#BUT at the same time it’s a double-edged sword and it can be extremely detrimental and toxic to us and our health | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mcsplodeyx · 4 years

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@gurabiti sent: 🍯, 🥛, 🐢, 🦄, ⌛, 💕, 💣, 😵, 🏡 ( pt. 1 )

🍯 - FOOD HEADCANON

he learned how to cook mainly from his dad. not that his mom didn’t cook, but it was actually his dad’s favorite past time. when he was younger his mom used to tell him he needs to be able to care for himself and others should he ever get involved romantically or make friends. on top of this his dad was a extreme fan of spicy foods and often made them despite his mother’s protest to killing her taste buds and he took that after him. he gets his food knowledge and skill all from his father, mainly due to the fact masaru didn’t want bakugou and mitsuki arguing with knives in tow. and he loved spending that time with his son.

🥛 - DRINK HEADCANON

he doesn’t drink much soda or sugary drinks. he normally drinks water ( tap, mineral, flavored rarely ), oolong tea and a single coffee during the day. however when he does drink soda or sugary drinks he likes watermelon fanta, strawberry coca cola or a toss up of ramune drinks. depends on his mood and if he’s out buying snacks with his friends ; they’re bad influences on the snack picking.

🐢 - MENTAL HEALTH HEADCANON

his self image is heavily damaged. what i mean by this is he uses grandiose projections to cover up the fact that he is very unsatisfied with himself. he is never happy with his improvement, especially after coming to UA, because he feels as though he’s constantly falling behind. though as all might said, it’s harder to improve when you’re at the top compared to others who are coming up from the bottom. he tries to tell himself this, but after years of processing his emotions on himself with the same behavior it’s a hard habit to break.

🦄 - PHYSICAL HEALTH HEADCANON

bakugou’s physical health is constantly maintained. he works out daily in his own room, both dorm and home. it’s a goal of his to keep himself in tip-top shape and it’s a routine that hasn’t been interrupted since he began to train himself towards becoming a hero. he has a specific workout routine to ensure muscle definition and strength and honestly hasn’t broken it for a day in his life. this is also a double-edged sword, because he has the tendency to push himself and make his body feel absolutely worse the next day. he however just sees it as pushing his endurance.

⌛ - SLEEP HEADCANON

same as his physical routine, his sleep is routine. he goes to bed between 8pm - 9pm every night. it was a unbreakable schedule until he got to UA and began to deal with the unprecedented villain attacks. regardless of this, he’ll still retire to his room around that given time frame and lie away if he’s unable to sleep. when he’s stressed he’ll often use the punching bag in his room as a stress relief until he’s too wore out to stay away.

💕 - LOVE HEADCANON

WHAT IS LOVE, BABY DON’T HURT ME ---- he has no idea what the fuck to do when it comes to love. feelings such as crushes and being in love is something he’s never taken into consideration as he’s too focused on winning. he sees love, his parents love each other very much, but he doesn’t consider it being a part of his life in his future. if he experiences these feelings, he isn’t sure what it is. he’ll feel embarrassed, flustered, aggravated and ultimately ignore it until he feels as though he’s going to explode. it’s not that he can’t love / doesn’t, but he actively holds no desire for love in a romantic sense. he never has and probably never will until it’s literally too late to say ‘no’.

💣 - STRESS HEADCANON

bakugou mutates his stress into physical output. working out more, training his quirk, basically anything physical. if he sits on it and keeps it inside it only adds to his blowups and causes him to fall down a deep hole of anger. regardless, this still is detrimental to his physical and mental health, especially when it comes to training. he often overworks himself when he’s stressed and won’t stop until he feels a speck of relief or as if he’s improved something he aimed to ( which can be the main cause of his stress, anyway )

😵 - SICKNESS HEADCANON

when he’s sick he’s a lot less aggressive. he’s sluggish, slowed down and absolutely hates it because it slows him down. when he’s sick, he’s much more accepting to being ‘cared’ for. ie: friends bringing him things, being checked up on ( tho he’ll say he’s fucking fine ) and just lazing around with some people online. he may complain, but he’ll accept it nonetheless.

🏡 - HOME HEADCANON

violence was a heavy part of his home life, mainly due to his mom believing in physical punishment and being a victim of anger herself. he’s always been smacked, pushed into his room or met with some sort of force when he’s acted up. he never saw a problem with it, as it was normally given to him as a disciplinary action although the actions were often tied into fights and words which hurt. this was purely from his mother ; his father didn’t have the heart and often tried to break it up or handle it a different way. however as bakugou got older and began to take a lot from mitsuki, he gave up and saw it as a losing battle. this does have a heavy influence on his behavior during his life.

