My OperaGlobalization
Sunday, June 21, 2009 3:12:17 PM
So I had a great talk with a friend (X) yesterday about globalization and culture in Target. I was too busy trying to figure out what I thought to properly gauge his reaction to the conversation, but something surfaced that resonated deeply in me.
We say globalization. We mean Westernization or Americanization. Globalization is used as a rhetorical device by policy makers as a euphemism to not upset the masses.* As I see it, it cannot be globalization unless every entity—country, nation, individual, etc.—is able to equally give into the final product.
With both my friend and I understanding that globalization did not mean every country contributing something to the table, he said it would be better if everybody had the same world view—there'd be no wars and conflicts. But this would be the end of cool cultural diversity and stuff. This is a sentiment I am stirring conflictingly in the pit of my stomach. For everyone to be united in outlook and perspective would be great, but that severely limits human ability to think beyond a certain point and it puts my idea of Western culture trying to suck everything in like a restless empire. We did agree that America is an empire.
As somebody who falls into the 'minority' status, I realize there is a reason for this as seen by the government. Difference. Because I am descended from a people who are not Western European, I am given the shorter end of the stick in this country. Granted, if globalization is realized as we predicted and we are united in perspective and image, in some odd decades my above claim would not matter because where one descended from would be irrelevant. A great point for shared perspective.
But we also talked about international child adoption. I told my friend how another friend (Y) of mine felt that adopting children from Africa, South America and Asia was destroying the culture of that place—that the good-willed American family looking to adopt should instead sponsor the family and try to make the region the child comes from a better place. Y would go on to say that its a trend to adopt 'exotic' children and ease American guilt for past crimes both domestic and abroad.
X, on the other hand, felt that maybe the American family did not want to sponsor a family and wanted to give the child a privileged life—after all, the child is only guilty for being born into a messed up region whereas the parent(s) brought the child into the world without thought of the child's ability to survive.
I could not agree with X on this whatsoever. To me, it sounds like ripping families apart. Parents and siblings would be unable to ever have contact with this child again and the child will have been removed as a possible courier for the culture, ideals and beliefs of his native region. He will have been sucked into the belly of the American Empire Beast and will most likely resent his region and the family he never knew. Or maybe he would understand that his biological family could not take care of him and others stepped in. Whatever the case, the child will have the inability to spread pearls of wisdom about his culture.
But here's the meat of what resonated within me: My culture to is going away. My culture—whatever that means—is soon to be gone. I am a descendant of slaves who survived off of the bare minimum of what was left on the table of their masters, hence soul food. I can't actually I eat it a lot, but yesterday I went to a friend's house and had the greasiest, most foodgasmic morsel of unhealthy decadence that the chicken had to offer. Two things made me want to cry: One, it was simply divine and I found my head thrown back as I ate. And two, soul food will soon be a thing of the past. I don't eat it often because I'm a relatively healthy eater, but the idea that it would no longer be available to me...
Then I realized other things that I enjoy will be gone from me. Soon, I will have to take full and complete responsibility for everything I do—teenage bubbleheadedness will be gone to me. Soon, I wont be able to use computers the way I do now because of the changing culture of Information Technology. Soon, telephones will be flash tattoos on our forearms (seriously... see here)!
And as I throw inner tantrums and rebel in my head, I realize that I'm not terribly upset when I think of everything. The future has a name... The Age of Aquarius, Globalization, the New World Order and Westernization are but a few. My thoughts are not terribly different from everyone else's. In my heart of hearts, I am afraid of parting with the foundation that I know—decadently oiled fried chicken, computers that arent with you 24/7, sovereign nations that don't have to succumb to the one superpower of an empire—but I am also excited for the future and I look forward to being able to step from the end of the old age and into the new one.
So in the end, I guess there is no choice but to remember the things you love and keep the memory of them close to your heart. If you cant take your favorite food with you into the future, take the memory of the recipe. If you cant keep your humongous 12-inch laptop because the future dictates that you use virtual reality goggles for a 2-inch computer, put it in the bottom of your sock drawer and take it out every so often as a relic.
The idea is to let go while keeping in mind that you can never be apart with anything that you love. And so I prepare to let go, opening my fingers to let the sands of time slip through and into that vague abyss we call history. But since the future has yet to rear its head, I'm going to indulge. Salad with mountains of ranch dressing sounds good right about now.
Sage and out.
*(Think about the world 'causality' in relation to what it means: Death. But what sane person wants to go around and talk about 5000 deaths?—especially military generals who focus on this stuff! Euphemisms remove us from uncomfortably intimate associations with things we don't like.)
