In Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin Barber puts forth two opposing extremes of ideology, Jihad and McWorld. Jihad consists of religious fundamentalists trying to force their views onto all others. On the other end of the spectrum is McWorld based on capitalistic principals. Each of these ideologies challenge the way of democracy. In their differences they are similar. McWorld tries to sell products; Jihad tries to sell their beliefs and ideas. Part 1 of Jihad vs. McWorld introduces McWorld, its way of thinking and affect on democracy. Democracy is supposed to serve the public interest. The corporations of McWorld care about one thing, profit. Every decision is based from an economic standpoint. The McWorld question is, what will be the monetary gain, not what is best for the public. In McWorld everything commoditized. If a profit can not be made then there is no need. In McWorld we live in a pseudo democracy. Under McWorld, democracy is redefined as consumer choices, thousands of products to choose from. The term citizen is replaced with consumer.
The objective of every corporation is make money. Barber states, "Selling American products means Selling America." I agree with this. It is not just a product that is being sold it's a symbol. I experienced this when I was employed at a drugstore. A customer has a choice of either the Discount Drugmart brand of a medicine or a brand name medicine. The store brand is less expensive yet contains the same ingredients as the brand name product. Many times the store brand is actually manufactured by the same company just put into a different box and an inactive ingredient is changed, however customers will still buy the more expensive product. The consumer is not buying ibuprofen, they are buying Advil. Not only are they paying for the medicine, they are paying for the company to advertise their product, consecutively influencing the consumer to buy more of their product. Cultural status is correlated with what car you drive, what clothes you wear, and the size of your television. In McWorld people are defined by their material goods, not morals.
McWorld feeds off advertisement. According to Barber, "The story of McWorld's rise is the story of the advertising industry's explosive growth in the same period.
Michael Moore’s film of Capitalism: A Love Story is an examination on how much of a financial impact that corporation has on the lives of Americans. Capitalism seems to emulate a love affair gone wrong, with lies, abuse and betrayal towards the American people. Moore moves the film from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan in order to answer the question of what price do Americans pay for the affection of capitalism. There is irony in the title of this film because there is certainly nothing to love about capitalism when families have to pay the price with losing their jobs, their homes and their savings as a result of the risky investments that the rich and powerful have at their disposal. With more than 14,000 jobs being lost, residents being evicted from their homes and banks stealing away families’ savings, one must wonder if there is an upside to capitalism at all. True democracy is the biggest threat to corporate America because of the one person one vote system. In order for this to take place, the growing number of people would have to come together and expose capitalism for what it truly is, a corrupt and greedy system for the wealthy.
Reich, B. Robert. “How Capitalism Is Killing Democracy”. 15 Aug, 2007. 24 Apr, 2014. < https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_50_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_977636_1%26url%3D>
As Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers articulated in On Democracy, a capitalist democracy is one that "if [it] is not just capitalism, still less is it just democracy" (Cohen 50). Indeed, despite the apparent political equality in a system that nowadays guarantees universal suffrage, the dominate socio-political structure in the United States and most western European countries does not allow—neither by intention nor in practice—free and equal competition between the capital and labor. Cohen and Rogers theorize that at the heart of this disparity lies what they call "the demand constraint" and "the resource constraint". In summation, the demand constraint states that because of the fact that the entire capitalistic econom...
American Exceptionalism: The Cultural Problem of Anti-Americanism in the Competitive Market Trends of the Global Business Community
In American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865 - 1900, H.W. Brands worked to write a book that illustrates the decades after the Civil War, focusing on Morgan and his fellow capitalists who effected a stunning transformation of American life. Brands focuses on the threat of capitalism in American democracy. The broader implications of focusing on capitalism in American democracy is the book becomes a frame work based on a contest between democracy and capitalism. He explains democracy depends on equality, whereas, capitalism depends on inequality (5). The constant changing of the classes as new technologies and ways of life arise affect the contest between democracy and capitalism. By providing a base argument and the implications of the argument, Brands expresses what the book attempts to portray. Through key pieces of evidence Brands was able to provide pieces of synthesis, logical conclusion, and countless
In contemporary times, the rise of capitalism as a dominant economic trend and its ravenous demand to accumulate sources from new markets, has led to the idea of merging political and economic power into one, which is democratic capitalism or otherwise illustrated as “a system where markets allocate income according to efficiency while governments redistribute income according to political demand."(Iversen, 2006). The advancements mentioned earlier, have given ground for questions concerning the possible compatibility of the political ideology which is democracy and the economic ideology capitalism and how would they affect one another. This mergence could be examined in recent times, whereas in the past around the start of the nineteenth century it was considered as inappropriate and unlikely to happen. This paper aims to demonstrate to what degree are democracy and capitalism compatible, by examining the various areas of conflict of the two ideologies, how has capitalism affected the democratic system in the United States and does actually global capitalism have an impact on the developing countries democracies.
Our belief states are determined by the external factors, for example, perceived complexity and priming ethics is an interesting subject and everyone lives by their thoughts and their ways. Everyone lives by a different code. In this paper I will argue against capitalism, because capitalism in the long run is morally unjustified. I will start off by explaining what capitalism is, and then I will explain how capitalism affects us and lastly I will conclude why capitalism is not morally justifiable. Morality is about primary making the right choices. Now the key word here is, right. We have to make sure if the system is the right system for all of us as a whole and not only if it benefits only some.
