Imperialism's Bad Re-Run

From America’s (albeit wobbly) perch atop the global community, globalization is practically invisible. Apart from daily newspaper complaints about jobs outsourced or factories closed, Nikes and other fine Walmart products complete their endless flow into the country without notice or objection. From the vantage point of the twenty-first century, the lesson of the early 20th century was that imperialism was an immoral thing not to be dabbled in, especially not by freedom loving Americans. As evidenced by the rocketing popularity of George Orwell, modern countries like Britain and the US realized that they wanted nothing to do with their Imperialism pasts, replacing colonial control of regions such as India, the Philippines and China with representational government. This ushered in a new age of foreign policy (in which we currently reside) where the countries at the top are responsible for assisting those at the bottom by spreading aid and democracy. Not only does this mindset vaguely recall the “White Man’s Burdon,” now viewed as racist and imperialist, its screams hypocrisy. While we may not directly sanction oppressive foreign intervention, it happens right under our noses, both through covert operation and through globalization. Expansion of American corporations into former imperialist colonies like India and China may not have the same look and feel of old school 1900’s Imperialism, but it fits into the same basic structure. A powerful controlling group (in this case American corporations like GE, HP and Dell to name a few) uses their power to control local government in order to gain control of resources (talent and cheap labor wages). Globalization may be nearly unstoppable at this point, but its integral to establish a “smart globalization” based on fair environmental and labor laws so that the atrocities generated by the few controlling the many do not happen again.