Dreamers, music lovers and hamburger fans were in for a treat 50 years ago. 1967 was the year of the Summer of Love, of legendary albums by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and The Rolling Stones -- and it was the year the world met the Big Mac.
The message of love, guitar riffs and burgers conquered the world and the winged words "turn on, tune in, drop out" sounded out. The Summer of Love came to an end on Oct. 6, 1967, partly due to commercialism and in part to drug-fueled excess. A funeral procession moved through the epicentre of the movement in San Francisco, with a grey coffin displaying the text "Summer of Love."
How differently did the Big Mac fare. Introduced at a McDonald’s in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1967, it was available in every U.S. branch a year later. Nowadays, you can buy one in tens of thousands of restaurants throughout the world. The burger and the large yellow M where it is sold are the emblems of the U.S.-led globalization of the last few decades. Yet, just as the experiment in San Francisco was partly a victim of its own success, many believe globalization has also spun out of control.
In his 1995 book Jihad vs McWorld, Tony Barber saw a battle: Globalization and corporate control of the political process were taking on traditional values, the latter expressed often in the form of extreme nationalism or religious orthodoxy and theocracy.
The term ‘jihad’ implies a clash between the modern Western world and an Islamic society that "lags behind," but Barber’s story reached further. The author held that cosmopolitans -- proponents of free trade and people who plead for open borders and cultural cross-fertilization -- would battle it out with groups emphasizing the uniqueness and often supremacy of their culture. That wasn’t all. Barber argued that multinationals -- the ultimate product of globalization -- and so-called traditionalists would have a negative impact on democracy.
More than 20 years on, Barber’s arguments are very topical. Many regard the traditional left-wing and right-wing moderate parties as birds of a feather. Politicians have lost sight of the wishes, needs, and problems of the people. Uncertainty, discontent, and tensions have risen high.
For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield dates from 1967, but expresses the current atmosphere well:
There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody’s wrong
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
For years, if not decades, the establishment has sold globalization, free trade, and capitalism as the only right way. There was one set of people who enthusiastically picked up the theme, and a small group that resisted. But the majority of people meekly followed. Most people were turned on and tuned in.
Now however, globalization has spawned many drop-outs. These include people who could not keep up with the changes, but also people who still have it good but feel deep uncertainty about what the future holds.
In such a climate, people have a need for clarity and simple, transparent stories -- stories in which good and evil are clearly distinguishable, in which cause and effect logically merge, and in which there is as little arbitrariness as possible. Nassim Nicholas Taleb refers to this as the narrative fallacy.
In the chaotic, uncertain, rapidly changing and complicated world of present day, it is hard to accept that some things are arbitrary and that sometimes things go completely awry as a result. If you cannot accept this, frustration will ensue. This may soon lead to a search for culprits and scapegoats. In short, a reason is sought to set straight the story.
Politicians like Donald Trump cleverly respond to this. Historian Richard Hofstadter would have dubbed the American president’s style as paranoid. The politically paranoid person sketches the idea that they are caught up in a grand fight with evil powers where civilization’s survival is at stake. It is essential here that the paranoid mind is far more coherent than the real world. In other words, Trumpism gives anxious, unsure voters a simple story that sounds logical and explains the world in clear outlines.
This way of doing politics enhances polarization, with far-reaching consequences. In normally functioning democracies, politicians regard competitors as adversaries with whom they engage in battle, but with whom they ultimately also reach compromises and cooperate. In sharply polarized democracies, the political opponent is considered an enemy.
The more divided politics and society, the more difficult it becomes to return to normal behavior. In extreme cases, authoritarianism is the result of polarization, with ensuing political paralysis and failing governance, and the tendency to concentrate more and more power in the executive. Cases in point are Venezuela, Turkey, and Hungary.
The surprising tolerance for, acceptance, or even approval of authoritarian tendencies is a phenomenon on display in many places and could continue to grow. Uncertainty will increase as technological advances jeopardize more jobs, aging populations drive the costs of pensions and healthcare to unsustainable levels, and countries such as China gain ever more power.
The world now has to deal with a U.S. president who prefers coercion over consensus, is happy to go it alone, would rather punish than reward, bluffs too much, makes empty promises and adds half-truth or lie to distortion and falsehood. In Europe, the Brexit puzzle will take time to assemble, and the eurocrisis may very well return. All this is unfolding while geopolitical chaos girdles Europe and concerns grow about Chinese debt mountains, property bubbles, and geopolitical ambitions. In the midst of this dismal picture, major emerging markets are tottering -- including in Brazil and South Africa -- while North Korea makes the world extremely nervous.
Fifty years after the Summer of Love and the Big Mac’s birth, 2017 will not be a repetition of 1967. That year was followed by a year in which Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, the Vietnam War intensified, the Prague Spring was brutally suppressed, racist Enoch Powell was a candidate for British Prime Minister and Richard Nixon was elected U.S. president. All this took place against the soundtrack of The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil.
Let us hope we will be spared another 1968. However, in 2018 we might well be reminded of this magnificent 1968 song:
I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
