Habermas and Globalization

Jurgen Habermas, the previously mentioned political philosopher, writes extensively on the topics of globalization and I believe that the majority of what he has written accurately describes the problem found within Globalization. With his accurate description, I believe that he provides a possible response.

 

In order to understand this part of the problem, the world must be divided into two different parts, The System and The Life World.

 

The System includes all that is of purely a functional nature, that is the market, bureaucracy, money, power politics, and the like.

 

The Life-World includes our customs, traditions, history, reason, and culture (including most importantly languages and means communication).

 

While these two systems must both exist, they must do so harmoniously. In today’s globalized world, The System is “colonizing” The Life World in Habermas’ opinion. What this results in, is the degradation of society and lack of social cohesion and integration. For example, if we look at the job market, the globalized market makes it appear to an individual worker that they are losing their job not because of how capable or unable they are at performing their job, but rather, that market forces took their job away from them. So rather than losing their job, a worker perceives the world as not having a place for him or her. The result creates a very cold and reserved society that cannot exist. To compound with the latter, the former workers will probably see products that are “Made in China” and feel resentment. The example of the breakdown in The Life World can be seen across all aspects of society and leads to general social breakdown as people become disoriented and no longer have sure identities as said identities are distorted and destroyed by The System. As I previously mentioned, distortion proves harmful to the deliberative democratic system. The System’s distortion only exacerbates the vulnerability of democracy to distortion through attempts to desperately reverse globalization and find an identity.

 

            This search for an identity manifests itself possibly in the concept of fragmentation. In essence fragmentation and the creation of civilization sectors merely delays complete colonization of The Life World by the System. It represents an insufficient means of actually dealing with globalization. If this answer is insufficient, then what is the final answer to globalization?