to acknowledge the opportunities that we have as students at the most politically active campus in the nation. We now have the means to realizing our goals, what is now important is that we make the most of these next three and a half years in order to reach our full potential. I wish all of my peers good luck as we set out to achieve our ambitions. 

Sovereignty

In our last discussion, the issue of sovereignty that was brought up by Venezuela was certainly one of the most interesting points. It had struck me as a bit odd that McDonalds had been invited to a development conference, but I figured it makes sense, because we have SO MUCH MONEY. Even without sovereignty, we [I am from now on referring to McDonalds as “we”] have the means and global reach (money, 31,000 franchises, and 390,000 employees worldwide) to affect real change and make a difference in the economic development of countries. Without any sort of recognized or official sovereignty, the corporation is still able to conduct things to its liking all over the world. This made me realize that the world of “Snow Crash” might not be as unlikely as I had previously posited in my blog.

Though I stand by what I said earlier that the government will not quickly or willingly be demoted to the dead-end FedLand, the franchising of everything really isn’t that hard to imagine. Corporations are already granted a pseudo –sovereignty, sitting at the table of conferences with the World Bank, EU, India, Venezuela, and Japan. Governments turn to private defense contractors and mercenaries. It is easy to foresee a world in which corporations establish a type of sovereignty with nations and gain more and more power. After all, money makes the world go round, and we at McDonalds sure have a lot of it.


This is probably a good place to mention what an excellent class and semester it has been. In the lens of world politics, either a lot has been going on lately, or I've just been largely unaware of things since coming here. I suspect it's a fair bit of both. Here's hoping that our impassioned hallway/bathroom debates continue, and that the next semester turns out just as well.

Final Simulation

Today was our last class and the end of the final simulation. This portion was definitely my favorite because we were done with the videos and got to debate. I thought that the other groups had some interesting points, but it was also a little bit frustrating for me. As Venezuela, my group had to argue against everybody and since I knew we were going to get outvoted it seemed a little bit pointless to argue. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the simulation.

Our main point about sovereignty is something that I’ve been thinking about. On the one hand, it sucks that a country would have to conform to world bank standards even if the could come up with a plausible alternative (the Venezuelan way y’all ;D) but on the other hand the world bank does need to come up with some type of criteria to look at when allocating money and giving loans.

Libertatis Æquilibritas

Some of you know it's my dream to become a billionaire and do the whole space tourism thing (this year the first privately developed spacecraft went into orbit!), so I'm sympathetic to a certain degree of sci-fi. Even so, Snow Crash = Wowwww. I agree with Tori's post, it's pretty much the culmination of one very nerdy male's fantasies.

I will admit his future world is kind of cool (anarchy with property rights/ anarcho-capitalism = uLt1mat3 mAniFEstAti0n 0f fr33d0m!11!!), but the fact that the protagonist(a) was such an insufferable beezy was hard to overlook, especially since Y.T. was such a central part of the book. The random, pedophilic sex scene (possibly the worst sex scene ever printed, even worse than in the Fountainhead haha) was so obviously written by a male (e.g. "she does something she's never done before: comes as soon as he goes into her...she just rips one." hilarious- and also, what's the point of a "dentata" if the guy can still get at that? not very effective). The many comments about Y.T.'s nymphomaniacal nature were unnecessary. Not to sound like Rachel on a feminist rant, but come on! ;) I understand this was a revolutionary piece for its time, but the technology is pretty believable/realistic to me. In all it was alright- much more enjoyable than a textbook, so I'm not complaining.

The Newseum was amazing!! I'd say it's my favorite of the museums I've been to, after the National Portrait Gallery. Loved the Berlin Wall segments and the Unabomber's shed (!!). Maggy and I enjoyed the epic Five Freedoms Walk. :)

We've seen some intense developments in the world this semester: the election of our first black president, the Thai political crisis, Mumbai terror attacks, scary rampant government bailouts- it's been a good year to be in DC and start learning about World Politics and Econ. I've certainly expanded my knowledge a lot this semester- translation: I tripled the amount of questions I have about the world.
See you guys around!

A Future Chaotic

I’ve never been on Second Life. Online virtual reality simulators don’t interest me much, most likely because I find my own life to be thrilling/challenging/stressful/ glamorous enough. Well, ok, maybe not glamorous. The point is that I have enough going on without taking on an avatar, even if her (a while ago, I decided if I ever had an avatar, it would be female) life was more interesting than mine.

 

I must say, the katana is a nice touch. Hiro really knows how to roll. For some strange reason, I find the idea of a sword-wielding, motorcycle riding, multi-ethnic, new wave hacker intriguing. What have I done with my life?

 

The difference between our reality and this fiction, between the present and Stephenson’s future, is that Stephenson anticipates dramatic shifts in economic policy and a high propensity for radical changes within the social framework of America. My attention is first drawn to the privatization of the entities in Stephenson’s novel. With even the US government being a private corporation, the power of non-state actors becomes dominant to the point that people fail to recognize the President of the nation.

 

Stephenson is also quick to draw on the extremes. He envisions a society in which people are either illiterate and uneducated or wired and information-rich. The correlation has little to do with fiscal standing-neither Hiro nor YT would be considered wealthy. Elitism therefore is tied to the ease of access one has to the metaverse, as well as his or her level of technological savvy.