#gurabiti #『 💥 HCS 』 ━ ALL THIS VIOLENCE MAKES A STATEMENT !#it is way too early for this shit but here i am.#thank you milla you spoil me so much ---

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aspoonofsugar · 6 years

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Nen and Characters: Kachou and Fugetsu

This analysys will be different from the usual ones because Kachou and Fugetsu’s story isn’t over yet and so I can’t draw a definitive conclusion on them and on what they are supposed to represent within the narrative.

So, this meta will contain several speculations and thoughts in reguards to these two characters.

First of all let’s consider this:

Both Kachou and Fugetsu’s abilities are mutual cooperation type powers and they both need the other twin in order to be activated.

The fact that Kachou and Fugetsu complement each other has been hinted through their names since Kachofugetsu is a Japanese saying which means “beauties of nature”. So the words kachou and fugetsu are meant to come together to form one single concept.

This obviously symbolizes the strong bond the two sisters have, but I think this bond might be a double edged sword.

THREE EXAMPLES OF SIBLINGS LOVE

It’s not the first time that we have a couple of siblings who have a power based on mutual cooperation:

The Ortho siblings’ power worked that way as well. Whereas the sister was the one who had to conjure and to attach the tag on a target, the brother was the one who used the darts to kill them. The essence of their ability was trust:

However, this apparent invincible bond was quick to be broken once things didn’t got the way the siblings wanted:

In short, the Ortho siblings are a deconstruction of a perfect fraternal love. Their power may seem to represent the trust between the two characters and it might be that way to an extent, but at the same time it was born out of the two siblings’ flaws. The brother likes to be admired and praised for his abilities, whereas the sister finds convenient to leave all the work to her brother.

There is at least another fraternal love who, despite having healthy and wonderful elements, may turn out to be limiting for the characters if some aspects of it aren’t addressed and it is the one between Alluka and Killua.

It has been theorized that Nanika might be an Ai which is also known as the Desire of Codependency:

As I wrote in this meta the description fits Nanika. What is more Killua himself is a character who struggles with codependency as his relationship with Gon establishes:

The two siblings’ personalities might make them prone to become co-dependent if they (and especially Killua) don’t pay attention to it:

Right now, Killua is the only one who can use Nanika’s power and he can do it without being worried about Nanika’s requests. It is obvious that such a situation might lead him to become too dependent on his sister’s incredible powers exactly like Alluka and Nanika depend on him to be protected and to be taken care of. Luckily it seems that Killua isn’t that eager to use Nanika’s powers for now:

So, we have two examples of siblings whose powers and personalities are complementary and for both this complementarity is both a strength and a limitation.

Let’s now consider Kachou and Fugetsu’s case and let’s compare them to the two couples of siblings above.

First of all, let’s consider that, differently from the Ortho siblings, Kachou and Fugetsu’s powers aren’t abilities they chose, but are a representation of their subconscious. This means that, whereas the Ortho siblings chose their power in order to compensate each other and to avoid facing their flaws, Kachou and Fugetsu didn’t choose theirs and their abilities are a representation of the deepest parts of the twins’ personalities.

Considering this, there is an aspect of Kachou and Fugetsu’s nen beasts which becomes interesting:

Fugetsu’s nen beast is a worm-hole, whereas Kachou’s one is shapeless. In short, despite being “beasts” their two guardians don’t resemble any kind of animal or even any kind of living creature for that matter.

This is important, especially because (not counting Woble) Kachou and Fugetsu are the only princes whose nen beasts don’t appear as proper guardians which stay next to the respective prince.

This has probably to do with the fact that both Kachou and Fugetsu’s identities are strictly intertwined with each other to the point that they can’t define themselves without the other.

This is why Fugetsu’s nen beast is a passage which leads her to her sister and this is why Kachou’s one assumes a specific form based on what happens not to her specifically, but to both twins.

So, whereas the Ortho siblings’ power is symbolic of a bond which is strong, but superficial and partly utilitaristic (let’s consider that the siblings’ power has a specific goal which is to kill an enemy), Kachou and Fugetsu’s powers are representative of a bond which is so strong that it defines the two sisters to the point that it becomes a disadvantage. For example Fugetsu’s ability would have been more advantagious if the ability to open a second door didn’t depend from Kachou because in this way she could have gone back to her room without being discovered by Mizaistom.

At the same time Kachou’s nen beast’s ability doesn’t seem a particularly useful ability in a battle like the Succession War is.

This is also a point of contrast with Nanika’s ability which turns out to be extremely convenient for Killua who gets to basically have infinite wishes for free.

At the same time, though, in Killua and Alluka/Nanika’s dynamic there is a specific hierarchy in the sense that it is mostly Alluka/Nanika who defines herself through Killua and not the other way around. Here, however, both twins define themselves through the other even if they do so in slightly different ways. These two ways are also representative of each twin’s flaw.

