Final Essay

Nicholas Jerrems

Dr. Wexler

12/11/2012

Globalization: An American Product

      Most people do not understand how the phone in their hands or the food on their plate got to them. In Western society, people are completely disassociated from how products get from concept to their homes. Little do most know, that almost all things American’s consume are available because of exploited countries carrying out production to lower costs and produce on a mass scale.  Everything is interconnected in this world, and the small choices people make on a daily basis can have almost instantaneous effects on others all over the world. Globalization is the primary theme presented in the film Babel, which shows how something so small as the gift of a gun, can have horrific results around the globe. Globalization is a dangerous trend in contemporary society, with mass production happening over seas and social networking connecting everyone, anywhere, anytime. Babel shows how globalization is a product of Westernized ideals of multiculturalism that enables the growth of an American capitalist system. How does a film that does not directly address these issues in its surface deep value present this? It does so with the primary antagonist of the film, the gun.

      Due to the actions of Yasujiro Wataya, a Japanese business man and single father, a woman was shot, a young boy in Morocco is killed by the police force, a mexican woman is deported back to Mexico, and two children come within inches of their own mortality (Arriaga) . What exactly did Wataya do? He gave a rifle, as a gift, to a hunting guide he had while on a trip to Morocco. But it was not just any rifle. The rifle was in fact, an American made Winchester model 70 rifle (IMFDB). The denotative meaning of this rifle is simplistic, but in a film such as Babel where every detail effects another, this cannot be overlooked. The connotative meaning associated with the gun contributes to the idea that the ultimate power behind every action in the film is America.

      With America leading the way of the industrial revolution at the turn of the 20th century, countries all over the world decided to follow on the heels of their success. Soon, demand became larger than supply, and America had to outsource to keep up with it. This opened up a network of trade and communications on a more profound level than ever before. Babel is merely commenting on how interconnected the entire world is now as a result of America’s thirst for capital. This thirst is quenched by extending foreign trade and outsourcing American commodities like Mcdonald's. Mcdonald's, for example, is all over the world, but with each different country, they undergo a multicultural transformation, offering a menu custom fit to each place. This attempt to fit in with each culture’s dietary needs is really just a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It furthers the commodification of each country through the guise of “multiculturalist” pursuits and ultimately feeds an American capitalist system. The Winchester rifle, similar to an item from Mcdonald's, is sold all over the world as a “universal” product, when in fact, the majority of the money benefits the American business behind the production of the gun.

      The gun represents much more than an attempt to fuel an American greed for income though. It is symbolic of the binaries that allow a specific country to undergo capital gain.

In Frederick Jameson’s article, “The Politics of Utopia”, he argues that there is a “dissociation into two distinct worlds which characterizes globalization today.” He is referring to the idea that in order for one country to thrive in terms of capital, they have to exploit another country. For America, this would result in having factories all around the world, with unfair and unsafe working conditions, producing the goods for itself to consume. Yet, in Babel, the exploitation does not go without negative consequences for the thriving country. 

      The gun starts as an American concept. It most likely undergoes production from various places around the world, exploited by the American capitalist system in order to raise profits and lower productions costs. The gun ends up in the hands of a Japanese man, that was somehow led to believe that the American gun was a necessity he needed in order to hunt. The gun eventually gets passed down to the children of a Moroccan farmer, who shoot at a bus of touring Americans and Europeans, hitting an American in the process. The entire scenario presented in the film shows that the exploitation of other countries by America will come back to haunt it, by utilizing the gun as a symbol of American Capitalism.

      It is necessary to discuss a need for globalization in the first place in order to give a film like Babel its appeal. In Randy Martin’s article, “Where Did the Future Go?” he states that “in the three decades since the utopian promises of the welfare state have beat their retreat, finance has been in ascendance.” Despite our efforts for capital gain, the nation goes into debt as a whole and as individuals as the appetite to consume grows beyond the ability to provide. We now finance and live off of credit. It is necessity and part of the American way of life. Our obsession with consumption is creating a larger demand, which increases our reliance on outside countries to produce our products. Globalization is a by product of our thirst for consumption. Because of the products we “want”, demand for production and travel becomes higher. But we do not just go into each country and make fair deals with them. Instead, we spread our own concepts of capitalism through false multicultural facades, projecting an American way of life on any country that does business with us. We provide income for many countries, but those countries in return control the products we use in our everyday lives. Globalization is a result of the American life style and its push to consume beyond recognition until we ourselves, are a product of capitalism.

      Babel implies a lot more than it denotes. It seems like a simple story portraying the results of a “butterfly effect” type action, but in reality, it is voicing a much larger concern. Our avarice for both product and income has created vast networks of communication, production, and travel, that inevitably link back to the capitalist system. The gun in Babel, is a tool used to convey the American capitalist influence on the rest of the world. The West’s attempts to appear “multicultural” is a mere facade for a capitalist purpose that ultimately benefits itself.  Each and every action we perform on a daily basis goes back to America’s ascension up the capitalist ladder, perpetuating reliance on a world that arguably may have been better off left alone.

Works Cited

"Babel." - Internet Movie Firearms Database. Media Wiki, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.

Babel. By Guillermo Arriaga. Perf. Brad Pitt. 01 Distribution, 2007. DVD.

Jameson, Frederick. "The Politics of Utopia." New Left Review. N.p., 2004. Web.

Martin, Randy. "Where Did the Future Go?" Logosonline. Logos 5.1, 2006. Web.