" Are we approaching a global culture?"?

Question

This question is frequently asked in one of my college classes, and I am always torn, because there seems to be arguments for homogenization AND fragmentation. Any personal viewpoints?

Answer 1

Yes, despite what appears to be the fragmentation of humanity into cultural units which are mutually antagonistic (Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" thesis) we have witnessed in the last 30 years the emergence of a global or "globalised" culture facilitated by the triumph of the capitalist economic model and huge advances in communications technology. This culture will by no means supplant the various national, ethnic or religious cultures which pre-date it, it will, however, transform them in two ways:

1. The aversion that the new "global culture" provokes in certain people will cause to them entrench themselves in their more local identities and cling to that which they consider most authentic (this is happening in the Middle East where Muslims have cleansed their religion of the elements that they consider to be exogenous, imported and foreign).

2. Others will be seduced by a global culture and reject much of what was inherited from prior generations.

Thus the outcome of the emergence of global culture, of homogenisation and fragmentation is the same: greater shallowness in people's cultural self-understandings. We can attribute this to the commercial nature of this pervasive global culture. Being empty of a political or ethical message and devoid of tools for understanding one's place in the world, it is not something to which we can genuinely feel attached and yet, in appealing to our baser passions, wants and desire, it has acquired a huge influence, especially among the younger generations.

Answer 2

while technology is helping people become more connected with each other and creating an intercontinental culture of techogeeks there are still those who live off the scraps of the wealthy countries and don't show much signs of improving

Answer 3

I believe we are closer than we have ever been before, Unfortunately I think we also have a long way to go before we can truly say we have reached that stage. To many things still stand in the way such as racism, borders and religion.

Answer 4

we are approaching a global depression