Another World Is Possible
Graffiti In Nantes, France
The more I attend classes at university, the more I feel like I belong in a museum. The big museum of failed and forgotten ideals. Move along, nothing to see here.
It started last summer when I attended a macro-economy class. The prof enjoyed hanging out at Wall Street on his spare time during the weekends. Unsurprisingly, he was the type of person to get super excited about the stock market (in which we should definitely all invest), RRSPs (a must for all Canadians), saving bonds (deemed too conservative) and other financial products. He had sparkles in his eyes as he talked about trading stocks. Never mind it was only a few months after the big economic crisis which rocked the world in 2008. Capitalism was alive and well, he claimed. The values to adopt were the American financial model and the pursuit of growth. No other system worked, right? So why question the “bestest” way for individuals to seek happiness?
Sure. I mean, what do you expect from a North American economy (and business) prof? He was bound to be in love with liberalism. Yet, it was certainly the first time of my life I heard someone praising the mechanism of aggregated supply and demand, as well as a form of neoliberalism that did left millions unemployed. But after all, maybe he was pushing his point.
I’m currently attending a class on globalization. First it is interesting to notice how current the courses are in Canada. In France, we barely touched the Algerian war of independence (which took place in the early 1960s) for instance because it was considered to be “contemporary history” and as such, we would lack the required distance to analyze it. In Canada, no such second thought. Profs don’t seem to have any problem analyzing the current war in Iraq or in Afghanistan, even though it seems to me that it’s hard to have an unbiased opinion without much hindsight.
And in these classes, a lot of ideas and paradigms are presented as universally accepted and almost commonsensical. For instance, the current liberal globalization just exists. It is mentioned as if everybody on earth at one point did agree on it. Communism and Socialism failed. Yes, they did. No further explanation, that’s just the way it is. It is as if both ideologies are exactly the same and as if the fall of the Berlin wall and the subsequent disintegration of the USSR sounded the death-knell of any alternative to liberalism.
Have you ever heard of ATTAC? ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens) is an activist organization for the establishment of a tax on foreign exchange transactions. Granted, it was founded in France (you know, far away in Socialist and useless Europe) but it now exists in over forty countries around the world. It’s by no means a left-wing fringe group — at least I thought so. But the way the prof talks about it, it sounds like they are a bunch of bearded old hippies with flowers in their hair who foment the revolution.
Shit. I was one of these hippies fomenting the revolution.
During the 18 years I spent in France, I protested, went on strike and demonstrated. I was run after by cops and tear-gassed (yet, never been arrested). I made signs, used a microphone and happily sang revolutionary songs. In every way, I was your typical French teenager.
Obviously, when I came to Canada, I mellowed a lot. First, I didn’t know the culture very much and you can’t fight against what you don’t know. Second, I was very much aware of the fact I was now living in North America, the birthplace of liberalism. Blindly rebelling against it didn’t seem to make any sense.
Canada is pretty peaceful. Unlike France, there are few protests and demonstrations (although our Prime Minister managed to anger Canadians enough to stir up a national protest last month). It lures you into a sense of tranquility. Yet, I can’t help thinking that there is more to life than owning a house with a white picket fence and having 2.5 kids. It’s not because my life is somewhat better here than in France that I forgot about all the socio-economic problems around.
The economic gap, both within the so-called developed countries and between the latter and the rest of the world is driving me crazy. And so does the lack of basic labour laws in North America (and don’t even get me started on the U.S health care system!). Neocolonialism and the power that all the “Bretton Woods” organizations, such as the IMF and the WTO still have in this world. The fact that the world is ruled by a lucky few and that we all stand by, watching, as decisions are made way above our heads.
I have nothing against “peace, order and good government” nor against “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” but I do see some issues in the world we live in. And I doubt that the current political model we use as well as this view of globalization will do much to solve them. So yes, I’m still fighting. It starts by peacefully questioning the current world order and realizing we shouldn’t take it for granted.
As they say, “another world is possible”. No, seriously. I believe in it, anyway.
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Tagged with: University In Canada Wake Up Comrade (Left-Wing Rant)
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One thing I learned when studying…every class is a process of indoctrinating you into thinking in a certain way. Their way. I am always aware of this. Sometimes it is valuable to be able to analyse situations from different modes of thought, just be aware that you are doing it. As I see you are.
