Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

Does the pope actually condemn globalization? The claim, but no quote supporting it, was in the article. The Church has argued for a sort of capitalism-for-the-cabooses since Rerum Novarum from the 1890s is still the central church document for this sort of thing.

PS: Check the blog.

The Pope might have actually said what the article claims he said, but I have long since come to the conclusion that the news media almost never report what the Pope says accurately. In fact, there have been enough occasions where the news reports were exactly the opposite of the Pope's statements that I no longer trust any reporting that they do on the Pope.

I do not believe that globalization alone (markets) is the synthesis. I believe that, as in the case of women and slaves before, formal laws emmancipating the Gap (slave) from the Core (master) and granting the Gap a full and equal vote in international affairs is an equally integral part and logical first step in achieving a form of synthesis. This may be the critical workaround we have been looking for.

The example of China and Vietnam also speak well of this suggestion (freedom first, then globalization, then synthesis). China and Vietnam, however, had to fight long wars with the old Core to achieve their freedom -- thus accounting for the very long delay in connecting these entities, as partners, to the global economy and to the international community.

We do not want to make this same mistake again with the Gap -- causing it to have to fight the Core for its freedom (global gorillas?) and, thereby, delaying globalization, connectivity and synthesis.