Nowadays, the world becomes smaller and smaller. There are no undiscovered places anymore, and modern maps are very precise and accurate. Moreover, the journey from one end of the world to another, which used to be a great challenge to any traveler and might last several months, today will take several hours. There are no geographic boundaries that could limit our movement anymore. The appearance of new means of transport preconditioned significant shifts in people’s mentality, which became globalized. People start to use different categories when making decisions. With this in mind, we could assume that globalization became one of the main features of the modern world that impact its evolution greatly.
Besides, there are numerous perspectives on the given phenomenon. On the one hand, the disappearance of borders results in improved cooperation between people from different countries and contributes to the creation of a new united global community that is expected to be deprived of any conflicts based on cultural or racial issues. On the other hand, the grounds for the clash of cultures might appear. Different cultures move closer to each other and might trigger different processes. For instance, one could swallow up another by dictating its rules and fastening its unique perspectives (“A clash of civilizations?,”n.d.). For this reason, many people are still afraid of globalization because of its negative impact on peoples mentality and the increased importance of the idea of “the other.” People have always been afraid of things not peculiar to them. Besides, in the globalized world, they face new phenomena more often, which might be stressful for reserved communities.
Therefore, the opponents of globalization often underline its great negative impact on peoples identity. The fact is that there has always been some dominating culture that at the moment is stronger than others. It impacts all people in the area by making them alter their perspectives, points of view, and mentalities (Kaul, 2012). In the modern globalized society, these processes become even more powerful. At the moment, we could observe the overwhelming impact of the Western culture that is very often copied by the bearers of different cultures all over the world (IKON, 2010). It has a pernicious impact on peoples identity as they forget the unique features of their mother culture and join a new globalized entity characterized by similar worldviews.
Finally, globalization might also precondition the appearance of numerous global problems. For instance, South Africa is known to be one of the poorest regions in the world. This problem is one of the major global concerns that is given great attention. However, if to look at it from another perspective, we could understand that globalization became one of the main reasons for the deterioration of living conditions here. Besides, Africa was the main raw-material base for colonial Europe. Moreover, it was also the region that supplied other states with slaves. It is obvious that these processes were triggered by Europeans who discovered the land and arrived here. In other words, the first attempts of globalization resulted in the disappearance of natural borders and significant deterioration of living conditions in Africa. It was not able to evolve in its own way as the Western culture became dominant in the region and preconditioned the appearance of numerous problems in the future.
Altogether, the tendency towards globalization could be considered contradictory as it introduces both positive and negative trends that impact the modern world.
References
A clash of civilizations? (n.d.). Web.
IKON. (2010). Globalisation. What is happening to us? [Video file]. Web.
Kaul, V. (2012). Globalisation and crisis of cultural identity. Journal of Research in International Business and Management, 2(13), 341-349. Web.