De-nationalizing

We talk a lot about globalisation. The term ‘globalisation’ however suggests that so far we didn’t see the world as global, that there are things that are not global in nature. And that assumption is not right: there is only one world, which can clearly be seen at any space photo. The sea water doesn’t stop at the border, the wind doesn’t, and neither does the pollution. We do have a limited way of thinking, learned in school, to be found for example in our preferred orientation of the globe. Globalisation at the most is a liberalization of limited thinking, of attitude and/or of behavior.

A country border in the past was made to more or less guarantee the safety of people within the borders. Earlier we did that for example by building castles with moats. When it became clear that it was good to cooperate with neighboring villages and cities, and people started to feel safe outside of the borders, the necessity of heavy guarding disappeared. In a process of years and years, the central government got more tasks, and local governments lost power. Exactly the same process is now going in the European Union. Until a couple of years ago cars were lined up to control the borders. Now we still want to defend our own laws. A country like the Netherlands doesn’t even want a ‘European Constitution’, and wants to stop the development of a European anthem: something that actually connects people. People are scared for changes but when the surroundings get safer, countries no longer have the right to exist, and ‘de-nationalizing’ cannot be stopped.

In the process of de-nationalizing the physical infrastructure between improves. Through train, car, and airplane we nowadays can travel much further than ever before. The free man is taking his chance! Also, through transport technology we can transport products over bigger distances, and as a result we now have almost everything produced in China, to then ship it ten thousands of kilometers over the earth. In this process a growing amount of countries is involved. Between 1980 and 1998 the share of industrial products in the export of developing countries rose from 25% to 80%. This process will end as soon as developing countries will have a comparable economic level as the western world. This is now happening in China and India, and in the end also in Africa. After that we will come to the insight that we can better make the products close to the raw materials, or close to the buyer, and not closest to the employees. They after all are more and more robotized. Shipping goods over the whole world in about fifty years will turn out to have been a temporary thing, needed to have the economy as a whole develop.

The biggest economic development of the coming tens of years however won’t take place in the physical world, but in the virtual world: in the experience world, the world in which we are assisted by a new type of companies with a new type of brands:coaching brands. We are talking about service without tangible elements here. This service will be offered worldwide, in all possible languages, and will be accessible worldwide. The companies who offer this type of services will have a network structure. People can contribute to these kinds of companies from all over the world. A couple of hours, a day, a couple of weeks, or a whole life: whatever you want. These are not closed companies that offer you a contract and provide you with the label: ‘employee’. The border between employee and consumer at this type of companies has completely disappeared. A process I also call the brand coming out . Its essence is that people will cooperate worldwide on products which then are consumed worldwide.

Through this development cultures will get connected more than ever. First there will be an enormous clash (the Danish comics were only an early example), but in the end there will be much more understanding past cultural borders. Through that, cultures will become safer, more accessible, and opener. People will choose a nice place to live, and work from the same place. The de-nationalizing will continue. Maybe with some clashes here and there, but the trend is very clear.

De-nationalizing

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