Recent developments in the world of politics beg a question: where are we looking to? The globe is currently facing vehement challenges. A global economic crisis, dramatic growth of the world population and a possible food crisis, Syrian deadlock, the Arab Spring and Muslim upheaval, Iranian nuclear issue, China’s rise and nationalistic appetite, global environmental change, and so on encapsulate the 21st century’s gloomy picture. Yet it is globalization that should harness the skill and creativity of individual humans in order to puzzle out aforementioned concomitant hazards.
In the first week of October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced, “This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month. If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you. Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling, and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life. I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.” This is a decisive victory of globalization over state-made boundaries.
The world is witnessing a new current in global philosophy, that I call it Global Politicization. It is the Glocalization of the outstanding values (freedom of communication, access to information, political participation and leverage on decision-making process, political education, political maturity and awareness, global political will to mitigate global challenges) of Political Globalization by individual human beings. Individual humans gradually understand the importance of “going into politics”; they are keen on providing their modest inputs in the development of their neighborhood, they are interested in shaping their future, they are vigorously fighting for their independence--and in the process, they transform to political entities. They are building a nation without states, a map without borders. They are championing for political maturity. Individual humans are establishing United Individuals via ICT -- Facebooks, Twitters, free communications, and information sharing. They are challenging state supremacy.
Independence movements in the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia and the establishment of new post-socialist states(recognized and unrecognized), as well as the births of Eritrea, South Sudan, and the like were the first signs of the abrupt reversal in the political culture throughout the globe. The Arab Spring is another vivid example of the dominance of global dynamism over static state. It is not a brainwashing phenomenon or bandwagoning adventurism. Political virginity is being defeated in the Middle East (unfortunately though we are witnessing an unprecedented increase in violence and casualties there), and Arab people now will never stomach the political power of old regimes. The old is on the brink of ultimate collapse in the world in general, and in the Middle East in particular.
All the aforementioned “freedom projects” are not the struggle for the establishment of new states; rather they are the battle for individuals’ supremacy over perpetrator-states. They are just inventing their own networks, making their own choice, exercising the power of their political will, delivering their message to the world, and changing old stations. They are going globally.
Global politicization is a rare glimpse into the 21st Century’s new undertakings. It is time to revisit the very idea of state supremacy, throw away insular state-like passions, and put forward global initiatives to meet the application deadlines of the project “Sobering our world!”
Vahram Ayvazyan is a 2012 graduate of the Genocide and Human Rights University Program at the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies in Toronto.
a global affairs media network
Political Globalization -- Global Politicization
October 26, 2012
Recent developments in the world of politics beg a question: where are we looking to? The globe is currently facing vehement challenges. A global economic crisis, dramatic growth of the world population and a possible food crisis, Syrian deadlock, the Arab Spring and Muslim upheaval, Iranian nuclear issue, China’s rise and nationalistic appetite, global environmental change, and so on encapsulate the 21st century’s gloomy picture. Yet it is globalization that should harness the skill and creativity of individual humans in order to puzzle out aforementioned concomitant hazards.
In the first week of October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced, “This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month. If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you. Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling, and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life. I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.” This is a decisive victory of globalization over state-made boundaries.
The world is witnessing a new current in global philosophy, that I call it Global Politicization. It is the Glocalization of the outstanding values (freedom of communication, access to information, political participation and leverage on decision-making process, political education, political maturity and awareness, global political will to mitigate global challenges) of Political Globalization by individual human beings. Individual humans gradually understand the importance of “going into politics”; they are keen on providing their modest inputs in the development of their neighborhood, they are interested in shaping their future, they are vigorously fighting for their independence--and in the process, they transform to political entities. They are building a nation without states, a map without borders. They are championing for political maturity. Individual humans are establishing United Individuals via ICT -- Facebooks, Twitters, free communications, and information sharing. They are challenging state supremacy.
Independence movements in the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia and the establishment of new post-socialist states(recognized and unrecognized), as well as the births of Eritrea, South Sudan, and the like were the first signs of the abrupt reversal in the political culture throughout the globe. The Arab Spring is another vivid example of the dominance of global dynamism over static state. It is not a brainwashing phenomenon or bandwagoning adventurism. Political virginity is being defeated in the Middle East (unfortunately though we are witnessing an unprecedented increase in violence and casualties there), and Arab people now will never stomach the political power of old regimes. The old is on the brink of ultimate collapse in the world in general, and in the Middle East in particular.
All the aforementioned “freedom projects” are not the struggle for the establishment of new states; rather they are the battle for individuals’ supremacy over perpetrator-states. They are just inventing their own networks, making their own choice, exercising the power of their political will, delivering their message to the world, and changing old stations. They are going globally.
Global politicization is a rare glimpse into the 21st Century’s new undertakings. It is time to revisit the very idea of state supremacy, throw away insular state-like passions, and put forward global initiatives to meet the application deadlines of the project “Sobering our world!”
Vahram Ayvazyan is a 2012 graduate of the Genocide and Human Rights University Program at the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies in Toronto.
