{"id":30779,"date":"2023-02-03T14:51:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T22:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30779"},"modified":"2023-02-03T14:51:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T22:51:14","slug":"pushing-against-the-tide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/pushing-against-the-tide\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Against the Tide"},"content":{"rendered":"

In \u201cThe Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions,\u201d[1]<\/a> Jeffrey Sachs deftly combines the long arc of history with policy recommendations for the here and now. His book is classified under the rubric of economic and global history, a subsection of the social sciences. Sachs, an expert in the field of sustainable development, teaches in this field through Columbia University and directs the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. His book begins with a preface that offers a helpful orientation to the rest of his book. Here he expresses his reason for writing this book:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book is about complexities of globalization, including the powerful capacity of globalization to improve the human condition while bring undoubted threats as well\u2026Throughout history, it has been important to understand the threats arising from globalization (disease, conquest, war, financial crises, and others) and to face them head on, not by ending the benefits of globalization, but by using the means of international cooperation to control the negative consequences of global-scale interconnectedness.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Then, in Chapter One, which serves as a succinct introduction to what he expands in the rest of his book, he elaborates on his thesis: \u201cBy studying the history of globalization, we can arrive at an informed understanding of globalization in the twenty-first century and how to manage it successfully.\u201d[3]<\/a> His interpretive frame for understanding history is the \u201c\u2026interplay of geography, technology, and institutions\u2026\u201d[4]<\/a> He defines these terms and then shares the questions that will shape the structure and content of his remaining chapters:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201c\u2026what have been the main drivers of global-scale change?\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. \u201c\u2026how do geography, technology, and institutions interact?\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. \u201c\u2026how do changes in one region diffuse to others?<\/li>\n
  4. \u201c\u2026how have these changes affected global interdependence?\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. \u201c\u2026what lessons can we glean from each age to help us meet our challenges today?\u201d[5]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In the following six chapters he explores these questions as they related to each age of history:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Chapter 2: The Paleolithic Age (70,000-10,000BCE)<\/li>\n
    2. Chapter 3: The Neolithic Age (10,000-3000 BCE)<\/li>\n
    3. Chapter 4: The Equestrian Age (3000-1000 BCE)<\/li>\n
    4. Chapter 5: The Classical Age (1000BCE-1500CE)<\/li>\n
    5. Chapter 6: The Ocean Age (1500-1800)<\/li>\n
    6. Chapter 7: The Industrial Age (1800-2000)<\/li>\n
    7. Chapter 8: The Digital Age (21st<\/sup> Century)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      In his closing chapter, given the history he has described and the lessons from each period that can help societies today draw on \u201c\u2026our capacities to reason and to cooperate,\u201d[6]<\/a> \u00a0he a makes five guiding policy recommendations. He prefaces these recommendations with this thought: \u201cEach age has\u2026invented new forms of governance, and that can give us hope.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Sachs has a deep commitment to the policies and practices that can emerge from commitment to sustainable development. He defines this as \u201c\u2026meaning the holistic approach to governance that combines economic, social, and environmental objectives.\u201d[8]<\/a> A tangible expression of this is the commitment made by UN member states to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 as \u201c\u2026part of an agreed 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.\u201d[9]<\/a> As an aside, I remember being asked by my PC(USA) UN Office colleague to write a devotional reflection on goal 16 (Peace & Justice, Strong Institutions) for a study guide and devotional they were developing for congregational use.[10]<\/a><\/li>\n
      2. He also recommends the adoption of a social-democratic style of governance, defined as \u201c\u2026an inclusive and participatory approach to political and economic life.\u201d[11]<\/a> His policy of taxing \u201cwinners\u201d in the benefits of advancing technology in order that those left behind have \u201c\u2026quality healthcare, education, and social protection\u2026\u201d[12]<\/a> is included in this section.<\/li>\n
      3. Combined with this is his policy commitment to \u201c\u2026subsidiarity, meaning that we solve problems at the proper level of governance.\u201d[13]<\/a><\/li>\n
      4. In many respects, he believes the above will only be more fully realized if there is also reform in the structure and current power dynamics at the United Nations. This is his fourth recommendation, and in many respects probably the most challenging to implement any time soon because it would mean that the United States, especially, would have to surrender its place as assumed global superpower. Given everything else he describes from the entire history of the human race, such a surrender seems highly unlikely. I feel grief as I read his analysis: \u201cAs the power, voice, and influence of the developing countries increased at the UN, and as the competition with the Soviet Union waned toward the end of the Cold War, the U.S. attitude toward the UN became ambivalent and at times hostile.\u201d[14]<\/a><\/li>\n
      5. His final recommendation is encouraging interfaith work that can help create a world that is \u201c\u2026safe for diversity.\u201d[15]<\/a> Here he held up the \u201c\u2026multifaith effort to find the common basis for global action for sustainable development\u2026\u201d[16]<\/a> that resulted in \u201cEthics in Action. He concludes: \u201cThe challenge then, is not an unbridgeable divide of human belief but rather the clash of interests and ambitions. The problem is one of politics rather than irreconcilable human difference.\u201d[17]<\/a> He also relays here the three moral precepts that this diverse gathering found they held in common. One of those is what is frequently referred to as the Golden Rule. His wording for it, however, is done in the negative, whereas the way Matthew\u2019s Gospel quotes Jesus, it is stated in the positive: \u201c\u201cSo\u00a0whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is\u00a0the Law and the Prophets.\u201d (ESV, Matthew 7:12). I\u2019m curious as to why Sachs states it in the negative: \u201cDo not do unto others what you would not have them do to you.\u201d[18]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        There is so much in Sachs\u2019 book that I found valuable and thought-provoking. His long view of history and the interaction effects of geology, technology, and institutions on who we\u2019ve become as human beings and human societies gave me another way of mapping the transformative challenges I hope to engage through my project portfolio. I\u2019m chewing on that.<\/p>\n

