GENED8-FINALS LESSON 5 PDF

# Chapter V: Globalization and Its Critical Challenges ## Focus Questions: - What do globalization, pluralism, and fundamentalism mean? - What are characteristics of millennials and fillennials? - What is the role of religion in ethics? ## Lesson 1: Globalization and Pluralism: New Challenges in...

# Chapter V: Globalization and Its Critical Challenges ## Focus Questions: - What do globalization, pluralism, and fundamentalism mean? - What are characteristics of millennials and fillennials? - What is the role of religion in ethics? ## Lesson 1: Globalization and Pluralism: New Challenges in Ethics ### Intended Learning Outcomes: - Explain the meaning of globalization. - Identify the moral challenges that globalization brings. ### Introduction: This Lesson is devoted to a discussion on the meaning of globalization, the moral challenges that globalization brings, global ethics and environmental ethics. It also presents global issues that require ethical considerations. ### Activity: As a class, sing "It's a Small World" by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. ## Analysis: 1. Which line of the song is your favorite? Why? 2. Do you agree that our world is a small world after all? 3. Does the song suggest a global world? How? ## Abstraction ### Globalization Defined Globalization means "the erosion of national boundaries and the reduced significance of national governments." Suter, K., 2006). It is "moving from a world with borders to a world without." Nation states will remain in existence but they have to work together with other centers of power such as 1) transnational corporations, 2) intergovernment organizations like the United Nations and 3) non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as environment movements. Globalization means "the erosion of national boundaries and the reduced significance of national governments." As the song goes, it is a "small world after all" where "there's so much to share" since it has become borderless. We cannot escape from globalization. It is now happening. It is like a "tsunami" engulfing us. Jan Scholte (2005), an expert in globalization, gave five different interpretations of globalization, namely: 1) internationalization, 2) liberalization, 3) universalization, 4) modernization or Westernization and 5) deterritorialization. - **Internationalization** refers to 'cross-border relations between countries. These relations include trade, finance, communication which create international interdependence among nations and peoples. - **Liberalization** focuses on "open, borderless world economy." Trade and foreign exchange as well as travel barriers are abolished or reduced, making it possible to participate in the world as a whole. - **Universalization** refers to the "various ways in which a synthesis of cultures has taken place, etc. such as having a common calendar, shared common technology. - **Modernization** or westernization refers to the ways that 'social structures of modernity'-capitalism, science, movies, music have spread throughout the world. - **Deterritorialization** means that in a highly globalized world "social space" is no longer wholly mapped in terms of territorial places ... and borders. Corporations and non-government organizations transcend local geographic constraints. In other words, globalization is the worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications, interconnection, interdependence, interaction and integration. It is the integration of national economies through trade, investment, capital flow, labor migration, and technology, removal of barriers between national economies to encourage the flow of goods, services, capital, and labor. ### Moral Challenges of Globalization Along with globalization comes ethical or moral issues. If the values of people, particularly moral values, are influenced by culture, then globalization where people are exposed to new ways of doing things further enhances moral development, particularly global moral consciousness. The challenge lies in the willingness of people used to thinking and assessing things within their smaller context to adjust to a wider world view; particularly to develop a global consciousness. For instance, the Filipino "kami" or "tayo" mentality which implies groupings within the confines of family, barangay, municipality will become a global "kami" or "tayo." Global ethics implies growth, from local or national to global moral consciousness, "a perspective that takes all human beings and their habitats as its subject," with the purpose to lay bare "the ethical propositions that underpin injustice and inequality in a globalized world and to devise ideal distributions of resources and responsibilities that would make our world fairer." The greatest good of the greatest number is no longer the greatest good of the greatest number within their localities but the greatest good of the greatest number of the citizens of the world. ### Global Ethics Globalization includes the observance of global ethics (with an "s"). Global ethics is concerned with the critical ethical inquiry into the nature and justification of values and norms that are global in kind and into the various issues that arise such as world poverty and international aid, environmental problems, peace and security, intervention, human rights, gender equality, child labour, torture, scarce resources, trafficking, migration, climate change, global trade, medical tourism. ### Global Problems: There are global problems or issues that require corresponding ethical considerations. 