Colton Hamel
Modern World
Professor Miller
22 November 2014
Huntington’s Article Huntington’s Article, named The Clash of Civilizations is an article written by Samuel P. Huntington in 1993. Huntington was trying to address his concerns for future conflicts that he believed would come into place. Huntington believed that now that the USSR had been taken down (1992), and the “West vs. East” was over, that civilization differences would come in to play. He had the idea that, because everyone was worried about tension between the bigger powers of the U.S. and USSR, civilizations put their differenced aside, but now that the tension was over, the differences were going to cause problems. Most people during this time didn’t see these things
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He sees that, as the world is becoming a smaller place via immigration and increasing technology, different civilizations are beginning to mix together. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, as differences between each civilization such as their history, language, customs, and culture can cause fighting and strong opinions against each other. He also states that “the processes of economic modernization and social change throughout the world are separating people from longstanding local identities.” This could be bad, because things that are special and only found in one place, could be found all over the world because of advance in technology such as shipping via plane or boat. For example, Italy is known for pizza and for Italian food, but because of technology, we are able to order a pizza whenever we want to now. When these advancements started, it could have led to a loss of identity for that civilization and frustration by the …show more content…
His example for micro level is the fault lines between two different civilizations, which struggle violently over the control of their territory. He says that the fault lines are replacing the political boundaries of the Cold War, and these are small areas that were struggling, but not many people were paying attention to it (Border issues in America with Mexico). At the macro level, different states with different civilizations will compete for military and economic power (Germany and Hitler’s reign, Japan’s attempt to take over natural resources). This is a more obvious and global example, but different cultures and civilizations will compete to have their beliefs win and be on top. He points out two different civilizations, by saying that the West is the Catholic or Protestant, and they had plenty of money, but the East and South was Orthodox or Muslim and were less advanced
What is/are the social problem(s) that the author is discussing in this book? Why did it/they develop?
He learned over some time, that it is possible for one to retain separateness but keep individuality, and one can be a public person as well as a private person. He says that at first he wanted to be like everyone else (fit in), and only when he could think of himself as American it was than okay to be an individual in public society. He speaks of a man from Mexico who held on to Spanish: "For as long as he holds on to words, he can ignore how much else has changed his life" (35). The message is to not take words for granted and not to misuse words because they certainly do have meaning. For example, `brother' and `sister' is becoming a public repetition of words. The meaning will become lifeless. Words mean something when the voice takes control "the heart cannot contain!" (39). It forms an intimate sound.
...use of the lagging mental growth of certain peoples. What Lindqvist sought from this book was imply to give a more wholesome answer as to where the reasoning behind it came from. He does not propose any ideas to fix it, or even hope that it will one day not exist. I too cannot fathom a day where everyone views each other as equal. Beautiful and utopic would it be. Yet my logical side of the brain will not let me believe in it. Primitive thoughts and actions will always exist, as we all were once much more animals than we are now. The evolution now is not physical but mental. Can the world as a whole ever completely and peacefully coexist? I trust that it is the ultimate goal, and understanding our history gives us the leg up to do so. Just as Lindvqist says, “It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions”.
The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington interprets contemporary and projected conflicts, implying that the clash of civilizations will create the sustenance for all conflict to follow. He advocates that prior warfare and conflict advance from the work of monarchies, to the stuff of nation states, to the result of ideological differences. In conclusion, Huntington predicts that civilization divisions and misunderstandings will encourage all debates to come.
The First Civilizations of the world were the stepping-stone into modern society, and the original basis as to what our modern society has become. Reading through the assigned text in Ways of the World: A Brief Global History by Robert W. Strayer, in the chapter titled “First Civilizations: Cities, States, and Unequal Societies”, the reader is introduced into what evolved into the world in which we currently live in. (Please note that the writer will be referring to text from Strayer’s 2011 edition of the text, in comparison to the modern version.) The entire chapter discusses the way that the civilizations emerged, as well as how equality was eventually diminished from the society, Mesoamerica, and the six civilizations themselves: Olmec, Norte Chico, Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, and China. The chapter begins with asking, the general questions: “Who? What? When? Where? Why?” Giving a brief history, the first civilizations began to rise in the time period of 3500 B.C.E. and 3000 B.C.E. in the three most geographically historic regions in the world: The Middle East, Sumer, and Egypt. These places consisted of cities, political systems, and were responsible for economic input and output.