        I see in Sachs a deep reliance on the \u201cslow thinking\u201d skills we learned about from Kahneman[19]<\/a> and an unrelenting humanistic optimism. Both are certainly required to pursue cooperation among multiple nations each with their own self-interest driving them forward. Sachs says multiple times in several different ways throughout his book, \u201c\u2026we also have our capacities to reason and to cooperate\u2026\u201d[20]<\/a> At the same time, he is deeply aware that \u201c\u2026human nature was forged in the cauldron of territorial competition, which instilled in our genes and our cultures a remarkable capacity to cooperate within a group, combined with a deeply rooted tendency toward conflict and distrust between groups.\u201d[21]<\/a><\/p>\n

        It\u2019s that tendency toward conflict and distrust that is the continuing sticking point at both a micro and macro level. I wonder how Sachs pushes against this tide and the injustices it breads day-in and day-out. His analysis of the challenges facing us in the digital age includes discussion over the tensions between the USA and China and the USA and Russia. His book was published before Russia invaded Ukraine and before today\u2019s headlines that the USA is beefing up its military presence in Asia just in case China invades Taiwan and that a Chinese spy balloon has been seen over Montana.[22]<\/a> And those are just two examples of many unfolding in our world today at a macro level, let alone the issues confronting our societies at a micro level. And then there is the rapidly multiplying impacts of artificial intelligence with both fascinating and terrifying headlines just this week about ChatGPT and will certainly require significant ethical considerations.[23]<\/a> I wonder what kind of epilogue he would attach to his book today? As it is, he ends on this note:<\/p>\n

        \u201cWe are left, in the end, with a need, a hope, and a conundrum. The need is to steer the new age of globalization so that our energies are directed toward ending human poverty rather than human life. The hope is that across the world\u2019s societies and religions there are common ethical underpinnings. The conundrum is how easily we nonetheless fall prey to our small difference, which can be stirred into virulent hatreds by demagogic leaders in their quest for power.\u201d[24]<\/a><\/p>\n

        As a follower of Jesus who is also a leader, I need a different location for my hope in order to persevere in the transformative work I have felt and continue to feel called to undertake. Though an important part of my work is building on what diverse communities hold ethically in common, my hope rests in the knowledge that Jesus is both Alpha and Omega and thus holds all of human history in his hand. This is what fuels me to keep on keeping on as I pray, \u201cYour will be done on earth as it already is done in the heavenlies around us.\u201d Part of God\u2019s will is the incarnating of the values of the Kingdom, which includes the kind of just peace Sachs longs to see through Sustainable Development.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        [1]<\/a> Sachs, Jeffrey. 2020. The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions<\/em>. New York: Columbia University Press.<\/p>\n

        [2]<\/a> Ibid., ix and xii.<\/p>\n

        [3]<\/a> Ibid., 1.<\/p>\n

        [4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

        [5]<\/a> Ibid., 2.<\/p>\n

        [6]<\/a> Ibid., 214.<\/p>\n

        [7]<\/a> Ibid., 195.<\/p>\n

        [8]<\/a> Ibid., 196.<\/p>\n

        [9]<\/a> Ibid. 198.<\/p>\n

        [10]<\/a> https:\/\/www.presbyterianmission.org\/resource\/study-devotional-guide-for-the-sustainable-development-goals\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        [11]<\/a> Sachs, 196.<\/p>\n

        [12]<\/a> Ibid, 202-203.<\/p>\n

        [13]<\/a> Ibid., 196.<\/p>\n

        [14]<\/a> Ibid., 208.<\/p>\n

        [15]<\/a> Ibid., 196.<\/p>\n

        [16]<\/a> Ibid., 211.<\/p>\n

        [17]<\/a> Ibid., 211-212.<\/p>\n

        [18]<\/a> Ibid., 212.<\/p>\n

        [19]<\/a> Kahneman, Daniel. 2013. Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>. 1st pbk. ed. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.<\/p>\n

        [20]<\/a> Sachs, 214.<\/p>\n

        [21]<\/a> Ibid., 28.<\/p>\n

        [22]<\/a> https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/03\/world\/asia\/china-spy-balloon.html<\/a>; https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/02\/us\/politics\/us-china-philippines.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

        [23]<\/a> https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/03\/technology\/chatgpt-openai-artificial-intelligence.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Technology<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

        [24] Sachs. 213.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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