 

The bureaucracy of Stephenson’s government was a nightmare. Speaking as one who believes in the abilities of a strong, central authority, the idea of such conformity, rigidity, and senselessness made me yearn for the unconventional, say, a skateboarding kourier wrecking havoc, equipped with an attitude to boot.

 

Hiro’s society is based on extremes. It is one colossal hyperbole of the worst aspects of American society combined to form one giant mess of conglomerates. L Bob Rife, power hungry to the core, is very much the product of William Randolph Hearst combined with the reincarnation of L Ron Hubbard. Viewing a society in which such characters are among the most powerful individuals was terrifying, but also fascinating.

 

I highly doubt that Stephenson’s portrayal of society will be realized. America has already made a substantial amount of progress in upholding the central authority, and privatization is almost a foreign concept as banking giants are nationalized to keep the market afloat. In a way, I’m almost sad. I sort of wonder what it would be like to meet the greatest sword fighter in the world.

Snow Crash

I would say that Stephenson’s vision of the future, although decidedly far-fetched, is not impossible. Since the book was written in 1992, it is of course not entirely accurate with the depiction of the internet or metaverse and other technologies, it is amazing that he was able to predict technologic developments so accurately. Even the world that Hiro Protagonist lives in is not really too far away to imagine (perhaps with the exception of Y. T.’s rather eccentric personality and actions). The extreme capitalism exhibited in Snow Crash seems to be a logical extension of the growth of the system. Everything being looked out for by the interest of private corporations is really the ultimate goal of capitalism.

That being said, I do not see the United States ever undergoing such an extreme transition, at least not in the immediate future shown in Snow Crash. Such a drastic switch to extreme capitalism and the dissolution of the nation’s government would take decades, it it were ever going to happen. I cannot see the United States, even in the midst of an economic recession, ever willingly dissolving and dividing up its power among franchiselets.

The best franchiselet, I think, would have to be Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong. Not only do you get ridiculous Rat Things protecting you all the time, but you have unbridled technological development and opportunities not available in other nation-states. Also, the not racist part is fairly appealing.

Future predictions

I find Stephenson’s view of the future somewhat plausible. As far as technology goes, I would almost wonder if he was psychic. Not only did he foresee the internet and some of the subculture that goes along with it, but he also predicted to some extent underarmour (a strong and elastic yet very breathable material) which kind of impressed me. It is hard for me to imagine life without any of the technology we have today though, and I’m pretty sure I missed some of his other technological foresight because I just assumed that it was already in existence.

I don’t believe that Stephenson’s imaginary communities will ever become reality. He seems to predict that as globalization progresses and different cultures are forced to interact, they will feel threatened by one another and retreat into ethnically similar communities. I think this is true to some extent. Some books I am reading now on globalization and religion cite the insecurity that is caused by globalization for the recent growth of Islam. People in the Middle East are confronted with western ideas and technology that threaten their ways of lives, and they turn to religion for assurance. However, there is no reason that people cannot have a strong ethnic or religious identity and still be tolerant of one another. My prediction for the future would be almost the complete opposite of Stephenson’s in this aspect. I would predict that as cultures interact more and more with one another they would begin to mix and become more tolerant with one another. Instead isolating themselves within their own ethnic groups, I predict that people will mix so much that there will only be one ‘race’ of people. When cultures intermix so much and people intermarry there is also the question of how the child will be raised. I would predict that this could lead to one more common religion as parents of two different religions raise children.

I also had a problem with the general chaos that was caused by everything being a franchise. I wouldn’t enjoy living in that type of a world, and I imagine that many people feel the same way. If things were to ever move to this extreme I think that people would express their discontent and we would move towards the other extreme, keeping us at equilibrium between government and consumerism in the long term. The same goes for the ability to sue for just about everything. At a certain point people will get fed up with things and put a stop to them.

Stephenson did do a great job with the technology for the future, but I see his other predictions of more of a social commentary. He parodies the way things are today to make people think about things that that they might not otherwise think about.

Wider Horizons

I believe that Todorov made a good point in his quote. Knowing what one sees first hand is only the first level of knowledge. People who only have this perspective on the world cannot make informed decisions because they may know very little about the world outside of their little ‘bubble’ that they live in and can see the workings of first hand. They make decisions based on how it would affect their own world, but these decisions are not informed because they cannot foresee results that are not obvious.

The second type of person (the man for which each country is as his own) has achieved the second level of knowledge, He is able to view issues in the context of how it will affect his world, how it will affect someone else’s world, and how it may affect his own world indirectly. He has a wider base of knowledge than the first man and is able to understand international issues with a broader perspective. However, he still only views problems in the context of the effects it will have on him.

The third type of person has the highest level of thinking. I would define the third type of person in the same way that Runners World defines an advanced runner. Unlike the intermediate runner who is obsessed with running and plans his whole day around his run, the advanced runner is able to go for a run once a day, enjoy it, and leave it at that. The person for whom the whole world is as a foreign country is like an elite runner because he is able to step back from things and pass judgment without involving his emotions.

I think that Todorov had the right idea with this because people who are not emotionally involved in issues often have the clearest perspectives. However, I do wonder where one could find the third type of person. My perception is that the majority of people who are knowledgeable about international relations have emotions about most of the issues because international relations issues have such broad consequences. It would be hard to find a person that wouldn’t be affected by an issue. So although I think that Todorov was right, I don’t necessarily think that he was practical in this context.