Evolving Bond: From Neoliberalism to Globalization

There has been plenty of discussion whether the James Bond Project can be used as a kind of social barometer. As a piece of art and literature, both the novels and movies can certainly be used as measuring sticks for the various eras of their creations. In fact, Ian Fleming’s portrayal of James Bond and the various villains presents a more prescient view of the world than many give it credit. Ian Fleming was ahead of his time with the James Bond character and his use of villains displays an understanding of international relations, especially the basic principles of globalization. Fleming was far ahead of his time and training.
The majority of Ian Fleming’s novels are the same basic story line. James Bond, his iconic spy hero, is called into action by his government controllers to save the day against an evil arch-villain hell bent on taking over the world. This boiled down version of the plot points to the basic formulaic principle of the novels, making them mostly the same. In this vain, a literary critic is given his heaviest ammunition against the relevance of a Bond novel and gains him the upper hand in a snooty discussion of literature. The formulaic novel is low-class, pop culture fluffery, if you will. But more than simple entertainment lies within the Bond Project.
Consider the Bond stories in tandem with global politics and economic theory. The relations between international states are strained by the efforts of multinational corporations to influence in any way they can the governments in said countries. In an article originally printed for Buddhist Christian Studies, author Judith Simmer-Brown quotes Noam Chomsky:
[T]he strategies employed by the transnational network are designed to consolidate this control:
1. Buy the executive branch of the states involved;
2. Own the legislative branch through lobbyists, campaign contributions, and term extensions, or whatever else may work;
3. Set the conditions in which policy is determined, asserting the power of global capital;
4. Control the doctrine and information systems, especially to invent new needs in order to bolster a culture of fashionable consumption (31-2).
What Chomsky is illustrating is a framework that a corporation can work within, using nothing more than money, to get the favorable decisions in legislation they require to operate their overly large companies.
Breaking down each of these steps, a subsequent Bond plot can be derived. Take Step 1: Buy the executive branch. This is the basic supposition of Quantum of Solace (2008), along with Step 3. The arch villain Mr. Green is buying the services of the military dictator, then setting the terms by which he must deal. At the same time, the backroom dealing Mr. Green engages in with the US government and others is yet another larger piece of Step 3. Step 2 is a broad swathe of controlling devices. Any number of Bond films and novels involve the lobbying of governments. Think of the services rendered from General Urimov in Goldeneye (1995). As far as the audience can tell, he has received only payment for said services, rather than being threatened by the kidnapping of a favorite grandchild or other such motivator. Add to this the fact that the Goldeneye device is then used to hold the governments of the world hostage unless the demands of the operators are met and one can see that this is yet another way, albeit a very extreme example, of using “whatever else may work” to control legislative power.
States are no longer autonomous agents. The days of isolationism, such as existed under the Woodrow Wilson administration, are long gone. Beginning with the entrance into the First World Wart but certainly not ending there, the United States has engaged in an ever-increasing role on a global stage. As World War Two came to a close and the governments of the Allies were faced with the reconstruction of Europe, a further step away from isolationism occurred. Now, one can’t go to the grocery store without seeing cheese and beer from Switzerland or Japan. The economies of the world have become so intertwined that it is hard to see where one ends and another begins.
Gone too are the days where the majority of the manufactured goods bought in any given country are actually manufactured there. Different pieces are made in different parts of the world. Each is transported to separate places for full assembly. This creates jobs in different regions, but also creates competition for the same resources. Even though there may be more companies to supply, creating the illusion of more diversification of producers, it is nonetheless an illusion. There are only so many raw materials on the planet. Due to this, according to Norberg-Hodge,
“[G]lobalization creates efficiency for corporations, but it also creates artificial scarcity for consumers, thus heightening competitive pressures… Globalization means the undermining of the livelihoods and cultural identities of the majority of the world’s peoples” (13-14).
When the peoples of the world are underdeveloped, an atmosphere rife with opportunity for the outlaw is spawned, whether in reality or in the mind.
The novels of Ian Fleming create an outlet for this spirit. This escapist attitude is in the original vein of the writing by Fleming. According to Tony Bennett and Janet Woollacott, Fleming originally wrote Casino Royale to take his mind off his impending nuptials. That the outlet produced such a popular hero is indicative of the role of James Bond as social barometer. The masses were ready for a spy taking down the arch villain. The fact that he has stood the test of time is proof that he has evolved along with the world around him.
