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TOPIC: How and in what way(s) does the expression “global village” capture such concepts as globalization, cultural imperialism and language imperialism?
Fatih Sinan Esen
“The Global Village”
The Global Village
A couple of days ago, as I was walking in library, a word came to my mind: “interest”. I thought about the word and its meaning. After that, I went and looked it up in the dictionary. I saw that there are three different meanings for one word, “interest”. The first meaning was “ilgi” (or “alaka”) which means “special attention” in English. The second was “merak” which means “curiosity” in English. And the third meaning was the shocking one: “çıkar” (or “menfaat”) which means “regard to personal profit or advantage” (Webster’s Dictionary, Ottenheimer Publishes Inc., 1977, USA). I, then, realized that my country’s national language is richer than “international language” (English). What is more, I started to think that why two different meanings (“special attention” and “personal profit, advantage”) were expressed with one word, “interest”. What is the relation between these two meanings for native speakers of English, Americans and British? Is “Special attention” equal to “personal profit, advantage”? The answer is “yes” for American and British imperialists. This is a linguistic way of showing imperialism.
In our world, from economy to culture, food to entertainment, technology to language, there are common concepts, behaviors, possessions and utilities, that everybody knows them, uses them and follows them. This is a result of the informatics technology, the reduction of the importance of boundaries between countries and the fast circulation of these economic and social media, products and “band wagons” (common behaviors and popular styles). Processes such as informatics technologies, frontier-crosser audio-visual broadcasts, population mobility (tourism), commercial production and rivalry (not on the scale of one country but all around world), manifestation of the world as one market, are both results and reasons. By looking through this vision, the circumstances, which occur on the scale of the whole world, are called “globalization”. Globalization is an action and a process. It is inevitable. In the figurative sense, the world can be considered as a “global
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village” (The expression “global village” was first used by Dr. Herbert Marshall McLuhan in 1989 – in the book: “The Global Village, Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century”). Ayesha Chaudhry says
“The development of mass communication technologies in recent decades has lead to rapid exchange of ideas and information throughout the world, turning the world into a global village – a term made popular by Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan. Simultaneously, international economy is fast turning into global capitalism, being supported by the relaxation of regulations established by most countries to control trade, investment, and financial transactions, as well as by a powerful trend towards privatization.” (Course Book, The New Face of Imperialism, 1988, p144)
It seems like, economy and informatics technologies are the most important reasons and media for globalization. The most important result is that, the languages and the cultures of the masters of this global village are becoming widespread all around world, naturally, on a global scale. Some clear evidences (to proof this argument) can be given. For example, American fast-food culture is becoming widespread in the world. Moreover, nearly all youngsters listen to Michael Jackson.
“…human beings tend, in whatever part of the world they may live, to watch the same television programs, see the same movies, listen to the same music, and read the same, or indistinguishable, newspapers and magazines.” (Martin, Robert, 1995, p122).
Another example can be the dominance of English language all around the world instead of being used in USA or Britain. Marshall McLuhan describes this with another example in his book. He claims that, western countries resemble the left side of the human brain, which controls logic and mathematical mind and is for quantitative analyses. Furthermore, he claims that third world countries resemble the right side of the brain, which is receptive, spiritual and for “simultaneous comprehension”. (The Global Village, p50-55)
English is used primarily in informatics technology and other technologies, in business sector, in all international relations and in financial markets, which “the sun never
3“The Global Village”
goes down” on them (means that, when - for example- Paris Stock Exchange is closed, Dow Jones is opened in New York. When it is closed, Chicago Stock Exchange is opened. Therefore, a global chain occurs and universal money circulation never ends). Using English means carrying the properties of cultures of such societies, which are the sources of this language, develops this language and uses this language, to our culture and society; because the language cannot be considered apart from culture. At the same time, the language is an expression of and medium for feelings, ideas and social values. It cannot be considered apart from the nations that form it. Therefore, language is the primary factor, which makes its nation’s culture become widespread; it is a medium, a major medium. "Today we are beginning to notice that the new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression." (“Essential McLuhan”, Marshall McLuhan, 1957, p272)
With all these reasons, in global village, one of the important properties of globalization is that global language forms global culture. But, naturally, this culture would be the culture of nations, which are the engines and leaders of this global language. By the way, the aim may not be setting imperialism on language and culture. This may appear as a secondary result, after the result of techno-economics and informatics. However, the major result does not change. On the contrary, this condition strengthens globalization and engenders the owners of the only language to be masters. On this account, globalization forms a natural result that causes a sovereignty of language and culture. Therefore, according to the aim of the masters of this global village, this common language and culture can become an imperialism of the dominant, the master. Even, there are not any reasons and obstacles to obstruct this occurrence.
