Views on Globalization
Views on Globalization Conversation is a very powerful tool when used correctly. Using conversation across cultures to solve issues and resolve conflict is something that Cosmopolitanism emphasizes in its ideology. Cosmopolitanism uses the basis of conversation as a root to solving conflicts, and learning to live in a multicultural society successfully. Cosmopolitanism is all about the understanding of others.
Appiah states “I am urging that we should learn about people in other places, take an interest in their civilizations, their arguments, their errors, their achievements, not because that will bring us to agreement, but because it will help us get used to one another. If that is the aim, then the act that we have all these opportunities for disagreement about values need not put us off. Understand one another may be hard; it can certainly be interesting. But it doesn’t require that we come to agreement” (Appiah).
Appiah is saying that according to Cosmopolitanism, we can still have our disagreements about certain ideas, but come to an understanding of each other in order to appreciate their views. This idea of communication leads to a more harmonious society when people can come to a better understanding of each other. The aim of Cosmopolitanism is to live together in a more peaceful harmonious state and avoid unnecessary conflict. This idea when applied to the real world may not occur the way Appiah imagined, but there are definitely case studies in the real world where a lack of communication results in conflict.
Many people in other countries and even U. S. natives share the stereotype that America tends to not always have the best international relations. They don’t always handle the situation in the best way. Franklin Foer, author of “How Soccer Explains the World”, believes that this opinion is divided and argues that the game of soccer explains this division. Foer believes that soccer has been a major influence on globalization through its gaining popularity in America and its age-old roots in Europe. Sports have always been a major part of most countries and influenced its cultures and societies.
It has been said that sports are a symbolic ritual that explain cultural values. Foer argues that, “Soccer isn’t exactly pernicious, but it’s a symbol of the U. S. junking its tradition to “get with the rest of the world’s program.” Foer also believes the sport of soccer itself represents a binary division between two camps in the Globalization debate. The effects from globalization cause diversity, leaving homogeneity threatened. In the article, by Kwame Anthony Appiah, he discusses globalization in terms of contamination and the effects that it can have on cultures.
When relating this article to the there are many comparisons when discussing what effects viewing other lifestyles can have on an individual. Both works of literature illustrate new ideas on worldviews. By thinking globally, we are promoting ideas of diversity. There are certainly many opportunities available from globalization. The obvious is being open to new political and cultural differences. This means being able to compare our environment and lifestyle to those of other cultures. By considering other societies, it helps us to understand them.
Ishmael’s teachings extracted the idea that we should reach forward, and consider other societies and ways of living. Although, he relates it to the world of primitive and civilized, the idea is that having a broader view on different ways of living might alternatively make you change parts of your lifestyle. Many cultures fear the effects that globalization may have on their society. The distribution of wealth and knowledge over time causes increasing choices and more interdependencies.
Communicating information is now more valued because of the knowledge that can be available from it and as civilized human beings we make the choice to keep accepting and reacting to the information that is being made available to us through globalization. Because the effects of this process are so strong, many people fear their identity is being threatened. They feel it is hard to adapt to any lifestyle changes and so they try to reject it (Appiah). The loss of identity is not threatened. “Cultures are made of continuities and changes and the identity of a society can survive through these changes” (Appiah).
Most People who examine the effects of globalization recognize that it is giving both cultural and economics impacts everywhere its forces are manifested (Appiah). In fact, as Franklin Foer has suggested, even within the world of sports one finds that globalization confers advantages and disadvantages, shrinking and then expanding the world as disparate cultures come into contact with one another.
References
- Appiah, Kwame Anthony. “Moral Disagreement. ”
- Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006): Foer, Franklin.
- “How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. ” (2004)
