If the world is becoming increasingly interconnected, does this mean we are moving toward a single, homogenous culture?

The homogenization of cultures and the absorption of cultures into a universal western, marketoriented, rational culture is becoming an issue of focus for many social and cultural critics. For many, underlying this process is a veiled kind of imperialism which because of the opposition it faced in its geo-political form conveniently morphed into a more readily acceptable and less military form. For others it is mainly a natural outcome of economic evolution and globalization the negative effects of which can be dealt with as the need arises. For persons holding this view the benefits associated by globalization (and its resultant homogenization) by far outweigh the negatives. I will explore this tendency towards homogenization using a few standpoints in social philosophy and sociology. Kant's synthesizing nature of the understanding For Kant the world of phenomena, that is the world of everything that is capable of affecting the senses, exists as a collection of meaningless, directionless objects in a chaotic mix. It is the lawmaking and meaning-giving function of the understanding that gives meaning and direction to this chaotic mix. The understanding, by means of its capacity to synthesize, orders appearances under its own forms or categories such as reality, existence, substance, causality, as a result of which the appearances become phenomena. (Harrison-Barbet) This process of synthetic unity is not complete, however, until reason imposes its principles upon the rules of the understanding. According to Kant, without the use of reason, we would have no coherent use of the understanding and lacking that, no sufficient mark of empirical truth The Kantian epistemology outlined here in a brief form to demonstrate the centrality of reason in modern culture. In modern culture, thinking (rationality, reason) is inevitably wrapped up with being (reality). This is nowhere better expressed than in the Cartesian phrase cogito ergo sum. According to this enlightenment worldview, rational thinking or arriving at synthetic unity of the myriad sensible objects that confront us daily is a natural part of life of an enlightened being. In order to gain knowledge, we are inevitably bound to the process of categorization, classification and simplification of the world of sensible objects (Kant 1970). If one follows the logic of this enlightenment thinking, then homogenization becomes the inevitable end result of modern civilization. Rationalization as a cause of Homogenization Marx and Weber in their critique of capitalism provide some real world examples of this homogenizing tendency in modern culture. For Weber, capitalism emerged directly from the Protestant ethic which in turn is a product of a rational way of life which according to Lowith (1960) was the dominant totality of modern existence. This dominant totality creates in us a pathological need to simplify, categorize, predict, control, unify, expedite and manage efficiently, everything, to the extent that this pathology became for man an iron cage. The manifestation of this iron cage tendency is made clear by Webers writings on capitalism and bureaucracy. Weber agrees with Marx that the centering of the rational in the behavior of man leads to unexpected irrational outcomes. For example, although in the process of rationalization and simplification money as a facilitator of exchange emerged within the market system, it is this same money which in turn becomes the main hindrance in the exchange process. This inversion is revealed by the simple Marxian formula C-M-C and M-C-M whereby money, the means by which we facilitate exchange becomes an end in itself. In the same

way the bureaucracy, which is a rational administrative structure established as a means to efficient administration, becomes in the process a hindrance to efficient and effective administration by becoming too unwieldy and by engendering bureau-pathological tendencies in the bureaucrats. For both Marx and Weber, the carrier of this culture of rationality is the bourgeoisie. For Marx, the bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomerated population, centralized means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political centralization. Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments and systems of taxations ,became lumped together into one nation with one government, one code of laws, one national, class-interest, one frontier and one customs tarrif. (Marx qtd. In Tucker 1978) For both Marx and Weber, homogenization is an inevitable consequence of capitalism and the rational ethos. But while for Marx, the alienating aspect of this homogenization can be overcome by communism (homogenization without the alienation). Weber sees no way out of the iron cage of rationality. And it is based on his theories that we get the convergence thesis which posits that both capitalist and communist systems will inevitably submit to the logic of rationality and organizationally merged into an international bureaucracy. McDonaldization as a form of Homogenization Developing from Webers theory of rationality which lies at the very root of homogenization, the Sociologist George Ritzer brings a contemporary dimension to the manifestations and consequences of rational systems. While for Weber, the bureaucracy was the ideal model of a rational organization, for Ritzer the McDonalds fast food chain represents for us in the 21st century the ideal rational organization. The McDonalds food system has incorporated the principles of bureaucratic rationality in the production and sale of food. Those principles are efficiency, calculability, predictability and control through nonhuman rather human technology. Incorporating these principles leads to the productive efficiency and therefore the competitiveness of the food chain, which in turn resulted in the neutralization, through lack of competitiveness, of smaller food outlets and therefore a homogenization of the fast food experience. Such fast food services as McDonalds and KFC (all with similar mode of operation but different names and symbols) have become international fast food outlets. The successes attained by these fast food outlets propel the adoption of the methods they use by other sectors of society. For example, retail services in the form of the shopping malls, credit services in the form of multinational banks, politics in the form of globalization. Interestingly the homogenizing tendency of the international politics is referred to in sociology as McWorld, thereby associating the tendency in politics towards homogenization with the McDonald paradigm. For a somewhat extreme treatment of this phenomenon, I recommend Benjamin Barbers Jihad vs. McWorld. According to Barber, The Enlightenment dream of a universal rational society has to a remarkable degree been realized but in a form that is commercialized, homogenized, depoliticized, bureaucratized (qtd. in Readings for Sociology pg. 453). Homogenization as Ontic Closure There is no doubt that the interconnection of the world is creating in its realization a more homogenized culture. But in full agreement with Barber, I accept the view that along with this homogenizing tendency that results from western formal rationality there is also the tendency at fragmentation, a tendency referred to by Barber as The lebanonisation of the world. I would

endeavor to elucidate this tendency using what I referred to as Harrisian ontology. According to this ontology, being can be divided into three separate spheres of existence, namely the natural, psychological and social held together by a common primordial, pre-rational, transcendental void which operates with a different logic for from those of the three quantum spheres of existence listed above. The logic of these spheres, and now I limit myself to the social, is that of affirmation, projection, totalisation and homogenization while the logic of the transcendental void is a logic of negation and fragmentation. Therefore, to the same extent that there is a tendency towards homogenization, this homogenization cannot become too absolute because there is always a tendency towards differentiation and fragmentation. Harris would have said that Weber, with all his fascinating insight, is a victim of ontic tautology and lack access to the sociological imagination so passionately encouraged by Mills.

Works Cited Barber, Benjamin (2006). Jihad vs. McWorld. Readings in Sociology ed. By Garth Massey. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. Edwards, Duane (2012). Wilson Harris and Human Alienation. Caribbean Quilt. Ontario: CARSSU. Harrison-Barbet, Anthony. www.philosophos.com/philosophical_connections/profile_073.html Kant, Immanuel (1970). Immanuel Kants Critique of Pure Reason trans. By Narman Kemp. London: Macmillan and Co. Lowith, Karl (1982). Max Weber and Karl Marx. London: Allen and Unwin. Ritzer, George (2004). Sociological Theory. Boston: McGraw Hill. Tucker, Robert C. (1978). The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: Norton.