by Kim Yong Bock

Condemned to the Global market: Discerning the Signs of the Times

Asian societies have experienced radical change over the past 200 years. During the last century this change was produced by the combination of their internal contradictions and the Western impact. During the present century, movements for national liberation from colonial domination, nation building and modernization constitute the main thrust of change in many Asian societies. Globalization of the market at the present time is far more rapid and radical than ever before. Our understanding and analysis of this process, however, is not comprehensive but fragmentary. One needs to approach the process of globalization in terms of global structures, but this is not easy. We propose that the victimization of people by the global market may be a vantage point from which to understand the effects of the colossal change.

1995 was the pivotal year when the World Trade Organization was launched as a result of the GATT-Uruguay Round arrangements. The world now has truly become one giant global market, in an axial, universal change: no part of the world can remain outside of the market. This is true regardless of the geopolitical location; it is likewise the case with the socialist countries. All nations and countries are opening up to the global market, whether they are formally members of the WTO or not. Former and present socialist countries are being integrated into the global economy. All national, social and cultural boundaries are being dismantled and facing overthrow, making the market “free” to envelop the “oikumene.”

Governments are easing economic, legal and political controls over the economy to assist the operation of the global market. Authoritarian political systems in Asia and elsewhere are challenged to accept the liberal values of freedom and openness, which are conducive to a “free” market. All regulations that restrict free economic exchanges on the part of the economically powerful agencies are being deregulated in every nation. Thus, political institutions, social demarcations and cultural barriers are to be “reformed” and opened to the free movement of the global market.

As one of the positive results of market globalization it is expected that the world economy will grow in general terms, as the volume of trade grows. Rapidly growing economies in Asia may change the global economic map. Other factors such as the international information and communication process will profoundly change the market. it is expected that the economies in the former socialist countries and Europe will grow as they are closely integrated to the global market. Such changes will accelerate exchanges of goods and services globally, but at the same time there will be many other kinds of acceleration.

The global market itself is changing at an accelerated speed, being transformed by the arrival of the hi-tech information and communication society, which supersedes the primary and secondary industries. The dynamics of market globalization have sucked all the peoples of the world into a vortex of complex change. What are the effects of this great change among the peoples living in Asia? We will try to answer this question by discerning the signs of the times and pointing to desirable directions for Christian witness to the Gospel by the Asian churches.

I. A Changed Geopolitical Locus

The global market with its science and technology has changed time and space, connecting the local to the global, closing the gap between them, accelerating the speed of all events and things, and shrinking the gaps between past, present and future. The scope and time of human interaction have been shrunken to the immediate, as rapid transportation technology and hi-tech communication gather all humanity into one global market place, beginning with the World Trade Organization system.

One distinct feature of the world today is that the market has enveloped all peoples and communities in its embrace, including the former and present socialist states. It is no longer possible to think of society as separate from the market. In contradiction to this great contradiction, however, the poor, the weak and the larger portion of consumers will be excluded from real participation by the powers and principalities of the one global market. While the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America will be affected more severely by this exclusion, the victimization will not be restricted to a particular of the world. Bankruptcies of small and medium industries which cannot compete globally, unemployment and socioeconomic insecurity, as well as poverty and hunger, will be widespread in the Asian “tiger” countries and even in the Western industrialized nations. Victimization by exclusion will be the universal phenomenon all over the globe. Ironically, though the so-called free market has triumphed, integrating all societies, at the same time it excludes poor and weak peoples.

It is predicted that the corporate powers will continue consolidating their dominance in the global market. Their economic output as well as their power will increase dramatically. In Asia, especially East Asia, remarkable economic growth is forecast. But there is serious doubt that this growth will be translated into socio-economic welfare for the Asian people, who instead are more likely to be severely victimized in the midst of economic growth - another dimension of the irony of the global market.

The global market dismantles traditional and community security infrastructures, as well as whatever state social economic security infrastructures have been installed. The logic that “the market will produce more food than ever, feed the hungry and alleviate world poverty” excuses states and corporations from taking responsibility for social welfare measures at either the global or national level. The problem is left to the market.

II. The Households of God’s People: Struggling under the Threat of Death

The household, as a basic unit of life economy, is used here in place of so-called pure economic logic, which is abstract and often reductionist, excluding other factors of household life. The household is also biblically the bask economic unit and God’s work is often referred to as the OIKONOMIA (ECONOMY = household management) for the people of God. We may call this OIKOS of God the “Garden of Life.” It represents the real nature of the community of the people of God on all levels.

