Robb: Loyalty?

From John Robb's Global Guerrillas:

JOURNAL: LOYALTY?

Here's a very short deep think post. Enjoy.

"...in the Clinton days, the hallmark of policy was, if you did this, how would it affect the bond market?"
-- James Carville

Globalization is in the process of eviscerating traditional loyalties. In the 20th Century, loyalty to the nation-state (nationalism, often interwoven with ideology), was supreme. In today's environment, a global marketplace is now the supreme power over the land. It has drained the power of nation-states to control their finances, borders, people, etc. Traditional ideologies and political solutions are in disarray as the fluctuating and often conflicting needs of the global marketplace override all other concerns. As a result, nation-states are finding it increasingly impossible to govern and the political goods they can deliver are being depleted.

Interestingly, nothing of any size that can attract loyalty has stepped into the breach, nor is it likely to. Loyalty to a faceless and capricious (and sometimes vicious) global marketplace is impossible. NOTE: there is an animistic, in that it attaches meaning to natural phenomenon, cult in Anglo-Saxon countries devoted to 'free markets', which attracts some belief/faith but little true loyalty (in that few people would die for it). With the replacement for the nation-state, that advances the interests of its members nowhere in sight, we have seen a growing shift in the primary loyalties of people to smaller groups that will -- to the corporation, family, gang, tribe, religious group, clan, virtual group, etc.

This shift in loyalty is proliferating, growing in strength since these groups can as easily access the global marketplace as easily as any nation-state. With this access, they can deliver the benefits to their members that nation-states cannot or will not deliver.