Global Matrix

Paul James, Tom Nairn

Description

Globalization has brought with it many difficult and contradictory phenomena: violence, deep national insecurities, religious divisions and individual insecurities. This book takes a critical look at three key areas - globalism, nationalism, and state-terror - to confront common mythologies and identify the root causes of the problems we face.



Too many commentators still argue that globalization is predominantly a neo-liberal economic phenomenon; that nation-states are on the way out, and that terror is something that primarily comes from below. Global Matrix exposes the limitations of this argument.



Written by two leading scholars, this is a lucid study of what place the nation-state has in a globalizing world that will appeal to students across the political and social sciences.
Preface

1. Introduction: Mapping Nationalism and Globalism

Part I. Rethinking Globalism and Globalisation

2. Global Enchantment: A Matrix of Ideologies

3. Global Trajectories: America and the Unchosen

4. Global Tensions: A Clash of Social Formations

Part II. Debating Civic and Post-Nationalism

5. Fetishised Nationalism? (Joan Cocks)

6. Ambiguous Nationalism: A Reply to Joan Cocks

7. Dark Nationalism or Transparent Postnationalism?

Part III. Reflecting on Old and New Nations

8. Ukania: The Rise of the ‘Annual Report’ Society

9. Australia: Anti-Politics for a Passive Federation

10. Late Britain: Disorientations from Down Under

11. North America: The Misfortunes and ‘Death’ of Ethnicity

12. Central Asia: Continuities and Discontinuities

Part IV. Confronting Terror and Violence

13. Democracy and the Shadow of Genocide

14. Nationalism and the Crucible of Modern Totalitarianism

15. Control and the Projection of a Totalising War-Machine

16. Terrorism and the Opening of Black Pluto’s Door

17. Meta-War and the Insecurity of the United States

18. Post-2001 and the Third Coming of Nationalism

References

Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• International relations
• Cultural studies
• Anthropology
• Social
• Culture

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783719099
• Langue: English

Extrait

Global Matrix
GLOBAL MATRIX
Nationalism, Globalism and State-Terrorism
Tom Nairn and Paul James
 
 
First published 2005 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Tom Nairn and Paul James 2005 Chapter 5 by Joan Cocks © Arena Journal
The right of Tom Nairn and Paul James to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2291 3 hardback ISBN 0 7453 2290 5 paperback ISBN 9 7817 8371 909 9 ePub ISBN 9 7817 8371 910 5 Kindle
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental Printing
Contents
Preface: In Search of a Name
1 .  
Introduction: Mapping Nationalism and Globalism
PART I: RETHINKING GLOBALISM AND GLOBALIZATION
2 .  
Global Enchantment: A Matrix of Ideologies
3 .
Global Trajectories: America and the Unchosen
4 .
Global Tensions: A Clash of Social Formations
PART II: DEBATING CIVIC AND POST-NATIONALISM
5 .  
Fetishized Nationalism? by Joan Cocks
6 .
Ambiguous National ism : A Reply to Joan Cocks
7 .
Dark Nationalism or Transparent Postnationalism?
PART III: REFLECTING ON OLD AND NEW NATIONS
8 .
Ukania: The Rise of the ‘Annual Report’ Society
9 .
Australia: Anti-Politics for a Passive Federation
10 .  
Late Britain: Disorientations from Down Under
11 .
North America: The Misfortunes and ‘Death’ of Ethnicity
12 .
Central Asia: Continuities and Discontinuities
PART IV: CONFRONTING TERROR AND VIOLENCE
13 .  
Democracy and the Shadow of Genocide
14 .
Nationalism and the Crucible of Modern Totalitarianism
15 .
Control and the Projection of a Totalizing War-Machine
16 .
Terrorism and the Opening of Black Pluto’s Door
17 .
Meta-War and the Insecurity of the United States
18 .
Post-2001 and the Third Coming of Nationalism
Notes
Index
To Alan Roberts
Preface: In Search of a Name
Paul James and Tom Nairn
Globalization is the latest moment of high modernity, but one way to approach this moment is via classically early-modern satire. Our Introduction to this volume attempts this in a moment via Goya’s evocation of ‘El Coloso’, the weird Giant that appeared to loom over the Iberian landscape after Napoleon’s invasion, and the outbreak of ‘total war’ (see cover of paperback edition). And long before that, Jonathan Swift’s tales of ‘Gulliver in Laputa’ conjured up a world where the leaders are philosopher-rationalists. They are so taken by the speculation on things other than the human that they need flappers – in contemporary terms, human-relations consultants – to keep them in touch with the world around them. Redolent of the world of Blair’s reliance on spin-doctors and Bush’s love of autocues, the flappers run around with bladders tied to the end of a stick, touching their masters’ mouths and ears to arouse their senses when it is time to talk and time to listen. These Laputian technocrats live with their monarch on a floating island above the king’s dominions:

