With the fall of the Eastern Europe Block (or Communist Block) in 1991 -due to the end of the Cold War-, and the mass expansion of Internet and Social Media channels a process; a process of break out and revolution began to show in all continents of the world.
This process, consisting of an exponential development of technological goods and services and the rise of free commerce worldwide is called “Globalization”. In the beginning of all of this issue flowing in the “first world” countries like the United States and many nations in Europe, there were many gurus who stated, with an optimist-ish look of the world’s international system, that History as it had been known before was over and the world would now enter an endless cycle of production and economic growth based on reduction of import/export taxes, total liberalization of economy and cuts in traditional services from Welfare state such as public health, education and security.
The most famous prediction of this new wave of production is provided by the American politician Francis Fukuyama on his book “The end of History and The Last Man” in which he states that the end of History would mean also the end of wars, battles and all kind of conflicts present in previous Human History and that the final and best form of organization of society and economy would be represented by neoliberal democracy.
At the same time, it had been said that the arrival of Globalization and the establishment of the Neoliberal Financial institutions (such as the International Monetary Fund) would contribute to the emerging of a “new man”, a “borderless man” whose contribution to the mass production of Capitalist economy would be determined by his consumption capacity and whose constitution as a person would be exactly like the one from all other men around the world, thanks to the expansion of North Atlantic culture standards which countries from the “Third World” would need to follow precisely in order to experience socio-economic development.
This way, a new political and cultural notion would establish on everyone’s mind: the so called “Capitalist Realism” re-defined by Mark Fisher as “the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it” (Fisher; 2009).
However, opposed to the initial prediction of the global gurús of the borderless man emerging, the Capitalist Realism establishing and Neoliberalism reigning on Earth; now a days in 2023, we can affirm that the project of the “Borderless Man” thought by the end of the Cold War has failed.
Firstly, the project of the “Borderless Man” could not be concluded because, although the Soviet Union and the rest of the Communist Block evaporated at the end of the Cold War, its influence in socio-political and economic terms did not fade in those countries who were previously aligned with the Communist giants.
In this context, different places around Asia, Africa, and Latin America based their new politics on the basic fundamentals of the past Soviet nations (such as Anti-capitalism and proletarian union), this the example of countries like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela, who took part in the “Foro de São Paulo” after the Soviet Union’s fall. Secondly, the prediction conveyed by Fukuyama and many others did not happen as they thought as a result of the multiple crises that the global financial economy suffered since the beginning of the 2000s. Global issues such as the 2008 crisis caused the ideal of the “Borderless Man” and Neoliberal democracy and Capitalism to be the target of many critics who doubt how much progress does actually the system give.
Also, this wide range of problems within the establishment has moved a large number of people into alternatives to the traditional philosophy and science of Neoliberalism: nihilism, marxism, nationalism, and many other ideologies have caused people to spend more time thinking and facing how much of truth is that there are no alternatives to late-stage Capitalism.
And thirdly, because of the rising philosophies and political parties from the “Third World” which oppose Capitalism and the Neo-Colonialism imposed by Capitalist Realism, the case of different philosophers like Boaventura de Souza Santos who stated that the imposition of Neoliberalism worldwide would lately cause an authentic “genocide” in the epistemology and culture of al non-North Atlantic countries. This caused a new wave of political thinking to emerge and attack the idea of the “Borderless Man” proposing, in opposition, a multicultural constitution of the world, where knowledge is based locally and expands in peaceful dialogue with other cultures.
Nowadays, the idea of the so-called “Borderless Man” seems almost completely forgotten by many societies; however, it is really far from fully disappearing in our global society today. Because of this, it is that many movements with different political flags are still emerging every day, wondering which of the alternatives to Capitalism is the best to implement and how to overcome the issues that following of the idea of the “Borderless Man” has caused until our present days.
Bibliography:
Fukuyama, F.(2006).The end of History and the Last Man .Simon & Schuster Usa.
Fisher, M.(2009).Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative? Zero Books.
Wolin, S.(2001).Política y Perspectiva:una mirada a la filosofía occidental.Amorrortu Editores
De Souza Santos, B.(1990).Una Epistemología del Sur.Flacso
Hobbsbawm, E.(2004).La Era del Capital.Siglo XXI
Wolff, J.(2001).Filosofía Política: Una introducción.Amorrortu Editores
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