Societies take influences from the West instead of exchanging cultural ideas
In the era of a globalizing world, it is impossible to view events, even those on the smallest scales, without considering their effects on an international scale.
Undoubtedly, globalization comes with benefits and is a window to the world. Through it, one can brush shoulders with many cultures and experience ideas that geographical boundaries would make difficult. Only by globalization is the exchange of knowledge and new technology possible between countries. With new knowledge and technology, the standards of living for people all over the world can be raised.
Examples of a "global nation" are everywhere — from the ubiquitous McDonald's chain to the steady increase in number of multinational corporations to the fact that sales of Apple products in China's four retail stores combined are higher than that of anywhere else in the world. But this is where globalization begins to look strange. Rather than seeing a reciprocal flow of ideas between countries, globalization has become a lopsided exchange in which the West dominates. In fact, it is more difficult now to differentiate between "globalization" and "Westernization," as the two concepts tend toward synonymy.
It makes sense logically: More developed countries influence less developed countries. The West influences the East.
The problem, however, is that this has begun to create an oligarchy in the global sphere. The West is no longer simply a part of the whole — it is a leader and a norm-setter for the rest of the world. The ethical implications of this are hardly a novelty.
"Are our methods really the best?" was a question asked for centuries during colonization and all the way up through the Iraq War.
This new wave of Western imperialism has already had a slew of repercussions for the rest of the world. Cultures and traditions have been lost from many Eastern countries in the attempt to surrender their "antiquated" values to adjust to those of the West. These countries don't have much of a choice. Often, Westernization is the only way to gain recognition and acceptance in the political and economic realm. In order to join forces with institutions such as the United Nations or to borrow money from the World Bank, nations must succumb to certain social, political and economic conditions — conditions set, of course, by the West.
As globalization continues to infest the world with its ruthless growth, modernization and assimilation are inevitable. But globalization may also have consequences and downsides that we, though helpless to prevent, can ameliorate by our recognition of them. We must ensure that justice can prevail in transnational institutions and that countries, developed or not, have the rights to representation in decision-making processes.
We must ensure that hundreds of years of history are not forsaken in attempts to create global standards. It would be a tragedy to reach one consensus and lose hundreds of identities.
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