The Jihad is probably one of the most misunderstood and feared terms in modern day America. Ever since the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11th, 2001, the Muslim religious duty of Jihad has had only negative connotations. Of course, seeing two trademark buildings collapsed and mangled on the groundwith thousands dead all in the name of religion would have anyone jump to a negative conclusion. But what most people don’t understand is that the meaning of the term “Jihad” is one greatly left up to interpretation. Each sect of the Islamic religion has a different take on this religion duty and the expectation that go along with it. Therefore, the idea of Jihad that America has learned to fear might not be the true meaning, concept, and intention of the word at all.
In simple terms capitalism is defined as “an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state” (). Capitalism is so embedded in American ideology that few people can see beyond this simple definition; and because teachings of capitalism are often one sided –capitalism promotes free market and private ownership therefore there is less governmental control as opposed to any other means of production– few people question the truth of these claims. Authors Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Slavoj Zizek all go beyond the simple definition of capitalism to point out some flaws that are often unseen but could prove to be detrimental for a democratic society. In his lecture "Society Must Be Defended" Foucault says that the emergence of “population” as a political problem is directly tied to the growth of capitalism. Deleuze’s paper “Society of Control” argues that modern capitalism has mutated greatly from the 19th century “ideal” form of capitalism. And Slavoj Zizek, in his article “Welcome to the Desert of the Real” points out that global capitalism has gone virtually unchallenged until the World Trade Center bombings in 2001. The film “The Matrix” (1999) takes a similar position and argues that modern capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate source of control and will be the downfall of our society. Most people will agree that “The Matrix” is a very trippy and action filled movie but few people will catch the anti-capitalist tone of the film. After all, what could futuristic men in dark clothes and sunglasses possibly say about the state of society today? Using the readings, I will give a deeper analysis of the chara...
In the article “Jihad vs. McWorld” written by Benjamin R. Barber, the main discussion is about the comparison of the Jihad world of “a threatened Lebanonization of national states in which culture is pitted against culture”(Barber, 1992, page 1) to the McWorld of economic and political globalization. This idea is based off of the concept of Barber stating that there are “2 possible political futures”(Barber, 1992, page 1); the idea of seperation for every nation to have its own state, and the idea of it all becoming one. The contrast for these is that each nation cannot survive, as states some simply aren’t large enough. However the idea of becoming a single nation would not be as efficient either, because the amount of governing parties that
Over the course of this class, we have focused on four main theories for viewing the different facets of world politics: realism, liberalism, radicalism, and constructivism. Each theory has its own merits and appeals to my way of thinking for distinct reasons. I appreciate the attempted focus on rationale and “calling things what they are” attitude of realism. Realists do not attempt to sugarcoat how they see the anarchic system at work. They acknowledge the “dog eat dog” mentality and account for it when trying to act in the interest of their state. Also, I understand the argument that radicals have against our economic system. I have seen the exploitation of the have-not’s for the profit of the elites in several different contexts. Indeed, I find it understandable that they would feel that the economy is the main factor at fault. It does regulate a lot of interaction between states. Constructivism raises valid points as well. It is worth it to consider how much of what we believe about the world around us is what we believe, simply, because we have been taught so by others.
...emergence of consumer or multinational capitalism. In many ways, its formal features express the deeper logic of this social system. We need only think of the way our sense of history has disappeared, of how our entire contemporary social system has little by little begun to lose its capacity to retain its own past. We live in a perpetual present. We might say that the media help us forget the past (pp. 204-05). I have discussed two features of postmodernism--the transformation of reality into images and the fragmentation of time into a series of perpetual presents. In this way, then, postmodernism replicates or reproduces or reinforces the logic of consumer capitalism (p. 205).
...e happy. However, Carl argued that now more than ever people are questioning capitalism. It is important to question and critique our current capitalistic system. The current system in place is alienating workers and places too much emphasis on profit and the modes of production. There are extensive problems and repercussions that must be death within a profit-driven society. We should be working towards a system that is driven by what is needed not what is profitable. A profit-driven system can lead to over-accumulation and production of items that are actually not required because of over-production. We need to undergo change in order to construct a form of social and economic life based on production for need, not production for profit. This means that a system must be created that has a focus on democratic planning, worker-self management, and global solidarity.
However there must be a minutia degree of attention in defining human rights and what is considered cultural vs. criminal activity. To oppress free speech and expression is not cultural, it’s oppressive behavior to control the message and remain in power. Or for example, honor killings of women is criminal not cultural. From my perspective, being a product of American culture it is difficult for me to see McDonalds as the symbol of American economic dominance in the world because to me it’s just a restaurant. I think it quite silly to blame a restaurant or any business for affecting or endangering local economies. Because where I live our local economies and global businesses cohabitate side by side. There are all types of economic models to choose from and take advantage of, for example if you are a carpenter you can advertise on Craigslist to sell your services or I can sell my homemade goods on Etsy. Maybe I go to a local shop and buy goods from Fair Trade International producers or I order from eBay and it comes directly from the Chinese manufacturer. We enjoy an open global trade market and also take care to support the local economy
The Four Horsemen documentary gives an idea on how democracy works its effects on global economy on far reaching scale and its consequences. The six stages named are age of Pioneers, age of Conquests, age of Commerce, age of Affluence, age of Intellect & age of decadence. The common feature among all empires which often end with age of decadence where greed takes over all, recalcitrant military, disparity across two sections of the society of rich and poor and obsession with lust. The Six stages ominously sounds plausible .The four horsemen sounds the horn of referring to Terrorism, exploitation of resources where the current democratic empire of nations is compared to Rome where once currency was based on silver standard