POL 2103 Lecture 11: POL2103 L11
9 Oct 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
POL2103 L 11 – Barber
B. Barber
Benjamin R. Barber
is Whitman Professor
of Political Science and
director of the Whitman
Center at Rutgers
University and the author
of many books including
Strong Democracy (1984),
An Aristocracy of Everyone
(1992), and Jihad Versus McWorld
(Times Books, 1995).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ckt96fowbY
Barber captures both the sameness and conflicting elements of globalization.
Barber divides the world into a modernizing, standardizing, Westernizing, and
secular forces of globalization controlled by multinational corporations, opposed
to pre-modern, fundamentalist, and tribalizing forces at war with the West and
modernity.
Just beyond the horizon of current events lie two possible political futures — both
bleak, neither democratic.
The first is a retribalization of large swaths of humankind by war and bloodshed: a
threatened Lebanonization of national states in which culture is pitted against culture,
people against people, tribe against tribe—a Jihad in the name of a hundred narrowly
conceived faiths against every kind of interdependence, every kind of artificial social
cooperation and civic mutuality.
The second is being borne in on us by
the onrush of economic and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity
and that mesmerize the
world with fast music, fast computers,
and fast food—with MTV, Macintosh, and McDonald's, pressing nations into one
commercially homogenous global network: one McWorld tied together by technology,
ecology, communications, and commerce.
The planet is falling precipitantly apart AND coming reluctantly together at the very
same moment.
These two tendencies are sometimes visible in the same countries at the same instant:
thus Yugoslavia, clamoring just recently to join the New Europe, is exploding into
fragments;
India is trying to live up to its reputation as the world's largest integral democracy while
powerful new fundamentalist parties like the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party,
along with nationalist assassins, are imperiling its hard-won unity.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Barber captures both the sameness and conflicting elements of globalization. Barber divides the world into a modernizing, standardizing, westernizing, and secular forces of globalization controlled by multinational corporations, opposed to pre-modern, fundamentalist, and tribalizing forces at war with the west and modernity. Just beyond the horizon of current events lie two possible political futures both bleak, neither democratic. The second is being borne in on us by. The onrush of economic and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerize the. And fast food with mtv, macintosh, and mcdonald"s, pressing nations into one. Commercially homogenous global network: one mcworld tied together by technology, ecology, communications, and commerce. The planet is falling precipitantly apart and coming reluctantly together at the very same moment. These two tendencies are sometimes visible in the same countries at the same instant: thus yugoslavia, clamoring just recently to join the new europe, is exploding into fragments;
