This is a blog about the visible and invisible borders around the world being built and getting knocked down. They can be walls, social barriers, tariffs, customs rules, passports, etc. Sometimes new borders can represent a division between peoples. Other times they might replace other borders by expanding a geographical entity. Most borders are necessary, yet none are impenetrable nor indisputable. This is not a blog against or for borders–it’s about why and how we use them in a globalized world.
The two main reasons I have for creating this blog stem from both modesty and ambition. The first is because I recognize my own ignorance on what the word “globalism” means. My own views on it are incomplete. They are grounded in the assumption that a more open world is inherently good and skewed by the beneficial position that I occupy as a young, educated, white American male without much immediate financial strain. The second is because I believe that a blog like this can incite other people to think more critically about the terms upon which they relate to their neighbors–not the guy next door, but those existing outside of their community. As the compartmentalization of media sources we rely upon gets worse, a 20-second soundbite, or viral online rant, of someone lambasting all trade deals or, conversely, preaching the fruits of immigration on a country’s economic growth and standard of living reaches us according to our preferences in media. By sifting through the jumble of news bits, I hope this blog helps anyone reading it to derive a clearer look on how our world is evolving.