In this connection, it is interesting to note the understanding of economy by the Confucian philosophy, particularly in its people-centered forms such as the Silhak Realist School of Confucianism in Korea. The term KYONG-JE (economy) is a shortened form of KYONG SE JE MIN, meaning “rule of the society by the Scriptures and saving (caring for) the people.” This is the Confucian concept of political economy.

The Korean Confucian scholar Chung’Yak-Yong (a Roman Catholic believer) wrote extensively about the Confucian program to reform the political economy of 19th century Korea. His representative book is Mokmin Shimseo, meaning “Self (Heart)-Cultivation Book to Shepherd the People.” The Confucian political economy begins with Sell-cultivation, then proceeds to Management of the Household (Oikonomia), then Reign of the Society, and finally Establishment of Peace under Heaven (SUSHIN JEGA CH’IGUK PYIJNG CH’ONHA).

In the contemporary discussions of East Asian economic developments, Confucianism is used ideologically to emphasize harmony and hard work by the corporate and government powers. But the Confucian political economy is a people-centered one, especially undergirded by the Mencius doctrine of the Heavenly mandate of MINSHIM CH’ONSHIM: “The Will (or Heart) of the People is the Will (Heart) of Heaven.” That is, the rulers must obey the will of Heaven, caring for the people.

The churches in Asia should read the biblical texts in conjunction with the texts of the Asian economic philosophies, both religious and secular, in search of a theological economic foundation for participation in the political economy of the Asian peoples.

The “minjung” (grassroots or oppressed people’s) household is the basic subject of an economy of life, and is the focus of biblical concern in the context of the political economy of God. A life-sustaining and life-enhancing economy is concretely realized in the households of the people, and the minjung household economy is the final criterion by which community well-being can truly be measured. The health of local, national and global economies may be measured by the state of the minjung household economy. Here the minjung are the people who are poor and hungry because they lack both the means of livelihood and the necessary socio - economic power to sustain their life. In fact the hungry and starving, the poor, the homeless, children, poor women who sell their bodies, foreign migrant workers and guest workers, economic refugees, the elderly and disabled, jobless laborers, farmers who have lost their land, those who are marginalized and excluded by the economically powerful - all these minjung are deprived of households that can sustain and enhance their life in the global market. Their households are being destroyed.

The minjung household is situated in a local community with a given geography. Whether it is rural or urban, the local community is integrated into the larger society, the national political economy and the global economy - which now threatens the basic socio-economic security of the minjung household in many ways. The hunger and poverty of the minjung is intensifying due to the widening gaps between rich and poor. The source of these gaps - nationally and worldwide - is the uncontrolled, unlimited competition among the economic power: the global corporate entities, transnational corporations, international banks, and financial institutions such as the World Bank and IMF.

1.2 billion of the world’s people live in absolutely poor households unable to sustain their life. Over half of the children in the sub-Saharan countries are suffering from malnutrition. Two billion people around the world are unemployed or underemployed. The world’s top richest 5% get 150 times more income than the poorest 20%. What are the real stories of poor households behind these statistics?

In a global market that is dominated by such powers, socio-economic insecurity is a problem not only for middle-class consumer households. Small and middle-sized industries as well as small farmers are losers in the economic game of fierce competition by the economic powers for maximization of profits in the global market, which is opening up every corner of the previously protected economic sectors of all nations. No human household is safe; every one is condemned to the market.

Every aspect of the human household - food, housing, clothing, health, education and cultural needs - is likewise subject to the dictates of the market. Jobs are no longer secure in the employment market. The public social security system, where it existed, is being eroded or dismantled, or taken over by the market.

The globalized market turns everything into commodities, to be exchanged for a price - from natural talents and land to religious and cultural heritages and services. The values of all things are determined not in their own right, but by the market. No household is free from the effects of this valuation (devaluating, revaluating, inflating), and no household is free to decide the true values of the things it has or needs.

All households are subject to the snare of consumerism under the heavy pressure of commercial advertising. They are controlled by the credit system of the market, which is operated by the powerful financial institutions. The “almighty” financial market can create values and credits out of “nothing,” or destroy the credit of a household. As shown by the huge international debts of poor nations such as Brazil and Philippines and the debts of so many poor people in the third world countries, the minjung households are the bankrupted victims of the global market, caught in the debt trap and financially destroyed.

