Erika Beedle Relfection #3

Erika Beedle

Comm 211

Reflection Paper #3

February 2, 2015

            Every week in intercultural communications I am introduced to new dialectics, tensions between groups, people, countries, etc.  This week in the reading and class discussion I learned about the Jihad verse McWorld tension.  Benjamin Barber defines the term Jihad as any person “against every kind of interdependence, every kind of artificial social cooperation and mutuality: against technology, against pop culture, against integrated markets, against modernity itself as well as the future in which modernity issues.”  McWorld is explained as a “homogenous global theme park tied together by communications, information, entertainment, and commerce.”  So the question is, how can people with such different views live together peacefully?

            The sad, but truthful answer is that the Jihad and McWorld living together peacefully has not been achieved yet, and I don’t know if it ever will.  The main reason this will not be achieved is because of extremists who are not willing to compromise.  In a video we watched in class a man claimed that he is a supporter of globalization until it starts to take away from his identity, then he think it has gone too far.  When is too far? How can globalization be carried out successfully without corrupting people’s identity and culture?  The Jihad believes that the McWorld is harmful and corruptive, and the McWorld believes the same thing about the Jihad.  This is a very common theme we seen in international problems, each group is oblivious to what the others are trying to accomplish, and are under the impression they are all harmful.  It is vey hard for me to think about talk about dilemmas that may never be solved.  I hope someday the Jihad and McWorld will be able to understand each other and live peacefully, but until then I will encourage others to be aware of these problems, and encourage them to try to understand people views even if they are contradicting to your own.