From: bhatnagr@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Raj Bhatnagar)
Subject: Re: World Culture and Western Culture
Organization: University of Cincinnati
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 23:48:45 GMT

In article <JMC.92Sep29124216@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU writes:

>Let me return to the original questions.
>
>1. Is there a world culture today?
>

The word "culture" represents a very fuzzy concept. On one extreme
the culture of my neighbourhood differs from that of the next 
neighbourhood, and that of me and my friends differs from that of
my brother and his friends. On the other extreme, an alien from
outer sapce will undoubtedly describe the human race and its culture
by some of the common values shared by the whole humanity.

However, talking about the major identifiable cultural streams in 
today's humanity, one can easily see a multitude of different
cultures co-existing simultaneously.

At this level, I don't think there is *a* world culture in today's
world. There are a billion Chinese, a fifth of humanity, who couldn't
care less about the value system of the Western culture. Same goes for
a lot of Indians, a lot of Japanese, a lot of Malayasians, and of course
there are the Iranians and the other Anti-Western Mullah types all over the 
World.

Throughout the history there have been interactions and exchanges 
among cultures and all cultures have learnt much from each other.
Also true is the fact that other cultures have tried to ape those
cultures that were more prosperous and stronger than themselves.
This, obviously, is driven by the desire to acquire prosperity. 
Yes, the same urge that is driving the Russians to learn The American 
way and the Americans to learn the Japanese management techniques. 

With the advanced means of communications the exchanges among 
cultures have also become more extensive and more frequent.

Looking at the question from a historical perspective one can see
that there was a "dominant" culture in each era. It always was that culture
which either Militarily or economically established its reign over much 
of its neighbourhood nations. The conquests and/or empires in the name
of, Aryan Civilization, Romans, Christianity, Islam, etc. have had their
peaks. The culture which acquires some "New" insight, be it the Vedic
knowledge, the greco-roman military/philosophical mights, the message of
Christ, the revelation obtained by Muhammad, the knowledge gained by
Buddha, or the Industrial-Scientific revolution achieved by the West,
make that culture the dominant one in that era. but do the cultures get
assimilated and die away? I don't think so. Do the distinctions between
cultures fade? I don't think so. All that happens is that we don't hear
about the non-dominant cultures because they are at the receiving end in 
this era but are not going to be completely transformed. 

>2. Is it substantially based on European culture?  

European culture certainly is the most advanced and prosperous
culture in today's world. It is dominant today and the world is
learning its ways to equal its prosperity and power. But no,
there is something sacred about cultural identities which forces
people to keep preserving their cultural identities. And few
decades/centuries later the Japanese cultural traits may become
dominant all over the world because of their economic power and
the consequent military and other strengths which may result in
the years to come. Already, the number of Americans/Europeans/Indians
learning Japanese today is orders higher than 25 years ago.


>3. Assuming there is pretty much of a world culture, what are the
>exceptions to its prevalence in various countries, e.g. India, that
>seem destined to survive?
>

The getting closer and smaller of the world may have increased the
interactions among cultures but it doesn't seem that we will have
a movement towards a World culture. Europe and Arabia have been next to
each other and have had extensive exchanges over the eons, but to keep
their cultures separate seems to be an objective being pursued by both
the sides. "I am different from you and therefore better" is a basic
human feeling that will keep resulting in more mutations whenever more
exchanges take place among cultures. Despite the high-tech exchanges, the
Japanese cars will always be different from the American cars even if
the concept of cars and that of difference among them was non-existent
150 years ago.

>The reason for raising these questions is the American debate about
>basing required college courses on "western civilization".

Since America has accepted a large number of immigrants from all cultures 
in the recent past few decades, courses that consider the American
culture as one that is absorbing various cultural streams into a 
western civilizational substrate and the nature of the resulting 
mutant would be the most relevant and interesting from the perspective 
of next few generations.

*I mentioned in the above paragraph the American culture and not
the Western culture as in the rest of the discussion*

>--
>John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
>*
>He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
>

---raj