Theologians speak about metaphysical dislocation and the imperatives of a new metaphor for the sacred. Biologists worry about eco-systems and the diversity of life. Economists describe the rise of a new kind of market, characterized by the microchip, biotechnology, and genetic engineering. Students of history, politics, and culture point out the danger of pandemic anomie, the likely collision of civilizations, and the need for new sorts of global sensibilities. As educators and citizens, we must invent concepts that will help us to come to grips with these multiple and overlapping developments, these constant motions of ecological, economic, cultural, and political phenomena.
Globalization is one such concept.
It captures an emerging sense of paradox, a recognition that old and new forces have joined in peculiar combinations. Combined, these factors suggest a sort of centripetal motion, a coalescence of the world. These concerns lie at the heart of the emerging transnationalism, and they lie at the heart of our educational mission, as well. A college will continue to be a precious asset when it reaffirms the touchstones of liberal learning, while wakeful to the bewildering contours of an age that seems to fore-tell of revolutionary changes equal to any that has preceded it.