For hundreds of thousands of years, humans have been tribal. Being tribal probably started as a pure survival strategy but evolved to become a primary factor in the success of humans as the dominant species on earth. It is embedded in our DNA.
All tribes have their own cultures which evolve over long periods of time. Cultures generally do not change or adapt to change quickly. And then globalization happened - very quickly. Indeed, it has largely happened within the last 50 years or so and has accelerated over that time. This is a very short time period relative to the evolution of humans and the time required for cultures to change and adapt. No wonder there is a sudden surge in xenophobia, racism, and other nasty behaviours. There is a heightened fear of change, Metathesiophobia. The pace of change of technology, the global movement of goods and services, and jobs, and thoughts and cultural practices, and above all, the global movement of people all contribute to Metathesiophobia. Many people cannot even verbalize their unease but there is a general angst among people which has been manifesting itself in many uncivil ways. Baring the complete collapse of civil society, globalization is not going to go away. We must adapt, and adapt quickly, to survive. Adapting to globalization is the biggest test of survival the human species has ever faced. In the past, the success of the human species can be attributed in large part to our ability to adapt to changing conditions and situations. We are unique in our ability for complex reasoning and our innate desire to cooperate, and so we should have the capacity to adapt to globalization. Somewhat paradoxically, technology might even help us. We now have an unprecedented ability to communicate instantaneously among different languages of the world and to see current events in the context of a wider history. We might still be a collection of tribes, but increasingly we are understanding that we are part of the same species. I'm optimistic that we will survive globalization. It will not happen automatically. There will have to be a lot of dialogue and education. We will all have a role to play. Canada can potentially be a role model for the rest of the world. In addition to our individual responsibility, our governments should also promote and support a vision of this possibility.
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AuthorRetired and loving life. Archives
February 2024
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