FUGETSU AND ESCAPISM

Fugetsu’s nen beast takes the form of a game Fugetsu used to play with her sister when they were children:

It being a childhood game is indicative of the fact that Fugetsu’s personality is a childish one, as it is said by Mizaistom as well:

Let’s compare the scene above with the following one:

In both scenes Kachou and Fugetsu’s ways of thinking are portried as child-like. It is obvious that both twins are to an extent finding relief in the world of their happy childhood. This is also symbolized through the choice Kachou does of using her Mosquitone Device in order to communicate with Senritsu:

Said device can only be heard by people under a certain age and strengthens the idea of the twins as two children who distrust adults. However, whereas Senritsu praises Kachou for her strong will and recognizes that, despite being a child, she has thought things through, Mizaistom dismisses Fugetsu’s attitude as simplicistic.

This has probably to do with the fact that Fugetsu tends to depend on Kachou:

And because of this she tends to be more naive than her sister. Fugetsu herself is aware of this to an extent:

She knows that Kachou is always ready to protect and to help her. It is obvious that Fugetsu is perfectly able to see through her sister’s lies:

However, she was never shown to directly address them and this leads us to what her beast’s power is i.e. a teleportation ability. A teleportation ability can be seen as an excellent metaphor for escapism i.e. a person’s tendency not to face certain situations head on.

Given this premise and Fugetsu’d personality it is not really surprising that she and her sister try to avoid facing the Succession War by escaping. However, the narrative isn’t going to let them do so:

They have accepted to take part in the War and so they can’t escape from that. They have to face it.

In short, Fugetsu’s nen beast represents her tendency to escape in a happy world of her creation and not to face problems by depending on Kachou. We can see how it was Kachou’s tendency to protect her sister through lies which contributed into strenghtening Fugetsu’s flaw:

The current situation perfectly represents this dysfunctional dynamic. Kachou has already died, but Fugetsu keeps finding comfort in Kachou’s lie and in this way doesn’t have to face such a loss.

By this point, I think there can be two possible endings to Fugetsu’s arc. Either she survives and in this case she will have to face and accept Kachou’s death or she dies because she isn’t able to let go of the illusion Kachou created.

KACHOU AND LIES

Let’s consider this:

And let’s compare it to this:

Senritsu comments on the fact that Kachou’s whole self is a lie and right now “Kachou” herself has become nothing more than an illusion.

Kachou exactly like Fugetsu tends to find comfort in her relationship with her sister. However, (as @hamliet said in a conversation we had) Kachou is active whereas Fugetsu is passive. Fugetsu accepts her sister’s lies, but Kachou is the one actively lying and creating illusions.

Her nen beast’s power is indicative of this. As a matter of fact, even if this power is right now being used to trick Fugetsu, it could have been easily used to trick Kachou as well in a reverse situation.

This is because Kachou lies both to others and to herself and her beast represents this.

Let’s also consider Keeney’s subplot in the last chapter.

His story comments the twins’ one in two different ways.

On one hand Keeney is a person who was never able to overcome his loved ones’ death:

On the other hand he dies sure that his sacrifice will help Kachou and Fugetsu to live:

However, he is wrong since Kachou dies immediately after.

I think it is obvious that his whole subplot is used as a warning to the twins’ one. Kachou is sure that everything will go well as long as she and Fugetsu are together:

And this is why her nen beast takes her place in order to stay next to Fugetsu until death:

It is true that Kachou’s nen beast may be useful to Fugetsu, especially because it was able to open Fugetsu’s door and so it is possible it might be able to use Fugetsu’s door like Kachou did.

However, it doesn’t matter how much helpful or how much a relief it might prove to be for Fugetsu, Keeney’s story warns us that in the end this way of facing the loss of a loved one is detrimental and will surely lead a person to their death.

THE TROLLEY PROBLEM

Nasubi has already explained that what the siblings are facing is a version of the trolley problem.

Halkenburg has chosen his country and as I wrote here he will probably progressively become more and more similar to the tyrants he wants to stop. In short, I don’t think Halkenburg’s choice is the correct one.

However, Kachou and Fugetsu’s one isn’t correct either. They chose each other and disreguarded all the others. They didn’t try to save their other siblings and didn’t show any interest in their country. This is of course understandable and sympathetic given the fact that they are two children and that they are in a horrible situation.

That said, if this arc is going to explore how the public sphere and the private sphere are linked and influence each other, it may be possible that the answer to stop the Succession War isn’t one which takes into consideration only one aspect and completely ignores the other.

If this theory is true, then Kachou and Fugetsu’s attempt can be seen as an attempt which is at the same time similar and opposite to the one Halkenburg did.

Halkenburg too tried to avoid the succession war by killing his father, but was stopped by his and Nasubi’s nen beasts. Moreover, after this failure he decided to embrace the Succession War.

Kachou and Fugetsu tried to avoid the war by escaping, but the ritual they accepted to perform stopped them. At the same time, they, in contrast with Halkenburg, chose their siblings love over their country.

Thank you for reading!

