In David Pollards blog, "How to Save the World," (about the 5th paragraph down) he basically asks the reader to imagine a world where we all grew up the same; we all spoke the same language, were taught the same things, dressed the same, played the same games, used the same toys, watched the same t.v. shows and so forth. Imagine a world where we all were raised to believe in the same religion, or one God. Imagine a world where it isn't one country against another. It is every individual competing with every other individual. There would be only one government and everyone had to obey the same laws. There would probably be fewer wars and less acts of terrorism on innocent people and more individual murders. Is that what we want? One big pot of people who are all the same? I suppose we could end up where the world begun...
Because walls have fallen and there are no longer many boundaries separating country from country, Americans aren't so different from Chinese anymore. In fact, anyone (or any country) who is keeping up with the advances in technology and trade, has to adapt to the "larger community." America is one of the larger communities, if not the largest. With 82.1% of the American population being English speakers, English has also become the "larger community." That being said, those who want to keep up with the advancements of the world will have to assimilate linguistically and culturally and adapt...or should we be adapting to the rest of the world who have learned two, three or even four languages?
Maybe because the word "global" implies one world, many think it's appropriate to have one common language in the time of globalization. Many also think that that one language should be English. Though we may be one of the leading powers, do we really want the rest of the world to adapt and assimilate to us and our language? Or would you rather adapt to the rest of the world? How important is cultural diversity to you? And how does the importance of cultural diversity compare to advancing, trading, and exploring with the rest of the world? Do we want the American nickname, "melting pot," to now be the world's?
Whoever thought that what was once pangaea, where there were no boundaries, could ever happen again after huge bodies of water separated the now seven continents?
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2 comments:
I think it's very egocentric of us (meaning Americans) to think that the world should assimilate to our culture. Most of the world argues that we are, in fact, cultureless. Our isolationist attitudes from earlier periods and ocean buffers have kept us isolated from the world for quite awhile. We only had to reach out when we wanted to.
With gobalization people are reaching in and it's unnerving. We have problems with Spanish speakers. Rather than learning Spanish and adapting, we push assimilation. Cultural diversity is very important to me. I think it is important for self development and self identity. Even if Pangea hadn't occurred, if we go to basic human needs, different cultures would have rose up. So we can't really blame the breaking up of the continents.
Even as we are melding into this uniworld idea, America needs to adapt. Most of the rest of the world knows more than one including English. Forcing others to abandon their identity would alienate us and we would fall behind the technological wave. We wouldn't be the leaders of the world anymore.
It might be a nasty shock, but just because a world power speaks English doesn't give us the right to push the assimilation of our culture or even our language on the world.
After reading this the parallel of pangea and globalization is extremely interesting to think about. One cannot deny the obvious connection between the two. In our ever flattening world we as nations of the world, yes need acknowledge the growing existence of one another and work together for the benefit of all parties, but I hope that one day we do not become America or China instead of Earth.
Even though some traditions that date back 1000 of years are fading into the future, others remain and used to define cultures in which they are celebrated. To remove history and revert to a conformist world would eliminate curiosity and the spice in life of being different than everyone else.
As I write this blog comment I am sitting in the Johnson Center of George Mason's campus and it just so happens to be international week. I look up and there are about 100 different nation's flags hanging over head. With Mason being one of the most diverse campus' in America, we take pride in celebrating the melting pot in which we go to school in.
If a pangea-globalization were ever to dominate the world I see things such as international week fading away. I think that globalization should be taken one step at time. Helping each other to reach the goal of an infinitely connected world, but still keeping the roots of our olive tree's deep.
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