Effects of Globalisation on Culture - Essay Example

Effects of globalisation on culture The erosion of language and cultural values can be considered unstoppable. The process is slowly spreading throughout the world and influencing many aspects of culture that were once thought to be only specific to certain regions. The advent of globalisation as well as the increasing influence of western culture has not only had a huge impact on the political and economic arena of the globe, but it has also had far reaching effects on the development of the cultures in quite a large number of societies all over the world. The adoption of Western cultural values, to the detriment of other cultures, has become one of the most fundamental aspects of the modern world and for this reason, it has come to receive the attention of many individuals. It has been argued that western values have had a positive cultural impact on the globalised world. Others believe that its effect is negative, since it is eroding long established cultural practices in diverse regions of the world. One would argue that the process of the adoption of western culture, which started out in the economic sphere where liberal economic policies were developed and adopted by many countries has come to weaken the once strong foundations upon which many of the world’s cultures were built. This has created a situation where it has become extremely important to consider the influence of a western, globalised culture, over other long established cultures that are slowly but surely being discarded. Thus, it can be said that while western culture has had a positive influence on other cultures through its encouragement of global integration, it has also had a negative effect, since it has led to the destruction of those cultural values that were once held dear by other, non-western, societies. Furthermore, the loss of language and culture has had a profound influence on how certain values are defined. This has created a situation where most cultures all over the world have come to adopt these definitions as their own. Globalization is among the factors, which have led to the prevailing of Western culture all over the world. This has enabled Western powers, being the majority of the developed countries in the world, to have an immense say in matters concerning the injustices that exist in some societies’ cultural practices. Because of pressure from Western nations, many countries have chosen to adopt certain aspects of Western culture and discarded some of their own so that they can be in line with those of western powers. Western countries have put in place policies, which are aimed at influencing other countries to recognize such aspects of their culture as the human rights of their citizens as conditions for their engagement in either political or economic activities with them. Mass media has played a role in the promotion of western cultural values and this has mainly been done through the international media. International media shows advertisements promoting Western values, which have come to influence a diverse number of people around the globe. These attempts at the promotion of a globalised culture has ensured that there has been the promotion of the Western way of life, all over the world and this has created a situation where many youth, who have been educated, have come to abide by such values. This has resulted in these youth discarding some aspects of their culture such as the non-recognition of universal human rights. What has come out of this has been a positive process since these individuals have also come to recognise their human rights, which was not the case in the cultures of their people. However, it can be said that this has resulted in some of these individuals developing the belief that their own cultures are either backward or archaic, and do not promote the rights of all the individuals within their society. While this has been the case, some believe that some aspects of globalised culture have come to threaten the long established traditions of some societies, and this has resulted in the loosening of the restrictions that were once imposed on individuals in certain societies. There are certain individuals, especially the older generation, within some societies who have become concerned that the adoption of western values will end up slowly but surely eroding their cultures. This has been of great concern in some countries, such as within the African continent, which has seen the younger generations not bothering to learn the language of their parents and instead adopting foreign languages as their main mode of communication. In these countries, there has developed the argument that while the loss of language can be considered negative on a cultural level, it is a positive thing in the globalised community because it provides for easier communication between individuals from different parts of the world. However, some aspects of culture have to be discarded because they have become irrelevant to the societies that exist in the modern world. This is mainly because some of these cultural practices might be detrimental to the progress of the different communities around the world to come together for their common interests. When individuals hold on to their cultural practices, they end up closing their minds towards those people who do not share similar cultures and this might result in cultural conflict. The discarding of such cultural practices, some of which prevented people from different cultures from interacting has been mainly encouraged through the development of modern means of communication such as social networking, among many others. Social networks have ensured the interaction of individuals from different backgrounds all over the world, resulting in the promotion of cultural understanding. Moreover, there has been the development of online-based working teams in the current world as more individuals are turning towards the adoption of new communication technologies to be able to work in a virtual world. The fact that more individuals prefer to work through the diverse communication technologies through the internet has made possible for individuals from cultures all over the world not to have to meet physically in order to work together. These teams have come to develop on such a large scale that individuals from all over the world have superseded their diverse cultural backgrounds, nationalities and other differences in order to work together on projects at hand. In fact, such teams have become so important that many companies cannot do well without them because of the fact that some of the most brilliant ideas tend to come from such teams, since each of their members have been influenced by different cultural backgrounds. The different cultural backgrounds of the members of these teams results in the development of different perspectives to accommodate the tastes of societies from all over the world. There has been the argument from those who support the preservation of culture that the loss of culture will also mean the loss of moral values, since the latter are based on the human imagination. The moral values that are found in all the cultures in the world and the knowledge of how to apply such values have their origins in the human imagination. One of the most pertinent steps that lead to the development of cultural values and the knowledge that is transmitted to future generations is by first imagining them and then taking the necessary steps towards creating them and putting them into use. The cultural values have been developed through the human imagination that can be said to be the reason behind human beings being raised from the level of animals to the advanced creatures that they are currently. Without cultural practices and values, human beings would not have had the necessary sophistication to allow them to form the societies and the moral values accompanying them, which would eventually develop into the great states and civilizations that have existed throughout their history. Among the greatest realisations, concerning the diversity of cultures in the world is that human beings are exceptional beings who have the aptitude of having an unconstrained imagination in the development of the said cultures. This uniqueness is based on their ability to imagine the impossible and being able to develop cultures, which bring these imaginations as close as possible to reality. One would state that the cultural values that exist today are a product of the human imagination because it is through the process of their development that they become a reality in the worldview of different societies. The development of the globalisation of culture has not only brought numerous military conflicts around the world, but it has also ensured that there has been an increase in the incidents of terrorism. The gradual erosion of cultures in some parts of the world has inevitably led to a clash of cultures, with some, like in the Muslim Middle East, believing that this process is a way of establishing western cultural dominance over them. To counter this perceived threat, some individuals in this region, for example, have chosen to form terrorist organisations, in the name of defending the time honoured cultural practices of their people. As a result, there have developed many such organisations in the Middle East, which are a direct result of the clash between western culture and Islamic culture in the region. The preservation of cultural practices will mean that there is no lack of family contact and one would say that families would remain close knit. The culture, which is prevalent in many societies outside the western world, is that children have an obligation to take care of their parents and to cater for their every need. Such cultures often foster family ties since the young are completely tied to their parents and this results in not only the transmission of culture, but also ensures that the elderly do not end up living lonely lives in old peoples’ homes. The discarding of cultural practices will mean that people become highly individualistic and independent in nature and these might choose to leave their family ties behind. Therefore, it can be said that whether individuals discard or stick to their aspects of their cultures has come to have a profound influence on the development cultures in the world, and this influence has been both positive and negative. In certain regions, it can be said to be most positive to those cultures which it has come to influence, because it has not only enriched these cultures, but it has also ensured that some of their characteristics have been spread all over the world. However, it can also been noted that over the years, there has been the erosion and near extinction of some cultures which have come to be replaced with the dominant western culture. This process can still be reversed if only the individuals from thee cultures ensure that they only accept the good aspects of the cultures which are foreign to theirs, and discard those of their own which have been passed by time. This will result in the reclaiming of declining cultures while at the same time making them more attractive for the future generations. Read More