If you are interested in other analysys of HxH characters through their nen abilities here is a list of the ones I wrote up until now:

-Nanika

-Kurapika and Chrollo

-Killua and Illumi

-Gon and Hisoka

-Meruem and Komugi

-Palm Siberia

-Neon Nostrade

-Neferpitou and Shaiapouf

#hxh #hxh meta #kachou hui guo rou #fugetsu hui guo rou #keeney #nen and characters #dark continent arc #succession war arc #my meta

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cecidesent-blog · 5 years

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CHARACTER SOLIDIFYING / ACCEPTING

8) How does your character feel about religion?

To put it simply, Guts and religion do not mix. It’s like oil and water. He lived in a time where God’s name was thrown around to justify every horrible thing that happened, or every horrible thing that someone did. People cry out the same religious rhetoric, and they put their faith in something that Guts views as deplorable. He does believe that God exists, but that doesn’t mean he has any faith in Him. Firstly, in the world of Berserk, God is portrayed as a rather sinister being made up of the collective darkness from the consciousness of the human race. THE IDEA OF EVIL. The Godhand, as the name implies, are the five “angels” that carry out God’s will, altering fate / causality to achieve what God desires. Guts was a sacrifice to the Godhand and the apostles that remain in the darkest depths of hell, and ever since that accursed event, the idea of God has turned into something he heavily dislikes. Humans use religion and God to justify the massacre of hundreds, the most despicable and shallow human beings seem to believe in God... So Guts associates the two of them together.

Father Mozgus was one such example, a priest that had a band of torturers to do his bidding, brutally torturing and murdering people for “blasphemy”, when they only wanted to avoid starving to death. Guts can’t believe that any benevolent being would allow the world to be the way it is, and the fact that GOD is allowing all of this? Just makes Guts despise religion in its entirety.

27. How do they relate to their appearance? How do they wear their clothing? Style? Quality?

Guts has never seen himself as handsome or attractive. He’s heavily scarred from battles he’s experienced since he was six years old, some are more faded than others, while others are quite gruesome due to the severity of the wound. Guts doesn’t feel truly safe without any sort of armor on, he primarily wears the Berserker armor ( it’s a double edged sword, it grants him power, but every time he uses it, he gradually loses his five senses, as well as his sanity ), and he rarely takes it off, unless Schierke / Farnese insists on him removing it to address the wounds he sustains during their battles against the supernatural every night. Underneath, Guts usually wears thin ( but usually warm ) linens that make it easy for him to move around, with bandages covering the entirety of his body, with the exception of his feet and digits. He’s never been one for anything fancy and he prefers simple clothing, as opposed to the fancy attire that nobles wear.

29. What is your character’s weaknesses? Hubris? Pride? Controlling?

His greatest strength and weakness has to be his ANGER. While his wrath can be utilized in killing and destroying anything that gets in his way, particularly demons, it also blinds him from the things / people that matter the most to him. Guts’ anger is brutal, it’s wild, it’s a raging flame that consumes anything it touches... And when he lets loose, he can barely distinguish friend from foe. Ire is an emotion that blurs his judgement, he becomes so fixated on what he hates, that he forgets about the things that matter the most to him. Guts only realizes what he has when he’s away from them, as many other people do. Though he has become a lot calmer with age, he’s still susceptible to having outbursts of anger if he’s pushed enough.

Also, Guts does not know when to quit. He’s extremely obstinate and sometimes he overestimates himself and the limits his body can go to when he was human. Even when he’s aware that his injuries are still susceptible to reopening, he still pushes himself to fight when he is no condition to do so. This proves to be his undoing because he’s further weakening himself when he should be resting, and when his fatigue eventually catches up to him, it will be detrimental for him and the rest of the group he has to protect.

30. Are they holding on to something in the past? Can he or she forgive?

Not only is Guts wrathful, but he’s extremely vindictive and he can hold grudges that will last for years. He rarely forgets when people have slighted him, and he always seeks to spite them in return, depending on the severity of what they have done. Guts holds onto memories of the people that he’s lost, and the bittersweet moments that occurred before he and his comrades from the Band of the Hawk, were offered to the apostles and the Godhand as sacrifices. He cannot forget nor FORGIVE how Griffith sacrificed his comrades without a second thought, and how Griffith sexually assaulted Casca right in front of Guts’ eyes after he was pinned down by apostles. For three solid years, Guts was trying to find a way to reach the Godhand in order to kill Griffith especially... Though his hatred has spread into any form of demons / horrific creatures that represent themselves as evil. Guts can forgive, but it’s extremely difficult for him to do so, and it all depends on what someone has done to him / someone he cares deeply for.

