Thoughts on Globalization

So we often talk about the risks of Americanization – in other words, the risk that, with the avent of Globalization, the cultures all over the world will suddenly merge into one and we would be left with only one big culture.

First, I remember reading many articles on this topic and they largely said that although we could perhaps reduce the world to several clusters, there would never really be one huge culture, because the differences between cultures are still too big.

Second, I think that the response to globalization on an international level is often hyper-nationalistic feelings on local scales — for instance the French portion of Canada, in response to the “threat” of English language (as they are an island of French in a sea of English, with US and the rest of Canada as neighbors), has been to impose a law, the law 101, that made sure the French language as they spoke it (a local adaptation of French which is called Quebecois) would be preserved, along with all of the cultural traditions it bears.  So the stronger the forces of globalization, the stronger, I believe, the forces of nationalism too.
Third, I want to quote something I wrote a while ago when traveling from India to the Seychelles Islands.  I was trying to get a better sense of all the people living abroad (expats) whom I had met and what their migration to those new regions meant in terms of cultures, and in terms of cohabitation, between people who at times were very different :

To an extent, I wonder how many expats realize that without people like those back home – people who do not travel and who cherish a monochrome, or less diverse view of life and culture-, cosmopolitans like us could not experience any of this culture shock when traveling.  In other words, we need people who adhere to cultural values of the country – often with nationalistic pride-, in order for the world to remain a truely comsmopolitan place, and to preserve the different cultures.   This is how the fates of two complete ends of the scale, those who love to experience a multitude of different cultures, and those who wish to live immersed in a single culture during their lifetime, are bound together.

The thing that got me to think all about this all over again was when I flipped through my journal entries from India and wondered what has happened there since I last came, or what part of the story might I have missed.  We went to the call centers and watched hospitals and consulting firms as they did their work, but there was only so much I could see.  I wasn’t able to really go back to the homes of these employees or ask them many questions — so watching this documentary was kind of expanding a little on the things I had seen — and it naturally fell into this debate, which is universal, of whether globalizaiton has positive or negative effects on cultures worldwide.  I continue to believe that the balance shall never really completely tip over.  People resist change, whatever their culture, and so as we mix and fusion more and more, groups and laws will emmerge to preserve cultural heritage more and more.  It is like an ecosystem – I can only be a global traveler, if someone else remains tied to his local identity.  The two are complementary, not competing.