“Globalization” is a new word. It has come into being to describe the current era, a time of unprecedented changes and a breakdown of cultural and economic barriers. Because it is such a new concept, some references attempt to define it, while some have not. Noam Chomsky has aptly described it as a form of “international integration.” The globalization of culture is an important earmark of our time. The Brittanica Concise Encyclopedia describes cultural globalization as “Process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world.” It goes on to explain, “Factors that have contributed to globalization include increasingly sophisticated communications and transportation technologies and services...” As William J. Bernstein points out in his book about world trade, A Splendid Exchange, the business aspect of global exchange dates back to ancient times. “'Globalization,'” he says, “was not one event, or a sequence of events. It has been slowly evolving for a very, very long time” (14). It is the technology aspect of our modern era that has created an unprecedented amount of cross-cultural exchange. The information technologies that have made this integration possible are preforming another important function as well – they are helping us to achieve, possibly for the first time in history, real peace and equality among people. As we continue to experience the many effects of these technologies in our everyday lives, we will find that the communication devices that have made this era possible have the potential to democratize the entire planet by empowering the individuals who make up nations, and and bringing a voice to citizens in a way that has never before been realized.
Before the technology began threading us together, we were divided. As Thomas Friedman explains in the prologue to his 2005 collection, Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11th, the era preceding this “Global” era is referred to as the “Cold War.” He describes the cold war as being “characterized by one overarching feature – and that was division.”(218-219). This divisiveness fostered much violence. There was a military standoff between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. that cast a shadow of fear across the entire planet. A succession of proxy wars, devastating campaigns in small, vulnerable nations like Viet Nam, were backed militarily by the two so-called “Superpowers.” It was a global standoff: Communism vs. Capitalism, where each side used information technology in the form of government propaganda to portray the other as the embodiment of evil. The Cold War not only took the lives of hundreds of thousands in overt warfare in places like Viet Nam, Korea, and Afghanistan, it threatened to destroy the entire planet, as the Superpowers stockpiled intercontinental missiles, loaded with nuclear warheads. Richard Butler speaks to the alarming nature of the nuclear threat in his book Fatal Choice: Nuclear Weapons and the Illusion of Missile Defense: “The evolution of the theory of deterrence...” he says, “has led to a situation in which the major nuclear-weapon states, the United States and Russia, have put at risk all humankind and the viability of the earth in the name of their own security. The notion that the protection of a given civilization can justify jeopardizing all civilization defies logic and should be seen as morally repugnant”(1). The xenophobia and fear of the cold war resulted from ignorance of foreign cultures, and a profound lack of understanding of the escalating nature of violence.
In the end, however, the Cold War was not decided by military might, but by a growing global awareness. In his witty defense of the Nike corporation, “The Global Feat of Nike,” Johan Norberg proclaims, “Nike and Coca-Cola triumphed where American bombs failed. They have made Viet Nam capitalist” (229-230). The spread of culture through technology eased anti-communist fears in the capitalist West, as well. In 1985, the English rock star Sting released a song called “Russians” that painted the “Evil Empire” in a sympathetic light. This song was broadcast to the entire capitalist world, via the growing distribution system. The song reached #16 on the American Billboard chart, and held the #2 spot in France for three weeks. “We share the same biology,” he sang, “Regardless of ideology/ What might save us, me and you,/ Is if the Russians love their children, too.” Though the Cold War Superpowers tried to cement their propaganda in the public mind through the use of technology, in the end it was the popular voice that prevailed.
Technology has done more than introduce us to our global “neighbors.” It has put the power of information into the hands of the individual. Thomas Friedman gives a wonderful example. He tells the story of Jody Williams, who won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to bring about an international treaty that outlawed land mines. “When Jody Williams was asked, ' How did you do that? How did you organize one thousand different citizens' groups and nongovernmental organizations on five continents to forge a treaty that was opposed by the major powers?' she had a very brief answer: 'Email'” (Friedman, 221). Another inspiring example is the Farsi/English translation software released in 2009, which brought the words of the citizens of Iran to to the rest of the world. This has begun an era of communication and understanding between everyday Iranian citizens, and their counterparts in the rest of the world. PBS journalist Babak Siavoshy reports: “Web-based networking tools have also played an important role in providing Iranians with an avenue of expression and communication in an increasingly closed society.When Iran expelled foreign journalists in the wake of the contested June 12 election, Iran's vibrant Internet community used Facebook and Twitter to expose the Iranian government's violent crackdown on peaceful protesters.” Siavoshy goes on to explain that, though the government of Iran continues to try to stifle the popular voice, by censoring the internet, citizens continue to invent their way around the filtering technologies.
