Is there a "global culture"?
No. There! That was easy. But hey, not so fast. The Atlantic website today posted a piece by a Polish writer about the thoughts and needs of the generation that grew up on the Internet. An excerpt:
Participating in cultural life is not something out of ordinary to us: global culture is the fundamental building block of our identity, more important for defining ourselves than traditions, historical narratives, social status, ancestry, or even the language that we use.
This strikes me as nonsense, but you may disagree. Read the whole piece for context, and what he really wants. (Cheaper downloadable movies. Also, Democracy.) I'd post my reply here, but it's long, and you can find it here, if you wish, under the pictures of failed Times Square skyscraper plans.
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Jul '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
There's a global culture of stupidity. They like Obama still.
Jun '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
Except, I'm not a WE. I'm an individual, thank you. What makes "global culture" creepy is the expected conformity. It's the new conformity rebelling against the old conformity, and that's not really progress, is it?
Nov '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
Same quote jumped out at me , with a different thought -- Edmund Burke would have some things to say to to this guy... This kind of train of thought can get dangerous easily.
Oh, and we want a lot, and we are going to get it by demanding it, apparently?
An interesting read.
Edited on February 22, 2012 at 5:57amDec '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
I find this encouraging. It's exactly - and I mean exactly, down to the last molecule - the way we talked about our generation back when I was 24.
You see, we were children of a different world, the next evolutionary stage, and the cro magnons that came before us just couldn't relate. And the generation directly downstream of us never trusted anyone over 30, but by the time I had an electricity bill in my name they were just a bunch of old squares, so who cared what they thought?
This article is good news because it underlines a great truth: human nature is stronger than Google. To quote one of the great philosophers of my youth: "Same as it Ever Was".
Jul '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
Starve the Beast: I find this encouraging. It's exactly - and I mean exactly, down to the last molecule - the way we talked about our generation back when I was 24.
You see, we were children of a different world, the next evolutionary stage, and the cro magnons that came before us just couldn't relate. And the generation directly downstream of us never trusted anyone over 30, but by the time I had an electricity bill in my name they were just a bunch of old squares, so who cared what they thought?
This article is good news because it underlines a great truth: human nature is stronger than Google. To quote one of the great philosophers of my youth: "Same as it Ever Was". · 8 minutes ago
You may find yourself.....
Oct '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
This is fairly predictable. All cosmopolitan groups think this. The more wide-spread and excessive is this attitude, the bigger the backlash against it will be as society fully wakes up to the moral breakdown, ruined lives and devastated communities that are a natural consequence.
Still, I think this mindset is declining in America.
Feb '12
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
Yes, you certainly do. But perhaps "think" is not the most appropriate verb.
Oct '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
Well, it a little true that there's a global culture, in the sense that there is an American culture. Young internet-users have evolved a shared cultural space, even if they retain their individual cultures, much as America is made up of thousands of cultures, but everyone participates in "American culture."
That's not the same thing as the traditional cosmopolitan argument; the whole "national borders are bad, blah blah blah" line of thought (my favorite response is to ask how wealthier communities can be asked to subsidize poorer ones--as happens in every nation on earth--unless they both feel part of a larger community, i.e. a nation).
Apr '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
It is late but I think in some ways we are seeing a Global Culture emerging...though I don't think it is what the author thinks it is. Eager is probably right. What we are seeing is the spread of American culture further and faster than people realize. This is a double edged sword as American cultural patterns become more dominated by the internet it allows American culture to feel the influence of other cultures more strongly, thus the rate of cultural change may increase.
Thus as American culture becomes less alien to people and adopts more Japanese, German, Polish etc...patterns more people around the world will be drawn to it and become immersed in it. I think that is the great strength of America.
Our culture has so many influences that we can more easily relate to other cultures. Also we are so dominating that it is hard to ignore us. We love to sell ourselves. I think only the French try harder to sell their culture than Americans do.
It may be that one day the world do to high levels of integration does merge into one culture with only slight regional differences...but not today.
Oct '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
This seems to be the product of internet forum discussions, which are more often than not pits of stupidity and mediocre ideas.
The internet is not an extension of reality, it is a network owned by millions of third parties.
The only global culture that exist could only be the American Culture, but even this concept is somewhat limited.
Mar '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
I would be more concerned about the death of High Culture, rather than the emergence of "global culture."
Feb '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
Pretty much claptrap. Similar to the belief that the telegraph would bring about a new era of universal understanding and peace.
Apr '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
what pray tell is "high culture"?
May '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
James,
That link to your bleat doesn't work. Should be this:
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/12/0212/022212.html
Jul '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
global culture is the fundamental building block of our identity, more important for defining ourselves than traditions, historical narratives, social status, ancestry, or even the language that we use.
This is incoherent.
Culture is shared, learned behavior. I suppose he means that global historical narratives, traditions, and languages are more defining than local ones.
I'm skeptical about this, other than at the margins. I don't see culture driven conflicts disappearing anytime soon due to the intertubes.
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
My only quibble with your comment, James, is that this guy doesn't want his downloads cheaper, he wants it all for free -- that ghastly cliche about how information "wants to be free" (no, you want it to be free -- not the same thing). And, like all advocates of "global culture," this guy seems to have no confidence in his own culture. Im not surprised by Alex Madrigal's comment that such manifestos usually come from Europe.
Feb '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
Brilliant Mr. Freedman, you'd think someone from Poland might, might, have a respect for a culture that has survived the dual flaying of Nazism and Communism (not to mention suppression in the 19th century), and has produced some powerful cultural artifacts...geez!
Nov '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
If you read it as a parody of the angst, wishful thinking, historical illiteracy, and unfounded romanticism that makes up the Occupy-think of eternal adolescents, it's actually pretty funny.
Jan '11
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
My only pithy observation is that when I see someone from abroad burning the US flag, they are often wearing a NY Yankee cap or Tommy Hilfilger clothing
Jun '10
Re: Is there a "global culture"?
All of this "we-ness" of the great and only global culture causes me to hearken back to my stand-by wise man, G. K. Chesterton:
Or, to paraphrase something like I think someone said, "A child of the world has damned poor parents."
All this talk of a global culture is bilge. In the end, it comes down to family, church, tribe, community, state, and nation. Everything other than that is ephemeral and, in the end, undependable.