32. How does your character react to stress situations? Defensively? Aggressively? Evasively?

It depends on the situation. In battles against humans, he usually feels calm and collected without any real sense of urgency. There are very few people that can match his inhuman amount of strength, and he can cleave through armor and flesh like a hot knife through butter with his sword, Dragonslayer. However, in fights with apostles / large supernatural presences, he definitely feels more of a sense of urgency and stress, especially when he has to protect the people he cares for. Guts is easily agitated in these scenarios, he vents his frustrations out through isolating and distracting himself at times, usually until he’s calm enough to rationally think about how to solve the problem at hand. It’s a combination of aggressiveness and evasiveness at first, but then he meets everything head on instead of running away like he used to.

42. What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

Primarily, Guts wants peace. He wants peace, not only for himself, but for the new group that has been with him for months on end. Killing Griffith has become secondary, a thought that comes up every now and then, but he primarily focuses on the people he cares for the most. Once, having Griffith’s head on a pike was the main thing he focused on... He was consumed by this desire, so much so that he isolated himself from people, surrounding himself in his wrath and hatred, being cruel and aggressive towards others so they won’t get in his way of slaughtering the man he despises the most. However, the urge to kill was put to rest for a while, and now more than anything, he wants to have a tranquil calm... A place he can rest, if only for a bit. Guts has become tired of constantly fighting every night for his own life, as well as the others. As he describes it, his sword has become heavy with the responsibility he has of helping the others survive every night. Having a place where he and the others could rest? It would be perfect.

@helseira + @warphantasm

#HHRRRRGGHHH THIS TOOK ME TOO LONG #∎ ▫ ╱ ◬ ❘ HEADCANONS / METAS. ▴ defy fate; defy their will ❘#I HOPE THIS IS GOOD ENOUGH #it took me fiveever

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angrycollectordaze-me-blog · 5 years

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Paper代写：The influence of network social platform on college students' interpersonal relationship

本篇paper代写- The influence of network social platform on college students' interpersonal relationship讨论了网络社交平台对大学生人际关系的影响。大学生网络人际关系就是以互联网为基本依托，以大学生为主体的一种人际交往形式。大学生网络人际交往最显著的特点便是它的虚拟性，自由性以及平等性和开放性。在网络交往中，我们不必在拘于生活中的繁琐事务，而是可以在网络交往中根据自己的意愿与任何有相同价值观的人交流，极大的扩大了大学生的朋友圈。另外，网络社交平台还极大地拓宽了大学生获得信息的渠道。本篇paper代写由51due代写平台整理，供大家参考阅读。

Interpersonal communication, or interpersonal communication, is a process in which individuals communicate information to each other or exchange information through language, body, expression and other means to establish certain social relations. For a long time, we are in the social practice on the basis of the study of interpersonal communication phenomena, nowadays, due to the wide application of computer, People's Daily lives more and more inseparable from the digital information technology, the virtual social practice "interpersonal broaden the traditional way of interpersonal communication, has become a frequent communication to people. College students' network interpersonal relationship is a form of interpersonal communication based on the Internet and with college students as the main body. The most remarkable characteristics of college students' network interpersonal communication are its virtuality, freedom, equality and openness.

Chinese education that we have to study hard in high school, only to later to a good university, which made us can only be limited in a very small circle of friends, and after the university, although time to become sufficient, but our friends can only, in the university network communication gives us a larger platform, where you can become the friend, in the network communication, we don't have to be in the limited life tedious affairs, but can be in the network activities according to their own intend to communicate with anyone who has the same values, greatly expand the students' circle of friends.

In the past, people only obtained traditional newspapers and news. Nowadays, college students can search the Internet for the information they need, but college students sometimes forget some special days. However, the space in QQ, the circle of friends in WeChat is often refresh, which greatly broadens our access to information.

In real life, is not only an introverted people exist in the college students, the convenience of network communication, global, and practical, make the introverted students in interpersonal won an important way, interpersonal network to satisfy the introverted students' emotional need, can make college students more vivid to introduce myself, in order to increase their confidence. For college students with relatively strong communication skills, they will meet all kinds of people, which will improve their interpersonal skills to a higher level.

Generally speaking, college students tend to be free and open to make friends in a way that is satisfactory to them. However, network communication is exactly in line with this point, so more and more college students choose to make friends on the Internet. However, this tends to make college students obsessed with the network, to make college students lose and a real chance to talk face to face, ignore the relationships in real life, for a long time in the past, will have a direct communication with people difficult downward, oral communication, interpersonal strain at the same time, also can cause their psychological pressure, withdrawn, anxious, loss of confidence problems, is not conducive to college students form a good interpersonal relationship in real life.

In the online world, college students are exposed to intangible things for their own protection, and are reluctant to release more information such as their name and gender to create a sense of mystery. At the same time, online dating can meet their own needs, create what they want to be, and achieve self-satisfaction, which is extremely detrimental to college students' making friends in real life. For a long time, this kind of psychology will lead to a vicious circle in the interpersonal relationship in real life. However, due to the limitations of moral culture and secular vision in real life, there is a lack of trust between each other, which is not conducive to the healthy development of interpersonal relationship.

