| Author |
Message |
    
Tofugrl3
Citizen
Username: Tofugrl3
Post Number: 1
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 4:53 pm: |     |
I came across this article on the New York Times Website. I will post an excerpt from, "Questions of Culture," by David Brooks. I read the other thread regarding international media vs. US press and this guy gives a different perspective on globalization. What do you guys think?
“Communications technology hasn’t brought people closer together; it has led to greater cultural segmentation across the word and even within the United States. Education hasn’t made people moderate and independent-minded. In the U.S. highly educated voters are more polarized than less educated voters, and in the Arab world some of the most educated people are also the most fanatical.
“All of this has thrown a certain sort of materialistic vision into crisis. We now know that global economic and technological forces do not gradually erode local cultures and values. Instead, cultures and values shape economic development. Moreover, as people are empowered by greater wealth and education, cultural differences become more pronounced, not less, as different groups chase different visions of the good life, and react in aggressive ways to perceived slights to their cultural dignity.”
“The fundamental change is that human beings now look less like self-interested individuals and more like socially embedded products of family and group.”
“During the first few years of life, parents, and communities and societies unconsciously impart ways of being and of perceiving reality that we are only subliminally aware of. How distinct is the individual from the community? Does history move forward, or is it cyclical? How do I fulfill my yearning for righteousness? What is possible and what is impossible?”
“It all amounts to this: Events have forced different questions on us. If the big contest of the 20th century was between planned and free market economies, the big questions of the next century will be understanding how cultures change and can be changed, how social and cultural capital can be nurtures and developed, how destructive cultural conflict can be turned to healthy competition.
“People who think about global development are out in front thinking about these matters.” |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3216
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 5:30 pm: | |
For cultural and social anthropologists, long thought by some to be the stepchildren of the social sciences, it's exceedingly interesting.
It validates our concerns and predictions. (I use the royal "we" as I hold three degrees in these fields.)
Thanks for finding that article.
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Southerner
Citizen
Username: Southerner
Post Number: 697
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 6:51 pm: | |
Validates your predictions? I thought those predictions brought us a Democratic President and Congress with Rove and Cheney in prison. What about those predictions? I guess since you get nothing right in your own backyard you now want to move to a world stage. Good luck on that. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3218
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 7:06 pm: | |
"Move to a world stage?" I earned my degrees in 1974, 1976, 1977. Not a new interest, southerner.
Way before Bush et. al. The predictions I am referring to, if you read the above post by Tofugrl3, refer to the growing significance of cultural and social differences on the world stage. I noticed that a while ago, southerner. Have you ever noticed it?
Don't troll me.
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tjohn
Supporter
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 4066
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 7:15 pm: | |
I earned my degrees in '75, '83 and '85.
Anybody else? |
Southerner
Citizen
Username: Southerner
Post Number: 700
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 8:28 pm: | |
I love having folks feel so initimidated that they have to list their own accomplishments on an anonymous message board. I'm 2 for 2 today. Does anyone else want to tell us what their high school GPA was to prove a point? Or that they are a member of Oprah's book club? That stuff goes a long way on a politically themed board. |
kmk
Supporter
Username: Kmk
Post Number: 1031
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 8:40 pm: | |
Oh Southerner ...I hope you are not from Texas.
That is my home and you sound so mean-spirited, not like the southerners I admire.
You even sound like the polarized individuals that the article mentions when you react in "agressive ways to perceived slights". |
tjohn
Supporter
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 4067
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 9:33 pm: | |
Southerner,
My most remarkable performance in any given semester was about a 1.5 GPA. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3220
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 7:22 am: | |
My high school GPA was 3.4. Lotta good it did me!! I still have to work like a dog to put my kids through college!!!
(retirement? huh!!! not bloody likely!!!) |
Scrotis Lo Knows
Citizen
Username: Scrotisloknows
Post Number: 788
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 7:53 am: | |
I was an Pizza Hut employee of the month in high school... |
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