posted
Hey, I'm not the only one who thinks that a global human culture is imminent! Read this from a story on CNN.com about the keynote sermon preached to Muslims as part of the Hajj:
"From Mina the pilgrims went to the Grand Mosque at Mecca, where they circled seven times the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims around the world turn to when praying.
"It was there that Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Sudais, at times choking back tears of emotion, urged the world's Muslims to unite and shun Western traditions and materialism.
"Warning that 'globalization' could lead to 'Western domination of the Islamic nation,' he called on God to bless Muslims and destroy the enemies of Islam.
"'Oh God destroy the aggressors, the Zionists (Israelis)... Save al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) from the claws of Zionists and Jews,' he said."
Is al-Sudais merely fueling the fires of fanatacism, or is cultural "globalization" a fact of our collective life?
[Edited to correct a spelling error, bah!] ------------------ Dane
"Mathematicians have long held that a million monkeys banging on a million keyboards would eventually reproduce the collected wisdom of the human race. Now, thanks to the internet, we know this is not true." -- Robert Silensky
[This message has been edited by Dane Simri (edited March 16, 2000).]
------------------ "When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators, Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." -- Management slogan, Ridcully-style (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent, Discworld) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prakesh's Star Trek Site
posted
Indeed it is. We may sue. That's WORSE than assimilation.
Hey, back in college when the campus held their annual (or more often, if there was any crisis on campus) 'heritage and cultural fair,' my main source of pleasure was going to all the booths wearing my Borg T-shirt that said "YOUR CULTURE WILL BE ASSIMILATED." Which was my response to most questions put to me. "Your primitive culture is unable to resist us." "You will adapt to service us." "Diversity is irrelevant."
Needless to say, I wasn't all that popular.
------------------ "Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi
posted
I think Dane's experience with world culture is not so similar to my own. While elements of World (read: American) Culture are adopted worldwide, there is always, in my experience, a great deal of local variation on this theme. They might have McDonald's in Germany and Wendy's in Korea, but they also have their traditional restaurants and cuisine. Clothing styles of the west might be adopted in the east, and American music styles in various corners of the world, it signifies nothing more than people choosing aspects of another culture that complement their own.
If a "world culture" ever develops, it will be a heterogenous admixture of world-wide similarities and local differences. The fact that people all over the world wear Nike shoes or eat (occasionally) at McDonald's is not indicative of anything more than marketing success.
If there is any aspect of world culture that appeals to me, it is the possibility that we will discover more to draw us together than drives us apart.
--Baloo
------------------ "Sometimes "dark" is just a way of saying you�ve nothing to add, only a new way to subtract."
posted
And, of course, there's most likely a significant portion of the world's population that won't want to be united under the banner of the McDonalds Corporation.
The big problem with the "cultural amalgamation" thing is that it doesn't take into account all the stuff that people value more than hamburgers than shoes, such as relgion, the amount of power government should have, and so on.
------------------ Frank's Home Page "This spontaneous stuff takes a little bit of planning." - John Flansburgh
Baloo, I think you may be misinterpreting me somewhat. The popularity of McDonalds in Russia is indicative of cultural amalgamation, but no more or less so than the existance of Chinese restaurants in Brazil or Italian restaurants in Saudi Arabia. The popularity of country music in France is inticative, but no more or less so than the popularity of techno (which has its roots in Germany) in the USA. My point is that, as "people choose aspects of another culture that complement their own," they drive the heterogeneous toward the homogeneous. I think the analogy of gaseous diffusion is a good one for my feelings on the subject. (In other words, I'm not trying to equate American culture with the Borg here!)
Frank, I think that the trend toward amalgamation is proven out all the more by "all the stuff that people value more than hamburgers." I offer the recent series of reconciliation moves between the Lutheran and Catholic churches as an example. Or how about the much-aligned Euro? (By the way, isn't it interesting how the Euro hovers so close to the value of the US dollar?)
I suppose this discussion would be made clearer if we could come up with a definition of culture. My dictionary offers: "The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought." But what does culture include? Off the top of my head:
Language The Arts Music Drama/Theater Graphic Arts Literature Etiquitte/Customs Civil and Fiscal Government Religion/Spirituality Science/Technology
I think it's possible to measure roughly the degree to which each of these items has become more (or less) globally homogeneous over the last, say, 200 years. In my opinion, the trend is toward homogeneity. Now, I'm sure that there are other things that could be added to this list, but do they support the "sustainment of many static cultures" theory?
Thanks for helping me sort out my opinions on this!
------------------ Dane
"Mathematicians have long held that a million monkeys banging on a million keyboards would eventually reproduce the collected wisdom of the human race. Now, thanks to the internet, we know this is not true." -- Robert Silensky
posted
The difference between Lutherans and Catholic is pretty irrelevent...I challenge a non-Moslem here to name the two Moslem types, using proper spelling.
The Euro is actually steadily dropping below the value of the dollar.
Language - I wish I lived in Finland or something so I could bash the English language more. About the only country that could benefit from using English is France, and that's not going to happen any time soon (at least, not over the dead bodies over the French). In 50 years I'll bet English will decompose into something completely unusable. I'd personally much rather speak Esperanto or Hungarian or Quenya or anything else...
The Arts - I'll let someone else field this one.
Music - Video game sountracks are popular in Japan, but I think I'm the only one here who bought the Donkey Kong Country CD.
Drama/Theater - If movies count, I've heard that India generally produces hundreds and hundreds of films each year, whereas in the US movies are big-budget-type things.
Graphic Arts - Er...you mean, billboards and such? Or just paintings?
Literature - Since this depends on language, it's already very different. I challenge someone here to write anything without using the progressive tense, even though most non-English literature gets along fine without it.
Etiquette/Customs - Almost all countries differ in this regard.
Government - Ha! Everyone in the US complains when the government does anything, but that doesn't happen in many places.
Religion/Spirituality - As I mentioned, religion is a major component in the lives of many, and there's many different relgious views around.
Science/Technology - Look at all the research and development that goes into cars in the US, and then try to find a Ford Taurus in Europe. I can tell you that there aren't any in Italy.
------------------ Frank's Home Page "This spontaneous stuff takes a little bit of planning." - John Flansburgh
posted
As to Ford... Yes, but why bother marketing an American car in Europe, when you already OWN parts or all of several European carmakers? (I'm thinking VW, Aston Martin, etc.)
------------------ "Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi
Well, most people can't afford an Aston-Martin. Does GM own any European car companies? (I think there's one called Opal or something like that.) Of course, then there's Diamler-Chrysler...let's talk about something besides cars in Europe.
------------------ Frank's Home Page "This spontaneous stuff takes a little bit of planning." - John Flansburgh
Language: If you'd like to quit speaking English, Frank, I think you'd find a large group of people who would be more than willing to fund the experiment.
Music: The 20th century has been one long exercise in amalgamation musically. How else to explain clubs in Thailand playing trance music made in Germany inspired by Duke Ellington records?
Drama: Uh...you do realize that there are more than ten movies made in North America a year?
Science/Technology: This is probably the most global field listed on the, uh, list.
------------------ "What did it mean to fly? A tremor in your soul. To resist the dull insistance of gravity." -- Camper Van Beethoven
Printer-friendly view of this topic