The free and equal online world attracts college students. Once they become dependent, it is difficult to get out. Mingling with the unknown often soothes and relaxes one's mind and body. But this lack of real feelings, lack of face-to-face communication and interaction, only temporarily meet the psychological needs of these college students, once engaged in real social practice, often at a loss, lack of social attributes given by social activities, personality more withdrawn, cold, more reluctant to communicate with people; Also do not want to care for others, the loss of responsibility, affection, friendship will be diluted. If you are cheated in the online world, you will be deformed psychologically in real life, unwilling to trust anyone, and your interpersonal relationship will become more contradictory.

Good interpersonal relationship plays an important role in both the real world and the Internet. Everyone is equal before the law, and the law makes people feel more secure. In short, to achieve maximum freedom, the law must be obeyed. Network social contact has the characteristics of being virtual and free, but these characteristics must be guaranteed by law, otherwise it will have bad effects and corrupt social morality. Therefore, only by promoting network legislation and strengthening the construction of laws and regulations can a harmonious and stable network social environment be created.

The Internet itself is a double-edged sword. In this era, the Internet not only brings us great convenience, but also makes us more transparent. Therefore, the construction of laws and regulations on the Internet is very important. In the construction of laws and regulations at the same time, the guidance of public opinion is also we can not ignore; However, in guiding the media and public opinion, we should pay more attention to the following points. Second, we should try our best to seek truth from facts and resist the spread of false news. Third, to improve their own quality. Although the law and public opinion provide us with guarantees and guidance, but to strengthen the network education of college students, guide them to form the correct concept of interpersonal communication is still the first priority. Publicize network laws and regulations to carry out network social activities and make them deeply popular. In order to have a harmonious and safe network environment and ensure the normal communication, we must exert the authority of law and punish those who know and break the law severely. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen public opinion guidance and improve network regulations.

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aboutpoliticsandotherstuff-blog · 7 years

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Worldly Malfunction: Globalization’s Failures and Remedies

Today, the world is more connected than any other time in recorded history. The flow of data and communication between borders has gone from 4.7 thousand gigabits per second to 211.3 gigabits per second between 2005 and 2014 alone; that’s a 45 fold increase.1 The number of international migrants has increased from 173 million in 2000 to 244 million in 2015.2 Trade as a percent of nations’ GDP worldwide was 57.5% in 2015, more than twice as large as it was in 1960.3 Foreign direct investment worldwide totaled $2.1 trillion in 2015, up from $10.2 billion in 1970.4 Consequently, the customs and traditions of different world cultures are more present and more accessible to the world. The increase of connectedness between the world’s people is called globalization. The contemporary globalization movement began with a massive drop in tariffs after the second world war, and accelerated with the fall of communist regimes towards the latter end of the 20th century. This enabled entrepreneurs all across the world to enter the global marketplace for every good and service sold on it. Through specialization, organization on the basis of comparative advantage, and usage of the latest technology, millions of people in impoverished nations were able to bring themselves out of poverty. China, India, and South Korea are only a few examples of this. However, the universal love of globalization turned sour when it was unable to deliver on its promise of “prosperity to all.” Even in developed countries like the US--which have enjoyed significant GDP increases due to globalization--people are united against it. The traction gained by presidential candidate Pat Buchanan (who ran on policies opposing globalization) during his two presidential elections in the 1990s was an early indication of a fear that would later manifest in the form of riots at the 1999 World Trade Organization conference in Seattle. Fast forward a decade and a half: businessman Donald Trump has won the presidency by espousing his opposition to free trade agreements. The reaction has been even worse in the global south, where most of globalization’s problems lie. Globalization may have helped some; but, through trade liberalization, capital market liberalization, privatization, the creation of global economic institutions, and the expansion of markets, globalization has been incredibly detrimental to some of the world’s most vulnerable nations.

