Jihad vs. McWorld

1
Jihad vs. McWorld

• Benjamin Barber, Ch. 4, pp. 3238. (Excerpted
  from Barber, Introduction, in Jihad vs. McWorld,
  Times Books, 1995)

2
GL is characterized as a dialectic between two
opposing forces McWorld and Jihad

• dialectic a contradiction of ideas that serves
  as the determining factor in their interaction
• -"this situation created the inner dialectic of
  American history" (WordNet)

3
McWorld

• is a product of popular culture driven by
  expansionist commerce
• Its template is American
• Its goods are as much images as materiel, an
  aesthetic as well as a product line.
• Its about culture as commodity, apparel as
  ideology (36)

4
Jihad

• Dogmatic and violent particularism, opposed to
  multiculturalism and all culture considered
  other
• Barber uses the term, "in its militant
  construction to suggest dogmatic and violent
  particularism of a kind known to Christians no
  less than Muslims, to Germans and Hindus as well
  as to Arabs" (35)

5
German philosophers, Hegel Marx, also saw
history in dialectical terms

• But believed that it led to progress
• - typical Enlightenment thinking
• Barber is more pessimistic

6
The 2 forces paradoxically interdependent
have one thing in common

• Both work to undermine the sovereign nation-state
  and thus endanger democracy, civil society, and
  democratic citizenship
• ? "Their common thread is indifference to civil
  liberty" (34)

7
The identities spawned by McWorld Jihad
consumer vs. a member of some particular tribe
seem to be crowding out identities based on
democratic citizenship

• Jihad pursues a bloody politics of identity,
  McWorld a bloodless economics of profit.
• Belonging by default to McWorld, everyone is a
  consumer seeking a repository for identity,
  everyone belongs to some tribe.
• But no one is a citizen. Without citizens, how
  can there be democracy? (35)

8
Hard power yields to soft

• Defining power as the ability to get what you
  want, Joseph Nye (1990) distinguishes two types
• Soft power employing co-optation and attraction
  (more ideological means)
• Hard power using means of coercion and payment
  (more material means)

9
Ideology is transmuted into a kind of videology

• Videology works through sound bites and film
  clips
• Its fuzzier and less dogmatic than traditional
  political ideology
• ? it may as a consequence be far more successful
  in instilling the novel values required for
  global markets to succeed (36)
• ? the information revolution

10
Barbers predictions

• Jihads microwars will hold the headlines well
  into the next century But McWorlds
  homogenization is likely to establish a
  macropeace that favors the triumph of commerce
  and its markets and to give to those who control
  information, communication, and entertainment
  ultimate (if advertent) control over human
  destiny (38)

11
?

• Do the Tunisian and Egyptian cases suggest
  theres a way out of the Jihad-McWorld dialectic?
• What kinds of identities drove the
  anti-government protests?
• What conditions seem to promote struggles for
  citizenship/rights (as opposed to
  particularism/fundamentalism and consumerism)?

12
The Clash of Civilizations?

• Samuel P. Huntington, Ch. 5, pp. 3946.
  (Excerpted from The Clash of Civilizations?,
  Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993)

13
Huntingtons hypothesis

• The fundamental source of conflict in this new
  world will not be primarily ideological or
  primarily economic
• It will be CULTURAL
• Nation states will remain the most powerful
  actors, but the principle conflicts of global
  politics will occur between nations and groups of
  different civilizations
• The fault lines between civilizations will be
  battle lines of future

14
Why Civilizations Will Clash 1

• Differences among civilizations are basic,
  durable, more fundamental than differences among
  political ideologies political regimes
• Differences dont necessarily mean conflict, and
  conflict isn't necessarily violent
• Over centuries, however, civilizational
  differences have caused the longest and most
  violent conflicts

15
Why Civilizations Will Clash 2

• The world is becoming smaller
• Interactions among different people of different
  civilizations enhance the civilizational
  consciousness" of people, and that invigorates
  differences and animosities

16
Why Civilizations Will Clash 3

• Processes of economic modernization and social
  change are separating people from local
  identities
• like anomie

17
Why Civilizations Will Clash 4

• Growth of civilizational consciousness is
  enhanced by the dual role of the West, which has
  sparked a return-to-roots phenomenon among
  non-Western civilizations

18
Why Civilizations Will Clash 5

• Cultural characteristics differences are less
  mutable and hence less easily compromised and
  resolved than political and economic ones

19
The Fault-Lines between Civilizations

• "In the Arab world, in short, Western democracy
  strengthens anti-Western political forces" (44)

20
The West vs. The Rest - I

• The West is at peak of power (written in 1993)
• The "world community" is controlled by the US and
  great powers, through international orgs
• "The West in effect is using international
  institutions, military power and economic
  resources to run the world in ways that will
  maintain Western predominance, protect Western
  interests and promote Western political and
  economic values" (45)
• This succinctly expresses the "realist"
  perspective on international organizations (See
  Ch. 8)

21
The West vs. the Rest - II

• Western concepts differ fundamentally from those
  prevalent in other civilizations
• Western ideas of individualism, liberalism,
  constitutionalism, human rights, equality,
  liberty, the rule of law, democracy, free
  markets, the separation of church and state, have
  little resonance in Islamic, Confucian, Japanese,
  Hindu, Buddhist, or Orthodox cultures" (p. 45)
• OR maybe they do? (e.g., Egypt 2011)

22
Questions about culture

• How does Huntington understand culture?
• How/why does he distinguish it from ideology?
• Are cultural characteristics really less mutable
  (changeable) and less easily compromised than
  political or economic differences?
• Are cultures or civilizations as distinct and
  contained as Huntington suggests?
• Are the boundaries between them clear?

23
What are we?

• Nationality/Ethnicity/Race (8)
• American
• American-Dominican
• Italian/American
• I am a girl from Pakistan
• outgoing white American?
• Korean American
• Persian American (and very proud)
• Guyanese-American Working Class Student
• Organizational role (_at_ Queens College) (6)
• Student
• student studying to become a teacher
• hard-working student who body builds for fun
• female student
• I am a psych major
• professor
• Species (5)

• Religion/Ethnicity/Nationality (4)
• I am Catholic
• I am Jewish
• Persian Jew
• Determined Jewish American
• Personal qualities (traits)/states of mind (4)
• "outgoing"
• kindhearted
• "patient"
• confused
• Hobbies/passions (3)
• Car Guy
• I play sports
• Writer
• Gender/Age (2) 2 above?
• I'm a19 yr old girl