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.
There are a variety of foods that people believe come from the United States because they have not taken the time to research and broaden their horizons. This makes it very difficult to detect which products are American made and which are imported. Timmerman fell into this misconception himself when he went to China to discover the truth behind apple juice. He said that “the labels going on the apple juice [weren’t] Indian Summer labels…[but] they [were] the labels of a major grocery store chain” (Timmerman 204). It is very hard to believe labels like these because, although they may say “product of the USA”, they may contain other preservatives or concentrates produced in another country. If that is the case, then that product is not solely a “product of the USA” because it has bits and pieces of other countries inside it as well. Without taking the initiative to look into what is going into the food people consume, they will be completely naive and in the dark about these facts. Plato says “the prisoners would in every
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.
Have you ever thought about those little words in fine print that tell you where a product was made? How about the last time you put tires on your car? Before you made a decision on the purchase did you stop and ask where the tires are made? Probably not! You heard the only words you wanted to hear....good and cheap! When did we stop caring about where a product is made or did we ever? Why would this matter anyway and what importance is of it? Some may argue that free trade and imports give us purchasing power. They believe cheaper goods results in more money in our pocket to buy other goods. That theory is a farce with little to no data to support it. Buying American made supports job growth, the environment and human rights. The impact on us, our children and the future of America is greatly impacted on our purchasing decisions.
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
First of all, The World State takes away individuality and forces its people, through conditioning, to conform to the society’s motto of Community, Identity, and Stability. The most effective way the World State conditions its people is through
American Exceptionalism: The Cultural Problem of Anti-Americanism in the Competitive Market Trends of the Global Business Community
DPT is not only a fallacy, but it does not even begin to understand and contain modern day terrorism. Democratic Peace Theory sounds brilliant on paper, but when closely inspected, its deceptive nature and apparent simplicity becomes evident. One issue that currently divides many experts is the question of defining democracy and liberalism. Furthermore, there is no concise understanding of liberalism and democracy. Democratic peace theory fails to account for human behavior and perception. This is especially crucial when understanding terrorism at its core. This essay proposes certain systemic flaws in Democratic Peace Theory, such as Rosato states, “Democracies do not generally fight other democracies is a false premise; Democracies do not disseminate their norms of domestic politics and conflict resolution, and consequentially the do not respect each other when t...
As an American the world often views our society as disconnected uncultured consumers and after this class and others I have to admit to them that they are right. From the industrial revolution, to our geography, and even politics we have been shaped into a consumerist lifestyle that not only is unsustainable but also oppressive. This class made it very clear that we exploit, and abuse periphery and semi periphery countries for our own gain. Even spreading our ideals and often invasive products like fast food, clothing, or even politics to many parts of the world, eeking out important heritages and practices. Perspectives I wouldn’t have been able to see if I wasn’t looking at them through geographical
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.
Significant historical processes shape the world and society. The contemporary world is what we make it. Each action by our country, culture, society results in change. According to Benjamin Barber, there are two major forces shaping humans socially, and spiritually; the McWorld and Jihad. McWorld is a term for the commercial collective of the world, and Jihad, an Arab word for "crusade", is used to symbolize all of nationalist, fundamentalist, ethnocentric, and tribal rejections of McWorld .
"Democracy" means, to many Americans, a system in which they choose their own leaders, voice their opinions to representatives in government, and human rights and freedoms are respected by the state. But in practice, "democracy," when applied abroad by the United States, means subjugating native peoples to the will of American corporations, and in the process, the destruction...
In conclusion, Huntington's approach of outlining the cultural differences between the West and Islam doesn't entirely explain the present world Jihadist terrorism and response of the US and its allies to it. The inclination of his paradigm is that one culture must win and another must lose. His hypothesis thus promotes political actors, policy makers and citizens to understand cultural dissimilarities as devastating and to support such differences. Consequently, his civilizations approach may not provide a standard paradigm, but it may add to realist and liberal approaches to explain international relations. – 3
Anonymous author (Mar. 1 2007). ‘American Capitalism, A Necessary Evil?’. Retrieved on Mar 23 from:
To conclude culture is a very broad term, which can be defined in many ways. India and the USA share some of hofstede’s dimensions in common with each other, Such as masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. But also differ greatly when it comes to power distance and individualism dimensions. Coca-Cola does customize its operations to a certain degree, mainly concerning packaging and marketing in different countries. However this customization is next to nothing when looking at how extensively different fast food menus are in different countries. Coca-Cola has faced issues while operating in India, which they have taken measures to correct and improve.
Shawki, Ahmed, Paul D’Amato (2000), “Briefing: The Shape of World Capitalism,” International Socialist Review, [http://www.isreview.org/issues/11/world_capitalism.shtml], accessed 19 May 2012.