How do we begin to think about the world?

The question made me realize that I am not fully aware of how the world works. I have never thought of these things in a deep manner. For me, life goes on and thinking about how the world functions will not change how it actually works. When I think about it, does thinking about the world affect my everyday life? Well, I guess not. But it just makes me understand it more in relation to the community and those around me. Here comes ethics and politics. Ethics is how we treat the people around us and Politics is the kind of life we have because of the ways of thinking about who we are. In other words, Politics is somewhat linked with the structure of the country such as the government and laws that govern us.
Living a just life and treating others with respect may most of the time contradict each other. An example is the ticking bomb scenario where there is one person who planted a bomb in a place. Once the bomb explodes, several thousands of people will die and will end up killing many innocent people. Thinking of it as an abstraction, it is easy to give a solution to this problem. The man shall be tortured until he spills out where the bomb is. Thinking of it in a practical way ain’t as easy. In real life, things may and will go wrong. Without a doubt, things don’t turn out the way it normally does. When we think of these situations in our heads, it is almost perfect in such as way that there are no complications. In reality and practice, other factors influence our decision making. In the case of the ticking bomb scenario, we now capture a group of people because it’s possible that these people know where the bomb is located. The Convention Against Torture believes that torture must not be done unless circumstances allow torture to take place because it is just, like the ticking bomb scenario (Pin-fat, 2009).

Two responses were formulated and analyzed by Charles Beitz and Michael Walzer. Beitz believed in a cosmopolitan way of answers, stating that individuals are rational, free and equal to be the moral subject of global politics. According to him, principles of justice must be chosen to create an ideal world. This means that biases must be put aside- a picture of reason. He also offered a picture of ethico-political space, comparing both domestic and international politics. Aside from this, he emphasizes that it is a person’s responsibility to be ethical when it comes to the people around them. He said that the picture of subject is the individual, not the state. Walzer on the other hand, believed in a communitarian set of answers. Here, the state is the center or the moral subject in global politics. The ethico-political space lies in the community. According to Walzer, being human means creating meaning, purpose and cultures and that reason is linked with social, historical and cultural aspects. As opposed to Beitz, he thinks that reason can never eliminate bias and that treating others with utmost respect is only extended to those within states (Pin-fat, 2009). As for what I think, I agree with both of them. Reason does in fact rise above biases but not all the time. For others, there are times that emotions surpass rationality. So you see, it depends on several circumstances. It varies per individual, per situation and for every factor. I think that the subject is the individuals that when gathered, consist of the state and that ethico-political space must be absolute. Meaning, to everyone.

How we think about the world is subjective. We shall always consider those around us and our ethico-political relations with others, which is exactly why thinking about the world lies on the different circumstances that may occur. Just like the ticking bomb scenario, every action must be thought of, in relation to those that are affected. What I mean is one factor may change our decision because of our morals, ethics and behavior towards the society. It is impossible to be able to decide a situation at the moment because when that event occurs, it is different. In other words, what we think is abstract but what actually happens is not. Hence, how we think about the world is guided by our morals but also depends on the situation itself. Values such as justice, prejudice, care, etc will be challenged and it will all be different per individual. What I’m trying to say is each person has a different perceptive of the world and this is based on their inner values.

In many ways, the history of the world is different from the history of globalization but the process is the same. The history of the world is simply how the world evolved, how it became what it is right now. Similarly, globalization is obtained because of the several events like capitalism, the industrial revolution. All these main events led to globalization today. Poor countries before have transformed into rich countries now due to hard work, innovation and globalization. It is possible for us to think that globalization is the new word for innovation, modernization or capitalism, except globalization is the bigger word. This means that globalization covers the whole globe, the whole world while the other words may just refer to a country or an era.

I think that globalization is good but it can be bad if too much innovation tale place. It may be dangerous if the world is too advanced because people tend to depend on machines to make life easier. Well, that is good but for me, when things reach that level of convenience, people lose their values and the things that matter. Like for instance, long ago, our parents lived a hard life and they grew up because they worked hard to live. They use their resources to life themselves from a not so good standard of living. But globalization can let us forget that there are things in life that must be worked hard for and I believe that sometimes, people just have to experience life in a hard way for them to be better persons in the future. However, I still think that globalization in a broad sense is good because it lifts up the standard of living of people and countries progress and develop due to this. The opening of trade and more international investments improve countries and once each country in the world reach a high level of standard of living, then the world would be a better place. Education, connections, innovation and developments- all these things are capable of making the world a bigger and better place.

Sources:
Edkins, J. and Zehfuss, M. (eds.). (2009). Global politics: A new introduction. London: Routledge.