Global Culture

The integration that occurs with globalization has resulted in greater interaction between people all over the world due to availability of good transport and removal of barriers that hinder the free flow of people, goods, knowledge and capital between borders. This has resulted in greater interlocking of people in all areas of life from social, political, financial but the major effects has been its effects on culture. Cultural globalization leads to joining of languages, the ways of life and to extreme extent homogeneity in global culture. The rate within which todays technologies and communication means  are developing allowing far widespread  flow of culture might direct one to think that the existence of global culture  to be imminent or a reality. These technologies have helped in promulgation and development of global culture at a high rate that is threatening and adulterating traditional cultures around the world thus threatening to plunge the whole world into one sea of dreary uniformity in cultureie global culture

In the book, Japan America, keltz explores the way an influx of Japanese fashion and art has shaped the American culture. The story tells of how the Japanese popular entertainment and art have enhanced the way of life in the America. The story addresses the reasons why Americans are not able to understand poetry and also compares the convergence in the way Japanese responded to the holocaust in the Second World War and how Americans responded to the September  911attacks all through art. In order to face their trauma instead of an escapism. The story achieves the aim of showing just how the Japanese influence have contributed to convergence in the two cultures in the way they handle grief all through art, like movies art and advertising comics , it is a story that reveals just how the joining together of souls  via entertainment can bring together two unique cultures.

Keltz major interest is the rise of the world of anime and manga in the United States. He observes that it was a mystery just how the art developed in the strict and rigid society of the Japanese and how it helped in creating the American pop culture. He notes that the art emotional context and overt sexual and violence overtones were not part of the American culture pop culture earlier but due to cross cultural convergence, the pop culture evolved to accommodate these elements of the Japanese art. Keltz also explains the contribution in which post war animators in Japan had on the development of animators in America like Hayao Miyagazaki. Keltz book illustrates just how the trend towards global culture is becoming a reality.

In Jan Petersie book ethnicity and global multiculture, he explores the concept of globalization from the view of Diaspora and migration. He views it as a process of hybridization involving social and cultural mixing of the local cultures. He rejects the theory of clash of civilizations which proposes that cultures are experiencing polarization in culture due to global consumerism and fundamentalism in culture like the clash of civilizations between the west and Islam. Petersie rejects this narrow view of culture and redefines it to mean beliefs and habits that are shared therefore culture is not limited to individuals or boundaries that is it is always open and therefore global.

Peitersie views cultural hybridization as the ideal phenomenon of global culture. He views it as an open ended method   of joining of all the cultural difference and their interdependence. He notes that the hybridization process has led to intermixing of cultures that at present there may be no longer pure cultures or unadulterated cultures that remain distinct among others without some influence from some other cultures. He explains that this process has led to complete assimilation of some cultures by other cultures leading to uniformity in culture.

Pieterse observes the change in culture to more global by the changing view people have on ethnicity and multiculturalism. He also observes a change in cultures where in the past ethnic divisions were determined largely on boundaries imposed by colonists and other market strategists to a culture where ethnicity and multiculturalism is all about representation like art exhibitions, museums and curio shops that center on creating dialogue and self depiction. In the book, he also focuses on the clash between the Islamic and the western civilization he observes that the Islamic culture consists of several subcultures that have differing histories ad therefore the conflicts arise from west quest for global homogeneity and the Islamic widespread reach. He recommends that imperialists cannot use social science scholarships on just the national level and need to recognize that culture is global and therefore need to investigate it globally.

Nederven Pieterse view of on the effects of the global economy on culture and ethnicity provide an example of how just culture is becoming global. He has e view that the perspective of an economy that is homogenous is rigid confining in relation to state and therefore the cultural dimensions for economy should be understood to be global and should also consider the interrelations between the different cultures. Nederven observes that this concept of cultural globalization has brought about identity crisis to many people around the world. He records that this trend towards global culture risks sabotaging the concept of nationalism and politics of identity .he also observes that the phenomenon risks plobremizing the national boundaries of many nations as the world becomes one global village with almost a homogenous culture.

Out of experience, I have come to note just how the environment around us shapes our behavior. The cultures of those who are around us with time become embroiled in our mind to be the ideal even for us and become part of our behavior. For example, we are all captivated by the ads we see on the media that compel us to behave in the way the ad recommends us to do. We then adopt this behavior and with time it becomes part of our culture. Multinational companies capitalize on these and are on the fore front in advancing the concept of global culture through their advertisement campaigns that target the way the world responds to their brands.
 
In summary, it is apparent to conclude that the tide towards global homogeneity in culture is strong and will have a lot of impacts to the social, political, and economic significance to the world at large as it continues to evolve. The effects will be either positive, like the adoption of some values from other cultures or negative like the domination of the worlds economy by only a few countries. However, the trend towards global culture is a reality and the world should be prepared to live with its consequences.

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