If any Town should engage in Rebellion or Mutiny, fall into violent Factions, or refuse to pay the usual Tribute; the King hath two Methods of reducing them to Obedience. The first and the mildest Course is by keeping the Island hovering over such a Town, and the Lands about it; whereby he can deprive of the Benefit of the Sun and the Rain, and consequently afflict the Inhabitants with Dearth and Diseases. And if the Crime deserve it, they are at the same time pelted from above with great Stones, against which they no Defence, but by creeping into Cellars and Caves, while the Roofs of their Houses are beaten to Pieces. But if they still continue obstinate, or offer to raise Insurrections; he proceeds to the last Remedy, by letting the Island drop directly on their Heads. 1
This is an enticing metaphor for contemporary economic globalization, and the War on Terror. It is as if Swift was writing allegorically about the floating parliament of Bush, Blair, Howard and Sharon. The trouble is that some readers might take it all too literally. Despite some of its more reductive critics and advocates, globalization is not reducible to economic and military hegemony – the Coalition of the Willing and the International Monetary Fund notwithstanding. As Jonathan Swift carefully wrote into his satire, letting the Island drop directly onto its enemies is fraught with the danger that the Island itself could crack up. The people know how far to take their resistance. And when the king ‘is highest provoked, and most determined to press a City to Rubbish, [he] orders the Island to descend with great Gentleness, out of a Pretence of Tenderness to his People, but indeed for fear of breaking the Adamantine Bottom’. 2 Both the conspiracy critics and the proponents of invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq seem to have forgotten how complex international politics is.
In the end, in naming this book we went for a more elusive concept, one that has re-entered the lexicon through a popular cultural film – The Matrix . ‘No-one can conceive it … No-one can be told what it is … It has to be seen … to be understood. This is the kind of future that you don’t dream about.’ 3 The blurb resonates with the confusions of explanation that abound in relation to globalization. However, rather than treating globalism and nationalism as part of an elaborate simulacra, in using the term ‘matrix’ we want to carry forward the concept’s fuller meaning. In its most general sense a matrix is a setting in which something takes form, has its origin or is enclosed. In obstetrics ‘matrix’ refers to the body of the womb. By contrast, in mathematics it refers to a regularized array of abstract elements. And in engineering – a personal favourite given the current expressions of globalism – it refers to a bed of perforated metal placed beneath an object in a machine press against which the stamping press operates. The concept of a matrix thus carries in its multiple meanings the contradictory intersection of embodied and abstracted social relations, contingent events and systematic processes that the book takes as its field of discussion.
It is a concept that even in its trivialization gives insight into the nature of globalization. In Malaysia during Merdeka month, the month celebrating postcolonial nationalism, the Japanese Hyundai Corporation – advertising itself as the official partner of the World Cup in Germany – launches the Pinifarina as the ‘Matrix’, a car designed to be a ‘lifestyle partner’. 4 A car as a lifestyle partner in an Islamic capitalist and self-consciously nationalist country! Where is this matrix heading? In the United States a second advertisement appears – this time for the Toyota Corporation. A car again called the ‘Matrix’ is featured. Featuring an ideology that, as we will describe, is closely associated with contemporary globalization: ‘Matrix … was sent to here to set you free … The freedom to leave it all behind. The freedom to bring it all with.’ 5 While the focus in this book is on international politics and culture we are interested in both the hard and the soft side of globalization, both ‘the sell’ and the structures of feeling and practice, and globalization as freedom is one of the dominant ideologies of our time.
Between the two of us we have accumulated many debts of gratitude to many people over many years: Shahram Akbarzedeh, Ben Anderson, Perry Anderson, Ien Ang, Sigrid Baringhorst, Anthony Barnett, Jerry Bentley, Andy Butfoy, Joe Camilleri, Peter Christoff, Allen Chun, Joan Cocks, Bill Cope, Kate Cregan, Phillip Darby, Robyn Eckersley, Jonathan Friedman, Bernard Giesen, Gerry Gill, David Goldsworthy, James Goodman, John Hutchinson, Micheline Ishay, Damian Kingsbury, Tim Luke, David Lyon, David McCrone, Walter Mignolio, Ashis Nandy, Monika Naslund, Brendan O’Leary, Andrew Phillips, Chris Reus-Smit, Alan Roberts, Gyorgy Scrinis, Geoff Sharp, Jukka Siikala, Manfred Steger, Alison Tate, Stephanie Trigg and Ben Wellings.
Earlier versions of the chapters were tried out in a number of journals and at recent conference presentations in Australia, Greece, Scotland, Ireland, Taiwan and the United States. We have to thank the editors of Arena Journal , New Left Review , Open Democracy , Communal/Plural , London Review of Books and National Identities for publishing earlier versions of some of the chapters or sections within. Special thanks goes to the Arena publications group – Alison Caddick, Simon Cooper, John Hinkson, Guy Rundle, Matthew Ryan, Chris Scanlon and Geoff Sharp – not only for giving early life to some of our ideas in print, but for also for providing an intellectual milieu in Melbourne for debate and critique.
The foundational setting for our writing is the Globalism Institute at RMIT in Melbourne where we both work. How many other universities in the world would let such a motley gaggle of people gather together with the brief to be critical, engaged and disruptive of easy mainstream assumptions? The Institute’s ‘Manifesto’ reads:

At a time of acute sensitivity to questions of social dislocation, economic inequity and political upheaval, the Globalism Institute is committed to rethinking the relationship between the global and the local. The Institute’s primary intellectual task is to understand the processes of change and continuity in order to think through cultural-political questions about sustainable living in a globalising world. In particular, it is concerned to facilitate and enhance activities of cultural