Through their control of the financial market as well as all other aspects of the market, the giant corporate entities such as transnational corporations and international banks form the “technocracy,” or “techno-structure” of science and technology that operates the market. They are indirectly influential in the global regime of the World Trade Organization, which is likely to be an instrument for global control of the market, just like the IMF and the World Bank.

In the globalizing market, the minjung household is the weakest victim in the weakest sector of every society, especially in third world countries. But every human household is in a dangerous predicament, except those who dominate the market, and their allies. Several stark realities should be highlighted:

Thus the minjung household, unable to survive, becomes the “household of death.” This is the inevitable result of the autonomous global market now being left to operate without ethical human control.

III. Politically Helpless People in Weakened Nation States

The global market changes the nature and role of nation states and their politics. Nation states are a creation of the modern West imposed upon the Asian and African peoples and remaining as a colonial “heritage” following independence. The nation state served the powers and principalities in the name of modernization and national development in the second half of the 20th century, but now it is regarded as an obstacle to the working of the global market. National barriers are therefore being forced open, and state boundaries dismantled.

The nation state was supposed to be the political expression of the people’s will and sovereignty. It was to provide security against foreign enemies and socio-economic threats, and to ensure the welfare of all the people. Now in many ways its role is superseded by the corporate powers, that is, the transnational powers in the global market. Still, a truly democratic state can do much for the people. But increasingly the political effectiveness of liberal democracy is being questioned, even as dictatorial states are rejected. The result is political helplessness. Recent pplitical reforms have granted freedoms to the people living in former dictatorships, but these freedoms seem to serve the market rather than the people. It is understood that liberal democracy is good for the market while dictators are too arbitrary, interfering with the free interplay of the market - just as nationalism is also inconvenient for the so-called free market place. This situation makes people hopeless and apathetic with regard to political activities, as they are victimized not so much by the political powers as by the market.

it is important to note that citizens in many nations have begun to organize themselves into participatory civil society movements to make direct interventions in the political and economic process, since they cannot rely upon the formal political process alone.

Feudal despots such as the Confucian kings had responsibility for the economic and social welfare of the people. Then came the nation states, which played important roles in creating economic infrastructures, planning economic development and managing the economy. Now the role of the states in economic planning and management may be changing drastically.

Traditional political regimes maintained the traditional economy. The Confucian kingdom is a good example of the relationship between traditional policy and economy: the king made the peasants and slaves producers in the agricultural economy. The private property ownership system was created and maintained by various states of liberal “democratic” polity; the collective ownership system was established in the socialist and communist regimes; and now economic planning is done by the nation states in third world countries. Thus, the state has taken responsibility for the socio-economic security of its citizens. The polity of the state is closely related to the subjecthood of the economy, whether this is formal or material.

Now market globalization seems to demand a certain change in the role of the state, in relations between the state and corporate entities, in a broad context. Obviously the transnational corporations are playing a dominant and ubiquitous role in the market and therefore the global economy, i.e., they have become the dominant subject in the political economy of the global market.

As we have indicated already, the household economy has no chance to be an economic subject. The individual person as a private economic entity is victimized in the capitalist society. Likewise, the proletariat as collective economic subject is only nominally so, being victimized in the socialist command economy. Now the transnational corporate economic entity is dominant in the global market. Here the question is how the household can become the subjective unit of economic life, participating in the local and the national economy and in the global market as well. Democratic participation in the political economy, however, is very much jeopardized in the currently emerging global market.

Based on biblical teachings, the minjung household should be the subject of economic life, participating directly in the local economy to enhance life. How the household can make a direct intervention in the global market is an important political question, implying a different role for the nation state than it has had so far. Local democracy in which every household can participate directly may be more important than the nation state.

Loss of participation and political fragmentation under the global market system may be the most problematic elements of political victimization. The application of economic democracy to overcome this problem has two aspects: (1) every household should become the subject of the economy of life, and (2) such a household must have a secure web of interconnections or a solidarity network of socio-economic security beyond the boundaries that fragment the life of the people. Neither of these aspects should be prevented by the global market operation.

Only the transnational corporate entities are beyond any control - ethical, social or political -and absolutely free to impose their wills upon the people in the market place. This is a very dangerous situation.

