{"id":50414,"date":"2014-12-01T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=50414"},"modified":"2018-10-10T21:24:41","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T20:24:41","slug":"the-epic-ideological-struggle-of-our-global-era-multiculturalism-versus-homogenization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/12\/the-epic-ideological-struggle-of-our-global-era-multiculturalism-versus-homogenization\/","title":{"rendered":"The Epic Ideological Struggle of Our Global Era: Multiculturalism versus Homogenization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homogenization <\/strong><\/p>\n

We live in a global era! This is a fact misunderstood, denied, distorted, or ignored, or used to for advantage by those with power and privilege. Our lives and fortunes are interdependent. Single, isolated events, once unknown or disregarded, now generate and multiply ripples across the world. Notions of direct Aristotelian cause-effect relations among events are inaccurate. Complex Galilean relations of simultaneous and interactive understanding of events and forces are required. Causal explanations informed by ideologies seeking control and domination through uniformity can only result in conflict. Epic ideological struggles are at hand.<\/p>\n

Amid our global era, dominated in thought and action by a few nations, we are witnessing a struggle between homogenization versus heterogeneity. Uniformity versus differences is appearing at all levels. It is a struggle for diversity versus imposed identity. While past decades were defined as struggles for world domination between communism and capitalism, our global era has given rise to ideological struggles across technological, political, religious, and economic efforts to establish a mass global society \u2013 a world order \u2013 promoting and sustained by \u201chomogenization.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those seeking control, uniformity, and conformity, differences \u2013 diversity — in a mass society are seen as sources of distraction and disruption. Mass surveillance, monitoring, and archiving are prefer uniformity. Individual and group variations are being compelled to yield privacy, rights, and variations in live styles to pressures for an ordered and planned society \u2013 homogenized in all areas. Within this context, multiculturalism, as an ideology, is considered a foe.<\/p>\n

Uniformity, Conformity, Compliance: The New Orthodoxy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Developments in information processing and technologies are exercising powerful influences on social, economic, political, and moral systems. They are enabling and facilitating forces in power to control and dominate variation — diversity — favoring efficiency and compliance with uniformity. Differences are targets for imposing order. They are considered sources of \u201cchaos\u201d or error to be subdued and integrated into a homogenized world in which \u201corder\u201d is the ethos. But chaos is the fruit of diversity \u2013 and diversity, is the source and expression of life itself. Efforts after order \u2013 rooted in the assertion of control by those with power, wealth, and position, serve narrow interests. Ultimately, oppression emerges as arbiter.<\/p>\n

The inability of those in positions of power to challenges to their preferred ideology of \u201chomogeneity,\u201d is the major struggle of our times \u2013 an ideological struggle being imposed upon the world of variation, in favor of an ideology of uniformity unsuited for our global era. The myriad of differences in thought, appearance, and ways-of-life in varied expressions, face extinction from the massive power invested in monolithic and monopolistic proportions in different industries and services including Big Ag, Big Education, Big Energy, Big Government, Big Medicine, Big Phar, and Big Military. The excessive proportion eliminates efforts after change in locations of power. There is an inherent ideology in all these \u201cBigs\u201d \u2013 an ideology favoring dominance and control. There is no room for variation!<\/p>\n

Multiculturalism: A Competing Ideology <\/strong><\/p>\n

Multiculturalism is an ideology. An ideology is a systematic set of beliefs that articulate and define a preferred or favored vision of a way-of-life or governance or social formation. In many known ideologies, specific assumptions, premises, and historical foundations and arguments are advanced to promote and defend the ideologies adoption or empowerment. Uses are often made of symbols, myths, and historical events and forces to enhance the appeal of ideologies, sometimes bringing them to mythic proportions. Scores of ideologies exist, especially within the economic, social, and political areas of thought and action. These ideologies often blend into one another in a bewildering confluence eluding an easy identification of the ideology\u2019s history, foundations, and purposes.<\/p>\n

Examples of ideologies shaping individual and nation behavior include capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism, feminism, Zionism, Marxism, militarism, libertarianism, state-ism, and anarchism. These examples embody different disciplinary (e.g., philosophy, economic, history, theology) and societal sectors (e.g., government, judicial, military, education, religion\/faith-based) areas. Often times, they co-opt religious\/faith based, moral, and media resources to further support goals and ambitions. Nothing is as powerful as beliefs rooted in self-righteous justification in the cause of god or a supreme being. The use of force, violence, vilification, valorization, and legal advantages to promote \u201ccauses\u201d is not uncommon. The concentration of power in an ideology\u2019s movement can lead to excessive control and domination, gathering force as they become \u201ccrusaders\u201d buoyed by good intentions and purpose.<\/p>\n

The ideology of Multiculturalism is based on an appreciation and promotion of diversity among various cultural, ethnic, and racial groups. Multiculturalism considers diversity an essential resource for survival because it adds the virtues of resiliency derived from variation, alternatives, and choices in belief, behavior and world views. It keeps options open. Fowers and Davidov (2006), wrote a \u201cglowing\u201d tribute entitled the \u201cVirtue of Multiculturalism,\u201d endorsing the essential need for Multiculturalism. There is both implicit and explicit recognition \u201ccultural\u201d diversity\u201d reflects \u201clife\u2019s\u201d diversity by expanding horizons of possibilities. When Octavio Paz, Mexican Noble Prize winner in Literature, claimed, \u201cLife is diversity, death is uniformity,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>Paz was calling attention to the fact diversity is the very nature of life — an expression and revelation of life\u2019s abundant manifestations and displays. Marsella (2011) shares this view, and has written of Lifeism,<\/em><\/strong> an ideology positioning \u201chumans\u201d as a part of life, rather than life\u2019s dominant and preferred expression.<\/p>\n

Multiculturalism as an ideology evolved in response to the events, forces, and personalities of the turbulent years and tears of change and social upheaval between the 1950-1980 years. The post WWII years, witnessed major socio-political changes and upheavals in the United States and the world, converging and consummating in new awareness and appreciation of the importance of diversity, justice, inclusion, political correctness, and the politics of identity. All found support in a multicultural ideology respecting human rights, equality, and dignity.<\/p>\n

Multiple and Varied Cultures<\/strong><\/p>\n

These years experienced major cultural changes and massive social movements. There was a rising awareness — consciousness — \u201cculture\u201d was a critical concept, and a major force in shaping individual and collective behavior. It became clear that \u201cculture\u201d was too critical to be reserved for esoteric studies of exotic tribes by anthropologists. Culture was present in the lives of all human beings both internally and externally. Table 1 lists some major social, economic, and political events, forces, and people shaping the emergence of contemporary Multiculturalism as an ideology.<\/p>\n

Table 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Examples of Forces, Events, and People Associated with Multiculturalism <\/strong><\/p>\n

(Circa Post WW II Period \u2013 alphabetical order)<\/strong><\/p>\n