The Desire for Seclusion and Oneness in the World Today
By: Rebecca Graf
Tags: Foreign Policy, World News

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All too often a person, a community, or a culture wants to eat their cake and have it too. They want to hold onto the traditions of their culture while using the advances in technology and not giving up anything. They want what their ancestors had while enjoying the benefits of today. In the end, it is discovered that it is an impossible dream. The desire for advancement will triumph over tradition due to the strength it possesses and the need for openness that tradition will not allow. But many feel the need to withdraw and protect their traditions.

Tradition Versus Future

In Benjamin R. Barber’s article, “Jihad vs. McWorld”, he dives into the collision of the world of tradition and that of the future of the world. As the world that has been the norm for generations and beyond breaks apart, it finds the world “coming reluctantly together at the very same moment.”

The internet is bringing parts of the world together that never had contact in the traditional sense. Where politics and religion have kept worlds apart, technology is bringing them all together. The world is now a much smaller place and will only get smaller.

The World Changes

What once was becomes no more. The Soviet Union was once a large nation that stretched from Europe to Asia. In the matter of weeks and months, it broke apart with nations that had not been independent in a hundred years, reclaiming the role of self-government. Nothing stays the same.

The world is moving forward at a fast pace. Advancements come daily and change the daily lives of those across the globe. Even in the most remote areas, one can find the influence of computers and health advancements. This world today is not the world of our grandparents or even our parents.

A Lie

Tradition and progress both prevent “practical ways to govern themselves democratically.” Both pull people under a cloak of power to protect and improve a society. Yet each takes away from the people the ability to rule and create their own future.

Society finds itself at the whim of the world that drives it. It really does not have much choice. As technology and advancements roll out, no one can avoid the impact. As a result, some cultures lie to themselves and say the rest of the world cannot influence them. It’s all a lie.

The World Grows Smaller

As the world becomes smaller due to technology, it also finds itself smaller economically. Currency exchanges become cumbersome. Individual economic laws become barriers that society claws at to break down. Countries cannot act alone in the economic world.

A world-wide market will not stand for laws closing down markets for religious purposes. One country will shut down for a week for religious reasons. The rest of the world is still working. Markets are still functioning. A new language develops that rides over all national barriers creating a “common currency and….common behaviors.” The world is smaller and tries to function as one unit instead of many units with different goals and desires.

Technology is Breaking Down Boundaries

This oneness of the world becomes stronger as technology grows and is yearned for even by those nations that fight the oneness. Science and technology are “inherently universalizing” pulling all nations together willing or not. Neither can exist without open communication.

There has to be “an easy and regular flow and exchange of information” or it stagnates and ceases to exist. The world as a whole will not allow this to happen. A nation that does not participate finds itself overcome by those around it or overturned by those within.

No Borders

Technology does not see borders. Man puts up borders in an attempt to create areas of domination. Technology does not “respect borders; telephone wires penetrate the most closed societies.” All nations are subject to the tentacles of technology no matter how hard they might fight it. As there is little physical to much of technology, it cannot be hampered.

Think of places like China where the government tries to prevent access to the internet or tries to limit that access to government approved sites. People still find a way to get access. There are no borders on the internet. The world cannot be kept out.

Blindness

As the world finds itself forced to become one, it finds that it has been one all along but living in a voluntary state of blindness. The farmers in Brazil attribute to the entire planet being “asphyxiated by greenhouse gases” while gas empowered vehicles in Italy destroy forests in Germany. What one culture does dramatically impacts another and ultimately affects the entire plant.

As the nations find themselves unavoidably bound, they also find themselves in a forced hierarchy as “modernized nations try to slam the door behind them” refusing to allow the undeveloped nations to make their way to the same level.

The Price That is Paid

The nation that focuses inward gives the people “a vibrant local identity, a sense of community, solidarity among kinsmen, neighbors, and countrymen.” It gives a sense of security and a common trait that makes one feel ‘at home’.

The negative effect can be “obedience to a hierarchy in governance, fanaticism in beliefs, and the obliteration of individual selves in the name of the group.” The national solidarity comes at a personal price.

Where We Are Now

The world that comes together as one gives a promise of “peace, prosperity, and relative unity” as it removes various degrees of “independence, community, and identity.” All become one with few ties to the local community. Disruption of the world connection will not be tolerated. Local disruption is ignored.

The world is dissolving borders at the same time it is constructing borders in an attempt to create an area that can be dominated. A nation wants the use of satellites and the benefits that with it while limiting its full potential. A nation wants the use of technology to improve its military and infrastructure but fights its natural ability to create a more universal commercial system. A nation desires the wealth technology and science can bring to it while refusing to let it be itself and bring nations together to make that same technology and science stronger.

As the world pulls apart and unites in the same breath, it finds itself at a crossroads that takes it to the same destination via paths that each offer advantages and sacrifices. The path chosen is based on the desires of the nation and the strength tradition and greed hold onto it as well as the fear of the future that impacts the decision.

Bibliography

Barber, Benjamin R. “Jihad vs. McWorld.” The Atlantic. March 1992. Accessed April 24, 2012. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1992/03/jihad-vs-mcworld/3882/.