The unlimited competition of economic forces in the global market makes the social situation volatile, leading to violent conflicts. A new social Darwinism has emerged: only the economically fittest can survive in the market, and survival is taken as the supreme value, making all other values worthless. Ironically, it is when survival is most important that it is most threatened. Survival can only be realized when higher values are respected. We have experienced that when humanity chose national security for survival, the life of humanity was most seriously threatened, as in the world wars and the national security states.

In the global market, the historical social conflicts among classes, national/ethnic groups, castes, religious groups and genders are intensified as they are combined with market-generated conflicts and contradictions caused by fierce competition. New forms of conflict also rise, within and between groups. The uncontrolled, unlimited competition generates violence in all dimensions of life: economic, social, cultural, religious, spiritual and psychological, and at all levels, penetrating every aspect of human and social relations. In this situation, naturally the weak, children, women, elderly and disabled persons suffer the most.

As expressed in the NGO report of the Copenhagen social summit, concern for social peace and human security as well as social justice has become a paramount issue for the world. In Asia, however, people often experience the public security apparatus not only as incapable of keeping social peace and safety but also as an extension of the violence. Now the market-driven competition is making a secure social order even more difficult to realize. As people feel increasingly defenseless, they resort to organizing their own security measures to fill in the gap left by the lack of law and public security, but this can also turn into a lawless situation.

IV. Raging Competition, Deepening Contradictions. Loss of Shalom

As human households, especially minjung households, are caught in the vortex of fierce competition among the global economic powers, they will suffer serious economic injuries, which will affect poor and weak households, local communities and national economies. Farm households, workers’ households and even middle-class households will be the losers in the market. Already they suffer from spiraling inflation and are caught in the snare of increasing debts. It is getting to the point where the production and exchange activities of rural households are no longer economically feasible. Workers’ households are hit by growing unemployment and their organizations for economic justice and socio-economic security are being weakened. Urban poor households are threatened with the loss of their very survival.

The competition among the economic powers is led by the logic of “survival of the fittest,” with the strong eating up the weak. Only the big corporate powers can win in this competition, while the weaker economic entities, including small and medium-sized companies, will lose and become victims of the global market process. Under the market economy, wars and violence erupt for economic reasons. The market economy utilizes war for profit, and its unlimited competition ultimately destroys life, while leaving the strongest to reign supreme.

V. Erosion of Cultural Identity and Creative Subjectivity

The global market also has a tremendous impact upon human cultural life. The hi-tech value added network (VAN) of multimedia and electronic communications is challenging national, ethnic and cultural identities every where. Without preservation of their own cultural identities and resources, however, people cannot sustain their community life.

The global communications network is driven by the global market. Rather than political propaganda, it utilizes economic advertising and publicity to invade the consciousness of all humans and to control the entire media network. Advertisements and commercial media images - presenting different habits of eating, housing, clothing, entertainment, etc. - along with cultural products, act to change the life style of Asian and other peoples to fit the global market.

Asian, African or Latin American - regardless of geography or culture, the global market imposes its materialist and consumerist value orientation. The people become addicted to the
insatiable desire to buy and consume regardless of their actual needs: false needs are created for the sake of the market.

Aesthetic sensibilities are manipulated for the marketing of commodities, for example, by linking them with the beauty of nature and the human body. Religious sensibilities and symbols are also used, as well as people’s emotions and psychologies, for marketing purposes.

In other words, the human consciousness is the main battleground of marketing, and this is not a neutral process. Children and housewives are especial targets. The market-driven media are severely distorting people’s consciousness, values, artistic sensibility, perception and overall cultural identity.

The corrosion of cultural identity will happen through a process of integration of religious, cultural, ethnic and national communities, as their life styles are re-oriented towards the market and materialism. Cultural objects and services will be commoditized into marketable goods and services, thereby destroying the sacred values of religious and cultural communities.

Any religious or cultural system that is not amenable to the global market orientation will come under attack, leading to a “civilizational clash.” This will bring strong reactions from traditional religious and cultural communities, which in turn will accelerate the encroachment into the resisting communities. The global market will impose its own cultural values, style of life and even new identity upon the households and communities of the world’s people. Artistic sensibility will be shaped by the market; the appreciation of beauty and enjoyment of life will be domesticated by commercial considerations.