In many places, information technology has brought empowering changes to poor and marginalized people. Single parents, the disabled, and people in struggling rural areas are more able to complete college and find employment, now that school and work can be brought home easily. This author is living proof of this! It can be difficult to work and study for people who have small children at home, requiring constant supervision, and the cost of childcare is often prohibitive. Though my son is not yet old enough for kindergarten, I am returning to school online, and building my internet-based Tarot business. As I type this essay, he is bouncing on my bed and playing happily. This coming summer, when my older child is not in school, I will still be able to attend school myself, thanks to distance courses. As these technologies become more commonplace, the price goes down. When I first looked into the idea of distance learning seven years ago, the cost was nearly three times the price of traditional classes. Today, the price is much more comparable.
Not everyone is as lucky as I am. It is an ironic reality that the people that the people most hurt by information technologies are the ones who cannot access them. According to Manuel Castells, in a 1999 report for the United Nations entitled Information Technology, Globalization, and Social Development, a new marginalized population is growing out of the technological era, called the “fourth world.” It is made up of people in areas where technology does not reach, and people who are unable to access it, because of homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. “This fourth world of social exclusion,” Castells writes, “exists everywhere, albeit in different proportions, from the South Bronx to Mantes-la-Jolie, form Kamagaski to Meseta de Orcasitas, and from the favelas of Rio to the the shanties of Jakarta” (p.10). To further the cause of empowering the individual, champions for social justice in the 21st century face the daunting task of bringing information technology to the fourth world.
We need to arm ourselves with information, if we want to participate successfully in this global shift, and we need to see to it that the most vulnerable people get access. Many are hard at work on this. Rhett Butler has written an interesting article about cell phones making a big difference to impoverished people. “It all started in Bangladesh,” he writes. “In the late 1990's, Grameen Bank...set up Grameen Telecommunications, a non profit organization that provided low-cost phone service in rural areas.” The benefits were manifold, and included “making it easier to to find employment opportunities, having more options during emergency situations, enabling farmers to check prices in different markets, and eventually allowing the quick and easy transfer of funds.” Butler goes on to describe similar programs in Africa, which are helping the fourth world keep up with development. There is a long way to go before everyone is linked into the global net, but we are heading rapidly in that direction.
Now that war and division have shown themselves to be unsustainable, information is the new weapon. In the mid-1800's, The Colt .45 pistol was nicknamed “The Peacemaker.” Mass production made it affordable, and its relatively small size and simple loading method made it easy to use, so that anyone could shoot a gun. There is an old saying that "God created man, Sam Colt made them equal." That idea of “equality” led to the continued improvement of weaponry, until the point where we find ourselves today, as the world teeters on the brink of destruction. Colt's contemporary, Horace Mann, was also interested in equality, but he believed that information was the key. Mann wrote: “If education be equally diffused, it will draw property after it, by the strongest of all attractions: for such a thing never did happen, as that an intelligent and practical body of men should he permanently poor. Property and labor, in different classes, are essentially antagonistic; but property and labor, in the same class, are essentially fraternal...education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.” Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, we have a chance to put Mann's theory to the test. Once armed with information, the individual has the opportunity to fight for the power of self-determination, and to win peace and equality, in a way he or she never could with a gun.
Works Cited:
Bernstein, William J. A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008. Print. Butler, Richard. Fatal Choice: Nuclear Weapons and the Illusion of Missile Defense. Boulder, CO : Westview Press, 2001. Print.
Castells, Manuel. Information Technology, Globalization, and Social Development. UNRSID, 1999. E-book. Chomsky, Noam. “What is Globalization?” YouTube.com. Mar 26, 2007. Web. June 08, 2010.
Friedman, Thomas L. “Prologue: The Super Story.” The New World Reader. ed. Gilbert H. Muller. Second Edition. City University of New York, La Guardia College, 2008. 218-221. Print.
Fritzberg, Gregory “Schools Can't Do It Alone: A Broader Concept of Educational Opportunity” New Horizons for Learning. Web. June 08, 2010.
Norbert, Johan. “The Global Feat of Nike.” The New World Reader. ed. Gilbert H. Muller. Second Edition. City University of New York, La Guardia College, 2008. (227-230). Print.
Siavoshy, Babak. “Opinion: Help Iranians Harness the Internet.” PBS.org. December 09, 2009. Web. June 09, 2010. “cultural globalization." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. June 08 2010.
“Russians (song).” Wikipedia. Web. June 08, 2010. “Samuel Colt.” Answers.com. Web. June 09, 2010.
