In the midst of changes and severe pressure on their livelihoods and cultures, people want to affirm their cultural and religious identities. While globalization universalized certain aspects of modern social life, it also causes and fuels fragmentation of the social fabric of societies. As the process goes on and people lose hope, they start to compete against each other in order to secure some benefits from the global economy. In some cases this reality gives rise to fundamentalism and ethnic cleansing. Neo-liberal ideology 14.
Economic globalization is guided by the neo-liberal ideology.
The credo of the free market is the firm belief that through competing economic forces and purposes, an invisible hand' will assure the optimum good as every individual pursues his or her economic gain. It views human beings as individuals rather than as persons in community, as essentially competitive rather than cooperative, as consumerist and materialist rather than spiritual. Thus, it produced a graceless system that renders people surplus and abandons them if they cannot compete with the powerful few in global economy. As a consequence, people tend to lose their cultural identity and deny their political and ethical responsibility. But obsessed with rising revenues from financial markets, expansion of trade and growth of production, the global economic system is blind for its destructive social and ecological consequences.