Trade liberalization (more commonly referred to as “free trade”) is the cornerstone of globalization, and the flagship of its failures. It refers to the removal of barriers that interfere with the exchange of goods and services between nations. Tariffs, quotas, regulations are all examples of such barriers. According to neoclassical economic theory, trade liberalization is the foremost way by which countries increase their wealth; it brings new people, along with their talents and resources, into competition with each other in the market. Supposedly, everyone becomes richer when countries slash tariffs, remove quotas, and deregulate the trading process. In practice, this is not always the case. Within certain contexts, free trade can decimate the economies of countries who engage in it. When cheaper (and often superior) foreign goods flow into a given market, domestic competition in the relative industry is pushed out of business. This is economically efficient in the sense that the most productive firms are then set to produce that industry's goods; on the other hand, if new productive jobs are not created in a new industry as unproductive workers are shed in the old one, aggregate demand can fall, causing an economic downturn. Whether or not jobs are created in a new industry is dependent on two factors: (1) the availability of capital, and (2) the presence of entrepreneurship. Trade liberalization can only be effective insofar as these two needs are met. Unfortunately, in third world countries, the needs for capital nor entrepreneurship are met in the face of trade liberalization. A lack of education ensures that few entrepreneurs rise to the task of creating new firms; likewise, the weakness of (or lack of) financial markets ensures that those few entrepreneurs cannot secure any capital. The results are dire: jobs are destroyed faster than they are created, and previously impoverished people are plunged even deeper into the global south. This is precisely what happened in Sub-Saharan Africa following the 1994 round of worldly trade negotiations, which built upon the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The round of negotiations was dubbed the “Uruguay Round.” A report by the World Bank found that trade liberalization in Sub-Saharan Africa (which was negotiated as part of the Uruguay round) led to a 2% decline in the country’s gross national income (GNI).11 A more egregious example can be seen in Mexico. Following the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, subsidized American exports flooded Mexican markets. Inexpensive corn exports increased five times, and pork exports increased twenty-five times.5 As a result, 120,000 Mexican jobs disappeared, pushing fourteen million mexicans into extreme poverty.6 With nowhere else to turn, these newly impoverished people immigrated to the United States. Between 1992 and 2000, the number of illegal immigrants in America more than doubled. In the cases of Sub-Saharan Africa, Mexico, and others, trade liberalization did not fulfil the promises of neoclassical doctrine--it did quite the opposite.

Capital market liberalization goes hand in hand with trade liberalization, and can be just as detrimental. Capital market liberalization is the removal of restrictions on financial flows between nations. Like trade liberalization, capital market liberalization is a double edged sword. It satisfies one of the two major requirements for the development of new industries in third world countries: access to financing. Conversely, capital market liberalization opens the floodgates for hot money. Hot money refers to funds that quickly flow in and out of a country’s markets. It allows investors to push large amounts of money into developing economies, and--if prospects are dim--to remove them overnight. By pulling financing out from underneath developing economies all at once (and with zero notice), outflows of hot money can destroy those economies. It was for this reason that european economies didn’t adopt capital market liberalization until the 1970s.10 There are indirect consequences of hot money too; the opening of markets to quick capital flows brings with it risks which make long-term investments from foreign nations unattractive. Hot money, although the highlight of capital market liberalization, is only one of its aspects. When financial markets are non-competitive, capital market liberalization can spawn higher interest rates by moving the responsibility for lending from state-run monopolies to private ones. In the same stride, capital market liberalization can weaken “window guidance”--influence of a country’s central bank over private ones--and risk pushing the business cycle through more extreme expansions and contractions. These three key downfalls of capital market liberalization (the proliferation of hot money, risk of private monopolies in financial markets, and reduction in window guidance) are exemplified in the 1997 financial crisis in East Asia, which suppressed the growth of countries in the region to 17% less than it would have been otherwise.7 After the opening of East Asian financial markets and the subsequent collapse of the Thai baht, domestic business saw its low-interest financing evaporate. The East Asia crisis was only one of many times that capital market liberalization has done more harm than good.

Trade liberalization and capital market liberalization across the globe has been met with the adoption of privatization policies, which exacerbate the economic troubles brought about by those other aspects of globalization. Privatization is the transfer of public enterprise to private individuals. In neoclassical theory, privatization can increase economic efficiency by bringing corporations under the scrutiny of the market. This ideal scenario laid out by neoclassical theory may very well be desirable, but only exists once a prerequisite is met: the given market that state industry is privatized into is a competitive one. If markets are are non-competitive, privatization can have the dire consequence of creating highly inefficient private monopolies. Since government companies are often conceived in order to address the market’s failure to provide goods and services, privatization frequently hands over power to private monopolies. Prices soar; quality plummets. The privatization of chick distribution services in Morocco, of internet services in the Ivory Coast, and of water in Bolivia are prime illustrations. Privatization carries with it large social costs as well. Even if markets are competitive, inefficient workers are shed from a company when it is privatized. If they are unable to find new, equally fulfilling (and paying) work, they may be met with increased feelings of alienation. They may put additional financial burdens on their family, or withdraw children from school in order to help cope with that financial burden. Privatization is not always sunshine and roses; like trade liberalization and capital market liberalization, it is yet another aspect of globalization that has the capacity for tremendous harm.