On the other hand, the most worrying loss is the loss of cultural richness and heritage, which can be considered as the most important richness or the most important
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source of pleasure. Thus, the life becomes monotonous and mechanical, loses its colors like distinct languages and cultures. Finally, life loses its livability. This reduces the amount of people’s “life energy” or burns it out completely. As a result, this process will make humankind’s history to be faced with a crisis. It can also form such societies, which are formed by alienated people to their culture. What’s more, it can spread brutality, irregularity and anarchy to those cultures. As we look to humankind’s history carefully, we can see Frederich Nietzsche’s thesis (“In humankind history, the main dynamic, that makes the developments and the leaps, is the life energy.”) gets stronger. Hollywood uses this theme that is about the lives which are consisted of barbaric lifestyles and cyber technology, together, with a mixture of nuclear war phobia and abnormal life (some films such as Planet Of The Apes, MadMax, Robocop, Terminator, etc. are a result of this theme). It is possible to see that the “capital” will be the only source and power supply for sovereignty by looking all these films. It is also possible to see the point that this process reaches, in the global village’s culture. These are not kindly points, stops or results.
In this regard, the elements of globalization like culture and language should be blocked while damaging distinct languages, cultural colors and morale values. Because these are the major values which makes life livable for people. The nations or the whole world, if they lose humanity values, will become a barbarian village that was in ancient ages. Therefore, the common cultural heritages of humanity should be protected and “capital”’s destructive force should be stopped. Robert K. Rauth, Jr gives an example to the expression capital: “McDonald's highest sales per store have been recorded in Taiwan while Kentucky Fried Chicken's most successful franchise is found in Malaysia.” (Robert K. Rauth, Jr, The Myth of Cultural Imperialism, 1988)
References:
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Chaudhry, Ayesha; Bilkent ENG101 Course Book “One World, One Culture?”, The New Face of Imperialism, 1988, p144)
Kongar, Emre, an article about globalization: “Küreselleşme ve Kültürel Farklılıklar Çerçevesinde Ulusal Kültür” (National Culture by means of Globalisation and Cultural Differences), personal web page adress: http://www.kongar.org/makaleler/mak_ku.php , 16 May 1997. Retrieved: 04.05.2003
McLuhan, Marshall, "Essential McLuhan”, edited by Eric McLuhan & Frank Zingrone Routledge, USA, 1997, ISBN 0-415-16245-9
McLuhan, Marshall; Powers, Bruce R. , “The Global Village – Transformations in world life and media in the 21st century”, Oxford University Press, 1986, New York, ISBN 0-19-507910-8 (PBK.)
McLuhan, Marshall, “The Medium is The Message”, Gingko Press Inc, June 2001, ISBN: 1-58-423070-3
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Robert K. Rauth, Jr. Bilkent ENG101 Course Book “One World, One Culture?”,”The Myth of Cultural Imperialism”, 1988, p43
Robert, Martin. “Broadcasting and the Struggle for Cultural Autonomy in Canada” in Hopeton S. Dunn., ed., Globalization, Communications, and Caribbean Identity, New York, St.Martin Press, 1995, p122
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