Next, let us look at the beginning of globalization. We have taken a look at where the end of isolationism may have been, so this is the logical next step. The principles of neoliberalism provide the perfect platform for globalization to launch from. As the barriers to free trade topple, so to the restraints on employer location and power of the union lobby. On top of this is the positive pressure created for an employer to move. In other words, employers are driven to find the lowest-cost labor market while at the same time this move is easier for the employer.
Neoliberalism brought a new opium to the masses. The promise of new individual freedoms via a more open market with freer trade and potential for unlimited growth would be the godsend for an American population embroiled in the tumult of an oil embargo and the insecurity of both rising inflation percentages and unemployment numbers. By releasing the stops on trade, a “‘a trickle down’” (Harvey pg 64) effect would bring prosperity across the board. The reality of the unchecked free-trade market is anything but this get-rich idyllic image. The average American has seen the exportation of jobs as the need for lower bases of labor has driven the bottom line lower and lower. The need for profitability has usurped the need to protect the American labor force.
Used to be that a man could provide for his family in a middle class existence with employment at a nominally working-class job such as factory worker. The trade unions for which he paid dues looked after his well being in an ever-growing global community of international work forces being used in tandem to create the objects of everyday use. As profitability became the goal, an honest work day for every American was no longer the prevalent mode of conduct, and in the late seventies and throughout the eighties, those factory jobs lost their protection and were exported to countries without wage protections and wages so low a company could again be made profitable without changing the perhaps low-quality of the work.
The belief that “a rising tide lifts all boats” (Harvey pg 64) precludes the idea that an economy can be viewed as a metaphor: money as water. Flood the market with money and there will be a “trickle down” effect, where the money will start at the upper classes and trickle down through various economic mechanisms to the lower classes. This monetary flow must find the cracks that those on top miss, for in a reality that views profitability as the number one tenet, money is not easily wrested from the coffers of the wealthy. What does happen is the finding of the lowest level, another property of water. In this case, the labor force used to generate the profits finds the lowest level, not the flow of cash from the top to the bottom. In other words, the house always wins.
Again, from Simmer-Brown:
One hundred forty years ago, Abraham Lincoln wrote in a prophetic voice:
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country… Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed (31).
What Lincoln was predicting is the essence of globalization: the corporation at the forefront of governmental policy as the shift towards profits ushers in a new paradigm of influence, one in which the one with the most money controls the government.
The plot of You Only Live Twice can give us a glimpse of what it means to be globally connected, and just how complicated the story gets when both sovereign and non-sovereign entities, plus international conspiracy, are all thrown together. A Swiss businessman has immigrated to Japan. England wants to know what Japan knows. Japan has already allocated their resources to the US. All of the information from Japan goes through the director of Security named Tanaka. So England sends James Bond to get Tanaka’s information and help him out with the Swiss businessman. Bond’s contact in Japan is an Australian national named Dikko Henderson. To top this all off, the Swiss businessman is none other than Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a man Bond has much history with.
Blofeld is the quintessential Bond arch villain and a great example of the single great mind attacking the states. In a great description by Earnest and Rosenau, Blofeld and SPECTRE: “this sovereignty-free actor seeks to squeeze money from states and to humiliate governments, either to create fissures in international alliances or to spark popular unrest and political instability” (89). At the heart of this plot is the “inability of states to cooperate and maintain control of transnational technological, financial, commercial, and migratory flows” (89).
Now, although the voice of a narrator should not be confused with the voice of the author, a poem or story is a piece of art, which is necessarily creative and expressive. For one reason or another, an author has been prompted to express what is on paper, and that can be triggered by the social and cultural situations around him. James Bond is still a culturally viable character, even though the style of Ian Fleming would be seen as rather boorish by today standards. In other words, the character has transcended the author in a way unattainable unless the character has the means to adapt and evolve in the cultures present. Today’s Bond is capable of entertaining audiences not just by explosion quanta increases, but also by perceptive writers creating villains that portray current economic models. That older Bond films and novels stand the test of time is a testament to Ian Fleming’s own genius.