Huntington’s argument rests on the assumption that the world is consolidating along regional and cultural lines, which make up each civilization, and would become the driving force of conflict*. He divided the world into seven major civilizations, such as Western, Islamic, orthodox to name a few. Each civilization will act independently or with the west depending on their preference*. Take China, for instance, who integrated capitalism with authoritarian governance. Huntington argues that as China grows they will seek to gain hegemonic influence over Asia, which will become a source of conflict, as the West seeks to maintain global dominance*. Similarly, he argues that his thesis
Concluding thoughts on this book are as follows. The author does a supreme job organizing the topics in this book rationally. He takes things that would seem obvious to others in relation to a particular topic, and describes them so in depth that it is almost as though a personal epiphany is reached in each section. To put it plainly, this book just makes sense. Nothing in it had the feel of new information; rather it takes old information and applies it perfectly to pertaining topics. The author does a lot to ensure that all of his arguments are grounded in logic and reasoning rather than in facts and figures. Granted he does use history to prove many points, but for many others he makes arguments that just seem sensible. This book, however difficult to read due to a wide use of vocabulary, is very thought provoking and should be read by anybody who has ever sought justification for the way societies act in different situations.
Huntington's disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder. It is passed on to children from one or both parents (though two parents with Huntington's is extraordinarily rare) in an autosomal dominant manner. This is different from autosomal recessive disorder, which requires two altered genes (one from each parent) to inherit the disorder.
Huntington’s disease is named after George Huntington. This disease genetically is an inherited disorder that damages the mind and nervous system. This may affect actions of the body for example like movement, the ability to reason, awareness, and thinking and judgment. It can also affect their behavior. The word genetic is that the disorder is delivered on by each generation of offspring by special codes called genes(Patient.Co.Uk, 2011). Genes are relocated from a parent to offspring and is held to decide some characteristics of the children (Patient.Co.Uk, 2011).
I share the view of Edward Said who responded to Huntington’s thesis in his 2001 article, “ The Clash of Ignorance”. He argued that Huntington’s categorization of the world’s fixed “civilizations” omits the dynamic interdependency and interaction of culture. Said (2004) also argues that the clash of civilizations thesis is an example of “ the purest individious racism, a sort of parody of Hitlerian science
I would like to focus on his first point because it covers the idea of ethnocentrism and a sense of cultural superiority. Brown explains that the common occurrence of a group deeming their culture as more satisfying or superior to another can be termed “ethnocentrism” (Brown). The paper describes examples of this concept but there is a positive message to be taken away. Brown suggests that with how globally connected we are in the 21st century, it is likely that groups of people can have success in finding overlapping aspects in their ways of life (Brown). This is incredibly important because it suggests that the current playing field of abusive business and politics could only be temporary, where currently the issues with globalism seem to only be growing
In a world based on the motto “Community, identity, stability,” every aspect of society follows that phrase. In the Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, everyone belongs to everyone else. The people live in one community, follow their pre-destined identity and lead stable lives as a result.
In 1992 within a lecture Samuel P. Huntington proposed a theory that suggests that people's cultural and religious identities will undoubtedly be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world, this theory is known as the Clash of Civilizations. Therefore this essay provides a criticism of this theory, whether I agree or disagree with it and also the aspects I like or dislike about the theory as a whole.
In this text, the author is criticizing the beliefs that Samuel Huntington has on what the main causes of conflicts between nations. He believes that the causes are cultural differences like religion, etc. The author clearly states that he believes that thinking the same way Huntington thinks, is dangerous. The author also talks about how there are many other things that also have an effect or role on causing conflicts. The author also presents to the audience the idea that things like the news and other media outlets use certain techniques as a way to manipulate society to think a certain way about a person or a specific group of people. Throughout the text, the authors continuously states how this a very ignorant thing for society to do or continue doing.
The book altogether contains very verbose literary language, that may make it difficult for the lay man. There are numerous individual examples that may although relate to culture and imperialism, but is irrelevant or confusing in some part. Overall the book feels like a number of lectures stapled together with no progression of ideas, however everything...