@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 Sender: •••@••.••• Greetings! I would like to share with you a book I recently read that deals with some of the issues I have been seeing in the discussions. It is an interesting book that examines some of the trends in international relations. Although I disagree with some of it, the author makes a good attempt at identifying how some of the conflicting international forces are effecting democracy (see attachment). ----------------------------- Jihad vs. McWorld Benjamin R. Barber (1995@Random House, Inc.) Barber tries to develop a correlation between two worlds -- consumerist capitalism and tribal/religious fundamentalism -- and attempts to show that both worlds distaste democracy. He develops his argument throughout his book by making subtle points reflecting his view of human and nation-state behavior. Barber sees the world as increasingly riven by fratricide, civil war, and the breakup of nations. Barber paints two scenarios. The first, McWorld, depicts the future as an increasing onrush of economic, technological, and corporate forces that demand integration and uniformity. This force mesmorizes people with elements like fast food, computers and music. This world is moving us into one commercially homogenous society, a society tied together by communications, information, entertainment, and commerce. The secord world, Jihad, shows the prospect of a retribalization of large parts of humanity by war and bloodshed, a threatened balkanization of nation-states in which culture is pitted against culture. This Jihad is motivated by hundreds of narrowly conceived faiths against every kind of interdependence, every kind of social cooperation and mutuality, against technology, against pop culture, against integrated markets, and against modernity itself. But both worlds cannot do without the other. McWorld cannot do without Jihad because it needs cultural parochialism to feed its endless appetites. Jihad cannot do without McWorld for where would culture be without the commercial producers who market it and the information and communication systems that make it known. Barber defines Jihad as the following: ...is an attempt to recapture a world that existed prior to cosmopolitan capitalism and was defined by religious mysteries, hierarchical communities, spellbinding traditions, and historical torpor. As such, they may appear to be directly adversarial to the forces of McWorld. Yet Jihad stands not so much in stark opposition as in subtle counterpoint to McWorld and is itself a dialectical response to modernity whose features both reflect and reinforce the modern world's virtues and vices -- Jihad via McWorld rather than Jihad versus McWorld." One critical question Barber addresses is whether postmodern "new" nationalism, with the nation-state as its target, is assimilable to traditional nationalism, on which the nation-state was founded. His response is dialectical. "Nationalism clearly has now and perhaps always had two moments: one of group identity and exclusion but another, equally important, of integration and inclusion. Today's "nationalists" boast about their deconstructive potential and revel in hostility to the state and other constituencies that make up the state. In its early modern manifestation, however, nationalism permitted Europe to emerge from feudalism and facilitated the architecture of the nation-state." Barber's conclusion suggests that neither Jihad and McWorld promises a remotely democratic future. The consequences of the dialectical interaction between them suggest new and startling forms of inadvertent tyranny that range from an invisibly constraining consumerism to an all too palpable barbarism. The market's invisible hand is attached to a manipulative arm that, unguided by a sovereign head, is left to the continguencies of spontaneous greed. Tyranny here is indirect, often even friendly. In reference to Russia, Jihad neither generates its own democracy nor permits others to democractize it merely by importing the constitutional mechanisms devised by others over many centuries in nation-states with long-standing and historically well-developed civil societies. It tends to undermine the fledgling institutions of the young civil society of Russia is nurturing.rist capitalism and tribal/religious fundamentalism -- and attempts to show that both worlds distaste democracy. He depicts the future as an increasing onrush of economic, technological, and corporate forces that demand integration. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Editor: An interesting level of discussion. He is clearly right that there's presently a symbiosis between the NWO and Fundamentalism -- but I question over-emphasizing that as being a major historical pattern. Keep in mind that fundamentalism & terrorism have come forward as major global issues only after the Cold War began winding down. There's considerable evidence to suggest much of the fracas has been manufactured as a way to justify continuation of the military/imperialist infratructure. After all, it was the U.S. (with help from France) that orchestrated the Ayotolla taking power in Iran, after the Shah was no longer tenable, and there arose a threat of a republican (and socialist oriented) government. And we now know that many of the terrorist organizations have been funded by the CIA (to "keep tabs" on them!). Finally, the media hype re/terrorism has been out of all proportion to the amount of terrorism that actually occurs, keeping the public fear-level high. From the review, it would seem Barber doesn't address the question of what forms of social organization _do_ have a taste for democracy. That's quite acceptable for his book, but for for me the discussion doesn't get to the "interesting part". Perhaps someone could name some titles which address democratic societal paradigms. -rkm @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore (•••@••.•••) Wexford, Ireland •••@••.••• | Cyberlib=http://www.internet-eireann.ie/cyberlib Materials may be reposted in their entirety for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
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