With the rise of globalization, there has been a parallel rise in global governance. Unfortunately, the institutions of global governance have often perpetuated globalization’s biggest problems by only serving the interests of those represented within them. The main institutions that manage globalization are the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The World Bank and the IMF were both formed in the wake of the great depression at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, and were tasked with preventing another global economic crisis. The World Bank was designed to provide loans to develop the infrastructure of developing countries; the IMF was designed to provide loans to countries in crisis as to maintain global economic stability. The WTO was created in 1995 as an expansion of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); it exists to better facilitate international trade negotiations. There are two main problems with these institutions, which have led them to perpetuate the biggest detriments of globalization: the first has to do with how much representation each country gets within the institutions. In the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO, countries are not represented based on population, or by the degree to which they are affected by decisions made at the World Bank, the IMF, or the WTO. Votes are allocated on the basis of economic power. This leaves third world countries--which are the most heavily affected by decisions made at the institutions of globalization--with little or no say in the way that globalization will go about. The second problem with these institutions has less to do with which countries are represented within them, but rather which interests appear at the negotiating table. At the IMF and World Bank, countries are represented by their finance ministers and central bank governors, who are interested with keeping inflation low and seeing their loans repaid. At the WTO, countries are represented by their trade ministers, who are interested in reducing current account trade deficits and maximizing current account trade surpluses. Notice who is not represented. Workers in both developed and developing countries, who may lose or gain jobs to agreements negotiated at any one of these institutions, do not get a seat at the table. Small businessmen in third world countries, who may be driven out of the market by foreign goods, don’t get a seat either. Meanwhile, investment banks and wealthy individuals seeking to make a profit on the development of the third world are well represented through their finance ministers and central bank governors. Likewise, multinational corporations seeking to make a profit by exporting their goods all across the global south are well represented through their trade ministers. It is unsurprising, given which countries and interests have been in the driver’s seat of globalization, that policies of trade liberalization, capital market liberalization, and privatization have been pursued to the advantage of the rich and powerful whilst condemning the poor and powerless to their ever worsening predicament. It was the policies of the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO which led to economic crisies in East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, post-communist Russia, and more. These are not mistakes; they are decisions that conform with the institutional structure of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO.

Some critics of globalization see the end of globalization as a solution to these problems. They assert that heavy barriers on trade, financial flows, migration, and/or international communication will “fix” globalization. This is wrong. Although an end to globalization may be able to rectify momentary problems created by globalization, it would simultaneously give up all of globalization’s benefits, including its strong tendency to create wealth. According to World Bank data, 13% of the United States’ GDP in 2015 was created by the sale of exports.8 That’s $2.2 trillion. In the same year, the US imported $2.3 trillion worth of goods, many of which are used as inputs in the production of American-made goods.9 In the US, to “end” globalization would mean to stop exporting and importing trillions of dollars worth of goods, casting millions of people into poverty. This is not good for the developed or developing world. Ending globalization would be an unproductive knee-jerk reaction to the problems of globalization; it is not a well thought-out solution.

Other critics who are more perceptive of the cause of globalization’s problems suppose that although ending globalization altogether is not desirable, the IMF and the World Bank should be destroyed. The critics point out that the existence of these lending agencies encourages countries to engage in high risk, high reward activities by providing countries with a safety net (a loan) to fall into if things go south. Moreover, the critics point out the truism that the IMF and World Bank are fundamentally undemocratic, and serve the special interests represented within them. Although this sceptical view hits on some well-justified points, it falls flat because it fails to consider that the problems of globalization are still present without the global economic institutions. Getting rid of the IMF and the World Bank wouldn’t eliminate those problems; in fact, it would eliminate the only institutions which can possibly correct the failures of globalization. These institutions themselves are neither good nor bad; they are a product of the people and interests who direct them. They have acted badly because they are run by people interested only in low inflation rates and loan repayments. For the institutions to be good, they must be directed by people with different interests. The IMF and the World Bank do not need to be eliminated, but restructured.

Globalization has not gone well for many of the world’s weakest and most vulnerable nations. Trade liberalization, capital market liberalization, privatization, and the creation of global economic institutions have ended up being--in many cases--colossal failures. It is not a law of nature that globalization is run in such a manner. To make globalization work for everyone, different prescriptions must be given to countries entering the global economy. Trade liberalization must be accompanied by low interest rates and a strong safety net, so that the negative effects of unemployment are minimized and so that lost jobs are recouped. Capital market liberalization must be accompanied by strong financial regulations, so that the worst tendencies of hot money are not realized. Privitization must be accompanied by strong public education, access to capital, and antitrust legislation, so that private monopolies do not arise. In general, industrialization must be considered within the context of the earth’s climate crisis. All of these measures should be developed by the third world countries which they affect most. The reforms described here can only emanate from more democratically run global economic institutions. Workers and their communities--not just finance ministers, central bank governors, and trade ministers--should have seats at the IMF, World Bank, and WTO. They shouldn’t just sit there, either; they should have a say in the way those institutions design and shape globalization. It is only through this new way of managing globalization that it has a shot at bringing continued prosperity to all.

Sources:

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Springler, Elizabeth. "Financial Liberalization, Stock Markets and Growth in Economies with Underdeveloped Financial Markets." Financial Liberalization, Stock Markets and Growth in Economies with Underde- Veloped Financial Markets 3.2 (2006): 53-86. European Political Economy Review. Web. <http://aei.pitt.edu/8371/1/springler.pdf>.

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