Further it always upset me when socialism, or social capitalism is used as if it is a dirty word. I live in a country where HELLO it is working quite well. Free Health care, high life expectancy, National pension system which you can actually live on, free education — also University, partially public supported preschool and we didn’t get whacked when the global economy went bad. We had a little lull and many had hiring stops but very little unemployment…there are other ways to run economics and still enjoy liberty and free trade…
.-= DianeCA´s last blog ..Traveling back in time at the Norwegian Folk Museum =-.
Indeed, globalisation is a very interesting topic.
Have you read “The World is Flat” written by Thomas Friedman?
It’s quite good! Worth reading.
Re: Ancient pharmacy / 古老的药房 / Farmasi yang lama / 古い薬屋
Ha ha… Is that one of your fetishes?!
Re: Life in the water / 水中的生活 / Kehidupan di dalam air / 水中の生活
That’s clownfish for you. Nemo is their misnomer.
Re: Magic smoke by the sea / 海边的魔术烟雾 / Asap ajaib di tepi pantai / 海辺の魔法の煙
Ha ha ha! I guess so. Then, rain must be its copyright, which other countries are free to copy. Come take our rain away. Ha ha
.-= London Caller´s last blog ..Life in the water / 水中的生活 / Kehidupan di dalam air / 水中の生活 =-.
can i tell you, zhu, that i love you? you articulate great thoughts; this is exactly why i keep coming back to read your blog.
the thing is, the world changes. something works for a while, then somebody figures a way to scam the system and then it doesn’t work as well as it used to.
and wealth– i read somewhere fairly recently that great fortunes are lost within three generations. nothing, even wealth and power, lasts forever.
the recent economic trouble doesn’t mean capitalism can’t work. it means, somewhere along the way, fewer and fewer people were benefitting from the system. reducing taxes indeed helps the economy, but cutting them too far leaves too many people disenfranchised and without the hope of opportunity.
it’s an ugly word in america: income redistribution.
but you can’t have a functioning economy where the rich get richer and the middle class grow poorer.
there has to be balance in everything– ecology, love, power, economics– balance in what you eat, what you believe, what you breathe.
so when you see imbalance and unfairness, you *should* speak up and say something.
the world holds great promise, but prosperity (and happiness) depends on doing the right thing: ultimately a society is only as strong as the protections it affords its weakest members.
.-= Seraphine´s last blog ..Fountaingrove Winery: Part 2 =-.
@Gledwood — Hi there, nice to see you around!
So, what makes you feel you belong in a museum?
@Tulsa Getleman — You’re right, I’m too young to be a hippie…! I guess to French, “liberalism” is a synonym of lack of welfare state, prominence of multinational companies and economic imperatives over social ones. I agree though, the word can be interpreted in many ways.
@Beth — I guess I’m a believer… where do I sign up to be a doer?
@Cynthia — This is exactly what I felt the first time I heard the prof gloryfying capitalism! Few French will admit we do live in a capitalism era (except maybe people in business). Communism is still seen as an okay alternative, and socialism is of course THE alternative. I can imagine your surprise though, because indeed, “communism” seems to be a bad word on this side of the Atlantic ocean.
@Tanya — Yes, it is fascinating indeed. I guess it’s a good way to truly understand the foundations of a culture!
@Seb — I’m pretty critical of subsidies myself and we had many issues around that regarding the battle between France and the European Union. I have to point out I don,t hate capitalism, it seems to work okay in some countries… yet, it can hardly be considered as perfect, the way some would like us to believe.
@Tulsa Gentleman — Thank you
One hockey medal and we will be happy Canucks 
@Rich B — Funny that liberal is a bad word overseas, and that yet it has two meanings! As for the U.S. healthcare system, I truly feel for you. Things should change… but what can I say, I’m Canadian AND French, so double-socialist!
@DianeCA — I still don,t understand why “socialism” is a bad word for some. Communism can be argued because some associate the theory with the way it was used (and misused) as a state theory. But like you say, socialism can work very well for some countries… okay, maybe not in the USA.
@London Caller — No, I haven’t! I’m going to try to find the book.
@Seraphine — You can say you love me anytime, I take all the I love yous I can take these days
Income redistribution… yep, I can almost hear two two little words being hissed on Fox News. Sounds bad for some indeed!
I like this post. It has the right mix of idealism and realism. The thing is, I do believe that it is hard to implement an ideal world, because we simply have so many ideals to choose from, and one person’s ideal world isn’t the next person’s choice most of the time.
.-= Linguist-in-Waiting´s last blog ..Book Review: The Saint of Incipient Insanities by Elif Şafak =-.