Rethinking Colonialism
With the passing of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, there has been an interesting mix of reactions from around the world. Main Stream Media has been respectful in almost every case. World leaders are honoring her legacy. Professional sports in England are canceling games for the weekend.
Social media, however, has been NUTS. I made a mistake a few years ago and reacted to the death of Kobe Bryant in a less than respectful way. My timing was terrible. I learned my lesson and won’t make that mistake again. With the knowledge of my mistake, I saw the full spectrum of reaction across social media in the last 24 hours. There was respect, honor, dismissal, and even some hatred. I understand people are always going to have different reactions in situations like this, but I kept seeing references to colonies, colonizing, and colonialism. It got me thinking.
Colonies were established for a number of reasons; economic, defense, power, etc. Britain did it. The French did it. A number of countries have done it. No one does it anymore, at least not in the same sense as it was happening a few centuries ago.
I do think there is a new form of Colonizing going on right now. It isn’t about geography. It isn’t about terrain. This is about power and it isn’t global governments doing it, although you could argue China is doing exactly this on the African continent. The powers that are Colonizing the world go by names like Meta, Amazon, Google, and Apple.
These powers don’t have to worry about borders. They aren’t trying to dominate the world by overthrowing governments or defeating militaries. You could argue they are trying to make borders irrelevant. If Amazon can ship anywhere in the world, control availability, or adjust prices, why do they care about borders? If Meta can manipulate or control content globally through their apps and websites, why do they care about borders? If Apple can change, update, or manipulate how people communicate globally, why do they care about borders? If Google can prioritize what you see first, second, and third when you search the net, why do they care about borders?
We are all becoming beholden to these powers as if they were established monarchies of old. They are controlling what we buy, what we read, and how we communicate. They are expanding their reach almost daily, just as the old kingdoms did. Like those old kingdoms, fighting against them is approaching fruitless. Like the empires of old, they are preying on the less educated, the lazy, and the unaware.
These are the new Colonizers. We are happily joining the new colonies. The Google Colony. The Amazon Colony. The Meta Colony. We are raising our hands and pledging allegiance to these new global powers. They are employing us. They are feeding us. They are dictating how we spend our money and what we see or don’t see. They are determining what information we get first. We are all agreeing to this, whether we realize it or not.
These may not be monarchies. They may not be kingdoms. They aren’t governments of any kind. But, if it looks like a duck and acts like a duck….
We may all want to take a step back and rethink the definition of Colonialism.