Globalisation & Its Malcontents

Sometimes you hear the most appalling exaggerations about the role of globalisation in bringing corruption to places hitherto deemed uncorrupted. What I heard yesterday from some lay 'preacher' seemed to imply a state of Edenic bliss on this sceptered isle prior to the advent of evil globalisation with all its wealth and power.

Tsk tsk. This island has never not been affected by globalisation except in the mythical past. Obviously such people, straitened by the adversity of preaching about something about which they appear to know little, just seize a convenient target which already has a bad reputation for other, completely different, reasons.

There are obviously at least two exceptions one must raise against Christian speakers who say such things.

The first one is to point them back at their own core theology, reminding them of original sin and the fact that Jesus himself is recorded as saying, "Nothing that enters a man from outside can make him unclean." The passage as a whole is in direct contradiction to anyone who would equate the consumption of rich food (for example in Daniel's account of his dealings with the court of Nebuchadnezzar) with the peril of sin from globalisation.

The second is to point out that if the argument is one about recent history and the corruption which arises from mercantilism, then ancient history must surely take precedence, as seen in the stirring condemnation in Ezekiel about the perils of islands indulging in globalisation. This is nothing new. The potentially corruptive environment of capitalism, which tempts people into making their own bad internal decisions on morality and negotiation, has been with us a long time. But even here, it is clear that the one who chooses to sully his hands is at fault, and not the trading environment itself.

The common reply to what I've just pointed out is that I'm being arrogant by daring to point out a speaker's egregious mistakes. Well, it's far worse for a person to mislead others from the pulpit.