Works Cited
Bennett, Tony, and Janet Woollacott. "The Moments of Bond." The James Bond
Phenomenon: A Critical Reader. Ed. Christoph Lindner.Manchester: Manchester UP, 2003. 13-33.
Earnest, David C. and James N. Rosenau. “The Spy Who Loved Globalization.” Foreign Policy September 2000: 88-90.
Fleming, Ian. You Only Live Twice. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
Fleming, Ian. Casino Royale. London: Penguin Books, 2002.
Goldeneye. Dir. Martin Campbell. Perf. Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean. Eon Productions, 1995.
Harvey, David. Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Norberg-Hodge, Helena. “Buddhism and the Global Economy.” Turning Wheel, Spring 1997, 13.
Quantum of Solace. Dir. Martin Campbell. Perf. David Craig, Judi Dench. MGM, 2008. Simmer-Brown, Judith. “Remedying Globalization and Consumerism: Joining the Inner and Outer Journeys in “Perfect Balance”.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 22 (2002): 31-46.

Annotated Bibliography

Black, Jeremy. The Politics of James Bond : from Fleming's Novels to the Big Screen. Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2001.
Jeremy Black describes the relationship of James Bond and his author, Ian Fleming, have had throough the years. Black looks at the character and author from a historical viewpoint, accepting that Bond is a representation of Fleming, and that both exist in a post-Imperial Britain.

Britton, Wesley. Spy Television. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004.
Wesley defines a genre through several different angles: the roots of a family tree: 1900 to 1961 -- Bond, Beatles, and camp. He also analyzes the men from U.N.C.L.E. -more British than Bond, the agency, and twenty-first-century spies. His conclusion involves the past, present, and future of TV espionage, finally asking the question: why spies?

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Novato, CA: Joseph Campbell Foundation, 2008.
In this seminal work by Joseph Campbell, he details his theory of the monomyth. The detail and research is amazing, with examples from all over the globe, including ancient Persian, Native American, and aboriginal Australian myths. He also combines these myths with the analysis and records of men like Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung.

Campbell, Joseph, and Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth. New York: Random House, 1988.
Bill Moyers is a journalist that has interviewed many famous and influential people. In this interview originally aired on PBS, gives an arena for Campbell to answer detailed questions about his theory.

Cork, John and Collin Stutz. James Bond Encyclopedia. London: DK Publishers, 2007.
This is a fully comprehensive look at James Bond and his creator, Ian Fleming. The hardcover is 336 pages of full-color pictures to accompany the well-written text.


James Bond and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy series) by James South and Jacob Held. (Borrowed from Morgan Shaner)
This book offers a perspective on Bond from the study of philosophy – the hard logic behind Bond. By looking at the reasoning behind Bond’s controversial attitude, Bond characters are explained and criticized.

Parker, Barry. Death Rays, Jet Packs, Stunts & Supercars: The Fantastic Physics of Film's Most Celebrated Secret Agent. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
While going the usual array of James Bond history and analysis, this book separates itself by taking a scientific tangent. By analysing the Bond genre through the eyes of a physicist, author Barry Parker creates a unique view of the series.

Streitmatter, Rodger. Sex sells!: The Media's Journey from Repression to Obsession
Cambridge, Mass.: Westview Press, 2004.
This is a look at 1950s America where shouts of “ No sex, please, we're American”, are heard and uses it as a jumping off point for the rest of the discussion. Some of the topics covered are: he pill and the media: spawning a revolution, Playboy magazine: taking pornography into the mainstream, James Bond: bringing sex into the movies, and Cyberporn : bringing sex to the World Wide Web.