We say globalization. We mean Westernization or Americanization. Globalization is used as a rhetorical device by policy makers as a euphemism to not upset the masses.* As I see it, it cannot be globalization unless every entity—country, nation, individual, etc.—is able to equally give into the final product.
With both my friend and I understanding that globalization did not mean every country contributing something to the table, he said it would be better if everybody had the same world view—there'd be no wars and conflicts. But this would be the end of cool cultural diversity and stuff. This is a sentiment I am stirring conflictingly in the pit of my stomach. For everyone to be united in outlook and perspective would be great, but that severely limits human ability to think beyond a certain point and it puts my idea of Western culture trying to suck everything in like a restless empire. We did agree that America is an empire.
As somebody who falls into the 'minority' status, I realize there is a reason for this as seen by the government. Difference. Because I am descended from a people who are not Western European, I am given the shorter end of the stick in this country. Granted, if globalization is realized as we predicted and we are united in perspective and image, in some odd decades my above claim would not matter because where one descended from would be irrelevant. A great point for shared perspective.
But we also talked about international child adoption. I told my friend how another friend (Y) of mine felt that adopting children from Africa, South America and Asia was destroying the culture of that place—that the good-willed American family looking to adopt should instead sponsor the family and try to make the region the child comes from a better place. Y would go on to say that its a trend to adopt 'exotic' children and ease American guilt for past crimes both domestic and abroad.
X, on the other hand, felt that maybe the American family did not want to sponsor a family and wanted to give the child a privileged life—after all, the child is only guilty for being born into a messed up region whereas the parent(s) brought the child into the world without thought of the child's ability to survive.
I could not agree with X on this whatsoever. To me, it sounds like ripping families apart. Parents and siblings would be unable to ever have contact with this child again and the child will have been removed as a possible courier for the culture, ideals and beliefs of his native region. He will have been sucked into the belly of the American Empire Beast and will most likely resent his region and the family he never knew. Or maybe he would understand that his biological family could not take care of him and others stepped in. Whatever the case, the child will have the inability to spread pearls of wisdom about his culture.
But here's the meat of what resonated within me: My culture to is going away. My culture—whatever that means—is soon to be gone. I am a descendant of slaves who survived off of the bare minimum of what was left on the table of their masters, hence soul food. I can't actually I eat it a lot, but yesterday I went to a friend's house and had the greasiest, most foodgasmic morsel of unhealthy decadence that the chicken had to offer. Two things made me want to cry: One, it was simply divine and I found my head thrown back as I ate. And two, soul food will soon be a thing of the past. I don't eat it often because I'm a relatively healthy eater, but the idea that it would no longer be available to me...
Then I realized other things that I enjoy will be gone from me. Soon, I will have to take full and complete responsibility for everything I do—teenage bubbleheadedness will be gone to me. Soon, I wont be able to use computers the way I do now because of the changing culture of Information Technology. Soon, telephones will be flash tattoos on our forearms (seriously... see here)!
And as I throw inner tantrums and rebel in my head, I realize that I'm not terribly upset when I think of everything. The future has a name... The Age of Aquarius, Globalization, the New World Order and Westernization are but a few. My thoughts are not terribly different from everyone else's. In my heart of hearts, I am afraid of parting with the foundation that I know—decadently oiled fried chicken, computers that arent with you 24/7, sovereign nations that don't have to succumb to the one superpower of an empire—but I am also excited for the future and I look forward to being able to step from the end of the old age and into the new one.
So in the end, I guess there is no choice but to remember the things you love and keep the memory of them close to your heart. If you cant take your favorite food with you into the future, take the memory of the recipe. If you cant keep your humongous 12-inch laptop because the future dictates that you use virtual reality goggles for a 2-inch computer, put it in the bottom of your sock drawer and take it out every so often as a relic.
The idea is to let go while keeping in mind that you can never be apart with anything that you love. And so I prepare to let go, opening my fingers to let the sands of time slip through and into that vague abyss we call history. But since the future has yet to rear its head, I'm going to indulge. Salad with mountains of ranch dressing sounds good right about now.
Sage and out.
*(Think about the world 'causality' in relation to what it means: Death. But what sane person wants to go around and talk about 5000 deaths?—especially military generals who focus on this stuff! Euphemisms remove us from uncomfortably intimate associations with things we don't like.)
slackwrdave # Sunday, June 21, 2009 4:03:35 PM