Globalization and Social Disorder

About the Book

Like some ancient god devouring his subjects the modern world economy makes people into devoted consumers everywhere it penetrates and in so doing dissolves the bonds that have made societies viable in the past. Manufacture and trade shift continually from one country and region to another, dispossessing people from the land and sending them to cities in search of opportunities that cease to exist within a single generation. Reviewing what is known about suicide bombers the book evaluates the hypothesis that the resulting moral and psychological crisis causes some individuals to engage in violent attacks upon imagined enemies.

Crisis in Egypt.

The book relates to the ongoing turmoil in Egypt by showing how economic globalization creates disorder in societies around the world. The analysis strongly suggests that similar outbreaks are to be expected elsewhere (see, for example “Yearning for Respect, Arabs Find a Voice,” by Anthony Shadid, New York Times Online, 1/29/11) and in countries such as India that do not have such “repressive” regimes.

The book also describes what typically happens once protests of this magnitude break out, based on historic instances in the Middle East and elsewhere. The conclusions set forth strongly indicate that the United States should not get involved in such uprisings, especially not with military or paramilitary forces (CIA, etc), because such intervention only increases social disorder without relieving its fundamental causes.

About the Author

The author, former Executive Secretary of the American Anthropological Association, has taught ethnic relations at Stanford and the University of Hawai'i and conducted research on cultural change among Ojibwa, Hawaiians, and Pacifi c Islanders; and on occupational stress for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) among farm families on the Great Plains and white- and blue-collar workers in the Washington, D C, area. The present book refl ects such research in its focus upon the stresses accompanying culture change. Previously he authored Speaking, Relating, and Learning, 1985, a study of Hawaiian children’s use of language in and out of the classroom.