Final Essay

Eric Kufs

Professor Wexler

English 495esm

5 December 2012
                     Dividing the Global Tribe
The progressive culture of the internet allows most young privileged students to feel as if the world is on an inevitable path towards global equality.  The lightning quick flashes of information, shooting back and forth from continent to continent, keep us aware of the minute by minute changes occurring in most modern industrialized nations.  When we watch a revolution in Egypt documented through cellphone pictures and social networking sites we feel hopeful about the impact of globalization.  Though more recently when their newly democratically elected president ignores their constitution and usurp dictatorial control in the name of preserving political relations, we feel differently.  It will take more than the internet to bring us all to a level playing field in regards to a political and socio-economic state.
But all of this is beside the point, for in spite of global movements ranging from the likes of the "Arab Spring" to that of pop culture phenomenons like the world wide dance hit, "Gnam Gnam Style", human beings of all nations and races have not come together to agree upon a universal goal of a wholly and equally shared society. The uprising of the working classes in Middle Eastern countries is to some degree in line with Karl Marx's overarching theory of history, but after the mass failure of Communism at the end of the last century, "socialism" has become a dirty word. But is that just the hegemonic ruling class ideology being taught on a global scale?  In his essay "Where Did the Future Go?", Marxist critic Randy Martin writes, "The last time finance led the charge, it was called the age of imperialism. Today we suffer imperialism’s renaissance."  Instead of pushing for new governments that support true socio-economic equality for their people we have opted to remain in an expanding state of capitalism where certain groups or regions control more of the means of production and/or power of consumption.  More simply, there has been no politically conscious effort made to move away from a universal societal structure of the haves and the have nots.The power of the internet and the freedom of mass international communication is a helpful tool, but does not steer the world population away from an unbridled capitalism, one that allows for this type of social and economic disparity among nations and cultures. Our awareness of of each others similarities, in our societies and culture may make us feel connected to a  shared sense of humanity, but in this discourse, this awareness has not resurrected an idealistic Utopian end goal.
In a technologically advanced global economy it easy to see the shared common interests and base desires of humanity but quite often difficult to see the unjust disparities between nations and cultures outside of America.  In the film Babel,  directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, we are shown four interrelated stories across nations in three distinct areas of the world. In each plot line we see similar displays of family, and the benevolence of fellowship within all the communities represented.  The socio-economic and political differences are all that stand between the preservation of their familiesl.
The people of the United States, Mexico, Morocco, and Japan as represented by the characters in the film are not concerned with preserving a free-market capitalism when the survival and welfare of their family.   Abdullah the goat herder purchases a rifle to protect his herd from jackyls in order to feed his family. The Mexican nanny, Amelia, takes her employers children across the border from California to be at her son's wedding.  Richard fighting for his wife Susan's life nursing her as she slowly bleeds  from a gunshot wound. All of the characters are driven by the need to preserve the family or their tribe.  In the case of the Americans, the Moroccan interpreter who takes them to his village relates to this love that foreigner shows for his wife and vows to do all that he can help save her.  There is a universal commonality shown between the two men who live in two different cultures and see two different sides of a world economy.   In a brighter scene of the film, in another economically impoverished region of the world, Richard and Susan's children take part in another family's celebration and even though they are unfamiliar with the culture and the language they cannot help but feel the joy of the occasion.  The communal and tribal aspect of family is universal and each of the main characters show it to be a value.
The lost fight for preserving the family structure or tribe is also a common thread between characters.  Chieko Wataya, a rebellious, deaf Japanese teenage girl is acting out in reaction to her mother's suicide.  The loss represents a shattering of a family as we watch a distant father suffering in his own way.  None of pain is alleviated by the fact that they live an immaculate modern apartment with a stunning view of the wealthy modern city of Tokyo. The father and daughter are no more or less broken than Abdullah as his elder son is shot by the Moroccan police, presumably fatally, at the end of the film but we can say that in the case of the sheepherder a fault can be blamed on a development of globalization.  The issue of terrorism and international relationships based on global economics all come into play when the internationally spread news reports of an American tourist is shot.  The delay of the rescue helicopter, although a near tragedy of diplomatic relations, is nothing compared to the fate of Abdullah and his children. Between the two situations, we see an inequality due to financially driven globalization where the people of a wealthier country that owns the means of production or provides the consumer capital are favored. The people of the mountains of Morocco are all presumed guilty by their own government in the name of resolving what has become an international incident.
If we view Amelia, the nanny, as a second mother to the two American children we also witness another family destroyed by a global capitalist society.  As a Mexican living in poverty, in order to help her family,the only choice for her is to work illegally in the United States.  The work pays better than any job she might find in her own country but to is nothing to a working professional in America.  Her deportation is tragic in how she is deprived of the life and relationships she had built in America but the harsher reality is how much less money she will making in her home country.  The global market relationships and national governments promote the disparity that exist between countries like the U.S. and Mexico.  The low wages of the working class population of Mexico among other factors can be attributed to globalization.  Cheap labor is needed by the wealthier consumer nations like the United States, in order to compete.  Less regulations and worker union intervention in countries like Mexico are incentives for corporations and businesses to produce internationally in order to improve their bottom line.  If you are an older Mexican woman like Amelia, you either cannot find a factory job or cannot support a family on that wage so you take a risk on crossing into the United States in search of illegal work.  The story is a common one, and despite the many illegal immigrants who enter the lives of United States citizens and become integral parts of many of their families, the politics of immigration have only become more conservative.
The answer to the complex problem of inequality caused by globalization cannot simply be political.   American literary critic and Marxist theorist, Frederic Jameson, in his essay, "The Politics of Utopia",  claims that, "Utopia emerges at the moment of the suspension of the political"(43).  For foreign workers of little education could still legally find jobs that pay far below a living wage in the United States if immigration laws were changed.  The "American Dream" would still attract those who want to provide a better life for themselves and their family that they could not find in their own country.  As the world has more and more access to the culture of the United States and like nations that control modes of production via the internet, superstructures based on a capitalist free-market ideology emerge and less and less people conceive of a Utopian dream. The idea, though not demonized like socialism, is off the table and people have chosen to enter their tribe in an even larger competition for survival.  Globalization brings people together like the characters of the film Babel but encourages their economic disparities. These people share similar values like the well being of their families. The change in socio-economic inequality could be changed by the eradication of the political but that would require a different kind of revolution, a revolution that viewed the whole human race as one family struggling to survive.


Works Cited
"Babel." - Internet Movie Firearms Database. Media Wiki, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.
Babel. By Guillermo Arriaga. Perf. Brad Pitt. 01 Distribution, 2007. DVD.
Jameson, Frederick. "The Politics of Utopia." New Left Review. N.p., 2004. Web.
Martin, Randy. "Where Did the Future Go?" Logosonline. Logos 5.1, 2006. Web.