Getty Images We all know all about globalization and its consequences, to note the obvious. But how many of us know how well we know this phenom? How many of us are clear in our minds about these things? How many of us look at a potholed road or at falling plaster in a third-grade classroom, or drive past blighted towns and abandoned farms and factories, or know some of the many millions who now drift toward poverty in a state of excruciating insecurity — how many of us are aware of a thousand such threads in the fabric of our lives and say, “Yes, well, this is the era of globalization”? Some but not so many, by my reckoning. “Globalization” became accepted shorthand for many complex matters instantly at the end of the Cold War — Cold War I, I should say.