Archive for June, 2006
exhausted June 21st, 2006
the ideas aren’t quite flowing. will revisit the essays on Saturday and probably get back to work on them by Sunday.
p.s. Marx sucks.
Posted in Excuses | Comments (0)
on globalization June 10th, 2006
this i expect will be a series of essays, i’ll start off with globalization, a topic i had the opportunity to lecture on a few months ago (’twas fun 
) and the one that runs (in thought) parallel to my opinions on convergence.
i’ll start off with a definition for globalization that i picked up browsing through google books:
“Contemporary Globalization is the increasing flow of trade, finance, culture, ideas, and people brought about by the sophisticated technology of communications and travel and by the worldwide spread of neo-liberal capitalism and it is the local and regional adaptations to and resistances against these flows.”
- Ted Lewellen, The Anthropology of Globalization
the four main “manifestations” of Globalization then, are Political, Social, Economic, and Technological. One might indeed argue, that the four are inter-linked, or even that either can be completely defined in terms of another of those four; but i’ll keep these four categories for the sake of structure.
beginning with political structures, all distinctions really begin here with the notion of the state. the sovereignty (or lack of) of states is the first indication of validity or authority in the action and duties it performs, and the policy it generates. abstracting slightly from Michael Porter’s notion of “Clusters” states can be further divided into global or regional powers or collaborators with global or regional powers, and as members of global organizations or regional associations, such as the World Trade Organization, or NAFTA or the EFTA (this of course being in the economic realm, equating political capital with economic success) generating value clusters. As economic ties become closer between nations (in the generation of these value clusters), so do societies, and as a result, so does the political establishment (if grudgingly so)
these value clusters are generated by political or economic needs, or political or economic wants–more power, and bargaining chips.
consolidations into giant economies (the EU) or FTAs (NAFTA, ASEAN) are part of this process, too. consolidation implies the convergence of two or more entities in some form or the other, does it not? FTAs however are established between many nations, each playing suitors off against competitors, many associating with either when things suit their needs. that is not convergent behavior then, but rather simultaneously a paradoxical convergent and divergent one.
socio-culturally, too; we have all seen the rapid rise of “pop-culture” especially in the post-War period, as transmission technologies (film, television) improved. pop-culture (or rather as i will say from here on, a standardized “collective conscious”) does not overtake or supercede another indigenous culture when introduced to one; or rather, it does so only at the fringes of culture. barring the sort of genocides seen in the transplanting of religions in the historic fertile crescent; (from pagan worship to the first “one God” worship) “new” movements rarely completely replace old ones, they rather give established ones new dimensions or alterations that are purely cosmetic–as a study of religious practices (and their development through the ages) might tell you. Two interesting reads you might consider on this are “A History of God” by Karen Armstrong; and “The Alphabet versus the Goddess” by Leonard Shlain.
“Westernization” then, like other cultural movements does not quite imply the same to every user of the term. it often means the adaptation of ideas within the Western stream of thought to the indigenous culture; or the reinterpretation (as a form of validation) of the indigenous culture with new tools made available by the (largely) reason-based metaphysical inquiry of the West.
the point where this trade of ideas becomes a reason for conflict is usually reached when the “old guard” of one tradition fear for the continuity of it; or when a situation occurs where one tradition must be weighed against another within a receiving culture.
next up: (in order)
“on technology and transmission“
“asking the wrong questions“
“the invisible continent“
Tags: anthropology, culture studies, economics, globalization, Politics/Ideas
Posted in Opinion, Politics/Ideas, reflections | Comments (0)
on singularity June 8th, 2006
Posted in Photoblog, interesting reads | Comments (0)
