Awakening in the Post-Globalization Era: Humanity’s Return to the Stage of History

Highlights

• Globalization has not simply collapsed; more importantly, it has lost much of its legitimacy in the eyes of ordinary people.
• The defining crisis of the new era is not merely economic or geopolitical. It is also a crisis of trust and of humanity’s relationship with structures of power.
• Humanity’s return to the stage of history begins when people once again see themselves as active agents, responsible participants, and builders of the future.
• An awakened society must distinguish faith from instruments of power, national identity from fanaticism, and freedom from disorder.
• Lasting liberation is built not through reaction alone, but through memory, courage, self-awareness, discernment, and responsibility.

Cyrus Kangarlu – In years not so distant from our own, the world spoke with almost religious confidence about the “global village”—a world in which borders would gradually fade, nations would blend together, and modern humanity would finally rediscover itself within a shared and seemingly harmonious horizon. Yet today, in the silence emerging from successive crises, that same world looks upon itself with unmistakable signs of doubt. Globalization has not collapsed; rather, it has lost its legitimacy. And this may be more consequential than any visible collapse.

What is happening today, before it is economic or geopolitical, is a transformation within the human spirit. People who for decades were raised on promises of global prosperity, individual freedom, and international order are discovering that many of these ideas have been translated very differently in practice: freedom has become a form of subtle dependency; the market has evolved into a network of complex monopolies; and global institutions, rather than serving as the voices of nations, often echo the interests of established powers. In the midst of all this, something within the human being has fractured: trust.

This breakdown of trust marks the beginning of humanity’s return to the stage of history. People no longer wish merely to live on the margins of decisions made somewhere far away in their name. They want once again to be subjects rather than objects; creators rather than mere consumers. Although this return may outwardly appear through national policies, trade restrictions, or street protests, it represents something deeper: the revival of the human being as an active historical subject.

Yet every awakening carries dangers. History has repeatedly shown that moments of rupture create possibilities for liberation while also opening pathways toward decline. A society that separates itself from an exhausted order, without reaching a new horizon of awareness, can easily become trapped in different forms of the same domination. The central question, therefore, is not merely the retreat of globalization, but the quality of consciousness that will replace it.

Within this transformation, the role of ideologies—particularly those appearing in the language of religion or liberation—is decisive. Religions throughout history have carried profound experiences of meaning. Yet whenever religion becomes an apparatus of power, its function changes: suffering is transformed into virtue, obedience into sanctity, and liberation is postponed to another world. In such circumstances, religion ceases to be a path toward transcendence and becomes an instrument for preserving the existing order. With important differences, this pattern has also appeared in modern ideologies: in rigid forms of the political left, in a liberalism emptied of its human foundations, and in political interpretations of religion that place truth under the monopoly of power.

Despite their apparent differences, these currents often share one characteristic: distrust of the real human being. Instead of relying on the lived experience of people, they attempt to fit individuals into predetermined frameworks. The result is a society in which the person is no longer regarded as a free and thinking being, but as an instrument for realizing a larger political or ideological project.

From this perspective, the support that some foreign powers provide to exhausted and rootless political forces takes on a meaning beyond ordinary politics. Although such support may sometimes be presented as a defense of democracy or stability, in practice it can perpetuate the very conditions in which nations remain alienated from themselves. A nation that is forced to recognize itself through the mirror of imposed political forces can never fully achieve self-awareness.

In response to this condition, the awakening of societies becomes unavoidable. But if awakening is to lead to liberation, it must move beyond reaction and become self-awareness. The first step is a return to memory. A society that forgets its history is condemned to repeat it—not as conscious understanding, but as fate. Revisiting history is not about glorifying the past; it is about understanding the mechanisms that have taught human beings to accept obedience.

The second step is the restoration of courage. Knowledge without courage does not produce change. Many societies sense the truth at some level, yet fear living according to it. Freedom, while liberating, also places a heavy burden on the individual: responsibility. An awakened society is one that accepts this responsibility.

Finally, there is the necessity of distinction. In a world where concepts are rapidly transformed and distorted, the ability to distinguish between faith and an instrument of power, between national identity and fanaticism, and between freedom and disorder is essential. Without these distinctions, every awakening can deteriorate into blind chaos.

What appears on the horizon today is not so much the end of an era as the threshold of a possibility. The retreat of globalization, if accompanied by awareness, may lead to a redefinition of humanity’s relationship with the world—a relationship in which isolation does not replace connection, and domination does not replace cooperation. Instead, a form of coexistence may emerge in which nations can interact within a broader horizon without surrendering their identities.

But this possibility will not realize itself automatically. Its fulfillment depends upon human choice: whether people will build a bridge from this moment of rupture toward awareness, or whether, in the resulting emptiness, they will fall into new versions of the same ancient sleep.

Perhaps the central issue of our time is neither globalization nor opposition to globalization. It is the relationship between the human being and their own truth. As long as people surrender their destiny to forces outside their own consciousness—whether those forces appear in the form of religion, ideology, or global power—every order will sooner or later become another form of domination.