Life is not life without subjectivity at the cultural and religious level, but the market mechanism does not allow for this. Rather, it assumes the culture of the West to be the highest and ultimately to dominate non-Western cultures. Thus the global market inevitably causes clashes between Western culture and the non-Western cultures on religious, ethnic and civilizational levels. The non-Western cultures and religions are initially expected to adjust to the market mechanism; otherwise, they will be destroyed or “converted” to the global market.

VI. Disintegration of Spiritual Life

The changes brought by the global market are having a great impact upon human spiritual and religious life. Religious communities and their institutions, as well as other cultural institutions, are under severe pressure to respond and adjust to these changes, and in some cases people are experiencing outright disorientation or disintegration of their spiritual life.

In other cases, religious communities react to the changes with a fundamentalistic attitude and principles rather than seeking to respond creatively to the emerging situation. In fact, such a conservative and fundamentalistic reaction is more common than a creative response. Particularly in Asia, this situation has led to intolerance and conflict among religious and ethnic communities.

In the meantime, the people are losing their religious foundation and spiritual direction. Furthermore, religious objects and services also become commodities in the market, subsuming religious principles and values to market values. Corporate institutions are very earnest in their support of religious studies to discover the implications of religion for the market. In this way we are headed for the ultimate loss of our holy ground in both human community and individual life.

In socialist or former socialist countries, where religion has long been suppressed, the situation is worse. But the same danger exists in Asian countries in which religions are an integral part of community life.

VII. Ecological Destruction: The Threat to Life Itself

Industrialization, driven by modern science and technology, has created an unprecedented ecological crisis which - through the globalization of the market - now threatens the whole of human and natural life. Life is not merely a biological reality, however: it is an economic, political, social, cultural and spiritual reality, interconnected in all its dimensions. The threat to life is not merely on the natural level, it is a total threat. Life is destroyed by hunger and poverty. It is destroyed by social and political violence. War is a major expression of the modern economy which also destroys the spiritual and religious foundations for community life. All these dimensions are interconnected.

Despite the rising universal awareness of this threat to life, market globalization proceeds apace, accelerating the destruction of the ecology, the people’s economy and their cultures. Uncontrolled economic growth is hostile to natural life; moreover, it destroys the spiritual fiber of human life in community. There is a fundamental inner connection between the Darwinistic social conflicts in human society and the attacks of humans upon nature as carried out by modern science and technology.

All indications are that the emerging information society and high-tech communication order will not sustain life, but destroy its spiritual fiber and foundation, which is nurtured by the culture as well as by the political economy. Spiritual vitality is a crucial element in the sustained life of community, just as ecological integrity is an indispensable factor for life. The global market, however, does not foster any environment, cultural or natural, for the sustenance of life; rather, it is filled with greed, conflicts and violence - all life-destroying factors. Considering that the Asian people have plenty of resources to sustain their life - their religious and cultural traditions as well as their abundant natural resources - why then is their life so victimized? Is it simply because of natural causes or so-called underdevelopment? If we assume that industrialization with its modern science and technology, modern military machines such as nuclear weapons, and genetic engineering cannot protect life and community, then can we think that the global market with its information and communication media will sustain human and natural life?

These questions cannot be answered in simplistic terms. But we cannot believe that the global market will eventually solve the problems of hunger and poverty, disease, violence and ecological crisis. On the contrary, as the market unfolds, the life of Asian people is deteriorating.

Life on earth has its own vitality and sustainability, as created by God. Traditionally, ecological disruptions were natural disasters that destroyed life. In recent times civilization factors, socioeconomic as well as political and cultural, are closely connected with the causation of so-called natural disasters.

Particular attention has been drawn to the relationship between the modern industrial economy and ecological disruptions which victimize life on earth:

Life on earth is being sacrificed under industrial civilization, driven by the market mechanism. This is an organic flaw in the whole civilization - not merely a problem of human intent and action which can be corrected by ethical education.

URM Responses

Conclusion

Can minjung households foster and cultivate life in the global market? The market, it can be said, is necessary, and perhaps households are condemned to the market. Can the global market change from its present form that victimizes life on earth, and become the “household of life?” Are there any alternative policies that can reform the global market to protect and enhance life? The household of God is a political economy for life. Can such a political economy be realized with the current global market? Is there any realistic hope for change of the global market, or is resistance to it our only option? Under what circumstances is an economic status confessions of resistance justified?