Globalizations versus Tribal Nationalism

Honestly!  The way we behave, you'd think the earth was shaped like a cube, just a whole collection of flat earths.  Our country rules this face.  Stay away from the edge!

We have technology that has made far away places not, in practice, all that far.  We communicate around the globe instantaneously (for all practical purposes) and travel before the pandemic broke out made it fairly easy to reach any place on the planet you needed to be.  But that pandemic has demonstrated so many weak points, putting pressure on all corners (pardon the theme pun) of the globe.  The countries that work cooperatively have a beautiful advantage of shared intellectual resource and supplies whereas those countries like Trumpian America go it alone, substituting propaganda for progress.

The World Health Organization is made up of people.  That means it has faults here and there and has made mistakes.  However, it has served America and the rest of the world in a multitude of ways over the decades, even leading the way in the eradication of smallpox.  Its "primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations System" and we have supported their efforts since its inception.  500 million dollars a year is totally insignificant in the American budget, but Trumpian America sees it as a megaphone for China and thus this becomes a colossal waste of money.  As with most of humanity, our President sees enemies hiding around all corners and, interestingly, finds himself bereft of direction and motivation without them.  He has no good causes, only resistance to bad hombres as he puts it.

No, it must be that the world with the exception of its strongmen are bad and America is being made great again to deal with them.  This makes us the current poster children for tribal nationalism.  Our brand, in fact, becomes more important than our people.  As I write this, America has 147,280 people dead of Covid-19.  We have just this day passed 4 million known cases and our Center for Disease Control says the true number is likely 10 times this.  Meanwhile, Germany had 5 deaths today.  Italy which was devastated, had a total of 10 deaths.  Our deaths today are 1.098 and counting.

We have become so tribally insulated that we actually have managed to fully discount science in any place where it is politically inconvenient.  We still have free speech, but so many have earplugs in place.  This is supposedly making America #1 again, its rightful place in the world, but in truth it is only making us #1 in errors committed.  We needed to be made #1 in the world economically like Adele needs singing lessons!  What we needed was to take care of our own needy and use our massive resources to help a world in crisis.  Not as #1, as a caring partner.  We should be involved in the global effort to defeat this scourge, working side-by-side with our fellow researchers around the globe.

So, we have demonstrated the problem with Tribal Nationalism becoming a rightful pariah no longer allowed to enter other countries.  That can change beginning in 2021 if we change path in our November election and once again assume our place in global uplift.  And, if we don't ... well ... I don't even want to think about it.

Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by Shackman at their blogs, Padmum, Raju, Ramana, Sanjana and Shackman!