1. **Global Poverty:** Is there a moral duty to help the global poor? Should wealthy nations share their wealth to the poor nations? A quotation traced by St. Thomas to its author, St. Ambrose states: "It is the hungry man's bread that you withhold" or hoard. Fr. Gerry Orbos, SVD said: "If only we learned to share, no one will have so little, and no one will have too much." Of course, the basis of the moral obligation is the principle of love. Some countries cannot help being poor, due lack of resources, or technical knowhow to develop and manage their resources. Wealthy nations are lucky they have both in place, resources and skills of management, compounded by a culture of honesty and discipline. Poor nations are unlucky they are governed by dictators who are also corrupt. Because from the very start, they are already on the disadvantage or losing end, the Vatican adopted the policy of preferential option for the poor. There is a moral obligation of wealthy nations to help the global poor. But it is not as simple as giving dole outs or donations. For instance, if the wealthy farmers of USA have bumper crop, their moral obligation to help the global poor is not as simple as merely delivering their excess production to the latter. The economists have to consider how to maintain prices of the products that will make the farmers survive. Those who have none or less in products are best helped by assisting them in production. 2. **Migration:** People living in poor places, or being ruled by oppressive, dictatorial or tyrannic regimes long to migrate to places where they believe life is better. The moral or ethical issue is whether or not the receiving countries, in a Christian spirit, will simply open their doors without considering the negative impact of the migrants on their own citizens. There is a limit to the absorptive capacity of the receiving countries; they may even end up regretting why they open their doors in the first place, especially when some of the migrants manage to enter to enforce their mission to inflict harm. 3. **Environmental Ethics:** Is it possible to derive an "ought" with regard to the environment? Why should I not throw my garbage of plastic into the river? Why should my car pass the anti-smoke belching test? Why should I not dump my garbage to another country? Why should nations stop emitting pollutants into the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide? What is the basis of the moral obligation? It may be stated as one's obligation not to tamper with the environment which boomerangs as harm to humans. One should not do things that will ultimately cause harm to others. The biblical mandate to "have dominion" over the environment means responsible dominion, stewardship. In contrast, we have "raped" our environment. Environmental ethics states that there is a moral duty of moral agents "to protect or at least refrain from damaging" the environment. The basis of the duty lies in the environment's "intrinsic value", its goodness in itself. Its use and development should be sustainable, that is, its use and development to "meet the needs of the present" should not compromise its ability to meet the needs of future generations. "Whatever the future holds, many thinkers now believe that solving the problems of climate change is an essential ingredient in any credible form of sustainable development and that the alternative to decisive action may result in the diminution not only of nature and natural systems, but also of human dignity itself." (From "Environmental Ethics," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Plato.stanford.edu/ 06/21/2019) 4. **Pluralism vs. Fundamentalism:** As a political philosophy, pluralism is the recognition and affirmation of diversity within a political body, which permits the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions and lifestyles. Pluralism as to content refers to diversity, to differences in values and beliefs, and to notions of "otherness." Pluralism about morality "may be understood as a form of relativism which holds that there is no single objective or universal standard." The challenge is to find common grounds and build up from there. The question to ask in all meetings is, what is morally best for all parties and not what is legal or lawful. Despite pluralism as an offshoot of globalization, there are sectors who refuse to get out from where they are used to. Their movement is called fundamentalism. This refers to any sect or movement within a religion that emphasizes a rigid adherence to what it conceives of as the fundamental principles of its faith, usually resulting in a denouncement of alternative practices and interpretations. Whoever is not with them is "against" them, and therefore an enemy who should be "piously" killed, that is, killed in the name of God. What is needed is a training or education on how to live together. "Living together" is the affirmation or acceptance of the other inspite of who or what he or she is, caring, forgiving. It is the global "oughtness." Citizens of the world ought to face the world and learn how to live in it. In fact, "learning to live together" is one of the four pillars of learning to given by the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century headed by Jacques Delors. ## Key Takeaways: - Globalization is "moving from a world with borders to a world without." - Globalization means internationalization, liberalization, universalization, modernization or Westernization and deterritorialization. - Global problems require ethical considerations. These include global poverty, migration, environmental ethics, pluralism vs. fundamentalism. - The moral challenges of globalization are: 1) to expand moral and ethical consciousness; 2) to observe global ethics; 3) to find common grounds among pluralistic societies and build on what is morally best for all parties and not what is legal or lawful, and 4) to engage in a genuine dialogue with fundamentalists toward mutual understanding and affirmation.