Survival of Character and Communities in Globalization - Essay Example

? Can Character and Communities Survive in the Age of Globalization? To determine the survival of character and communities in today’s modern competitive and technological world, first we need to know what actually we mean by globalization and what is meant by the character and communities and their relationship with the idea of globalization. Globalization refers to the convergence of global markets and global competitiveness among the firms resulting from the new inventions, innovative production designs and communication and information technology that has created a world of greater transportability, faster communication and vanishing borders across the nations. This has made a world a “global village” where we interact with peoples of different cultures, use their products and services, and also sell them ours. All these have a significant influence on our lives as is discussed in the later part of the essay. Online Oxford Dictionary defines character as “the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Whereas community means “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common”. While nations on the whole seem to be benefited from the advantages of globalization which includes economic development, cheap availability of goods and their consumption, high mobility of goods, capital and plentiful labor; the communities within the economy are in fact negatively influenced by the increased globalization. The aforesaid advantages are often associated with globalization but its potential weaknesses are never discussed in great detail, and that is a growing concern these days. To show the connection or the relationship between globalization and character/communities let us consider the example of Pak Mun Dam in Thailand. It was constructed with the support of World Bank in 1994 on two rivers flowing in Thailand. Initially the dam was built to meet the power requirements of the country and for the welfare of the people, but it resulted in severe damages to the groups and communities living there. As soon as the dam was built, around 117 square kilometers of land was flooded which caused around 3000 families to move from their living place, fisheries of the Mun River were also adversely affected. Around 25,000 villagers claimed to have been affected by the construction of dam and many protests were also staged, but inadequate compensation was paid to them in return of all they lost. The dam also failed to produce the projected power output and therefore the entire project was unsuccessful. So this was just one of the many examples where economic prosperity and development was exchanged for dislocated people and destroyed communities. Communities play a vital role in any society. Through small groups and communities people find ways to interact with each other, to learn about themselves. Besides, every group or community has its boundaries and its very own identity and culture which gives the people living within it a good sense of belonging and fulfills their social needs as well. At the core of these communities lie the families. The people belonging to different families and the relationships existing among them give any community its true meaning and reason for its existence. Through families people participate in different social activities organized through the community. Hence the family-community exchange is very crucial for the survival of both communities and the character. Communities provide the families with culture, facilities, values and protect it from the measures that could otherwise jeopardize the satisfaction of wants. And families, then again, protect these cultural values and norms through its social activities and passing these values from one generation to the other (Robertson). With the advent of globalization, the world today exhibits the nature of a global village with everything global, new, different, faster and turbulent. Globalization results in economic development and launching of new products and services that are economically viable and fit for sale in the global marketplace. Thus the economic growth in turn results in increased wealth and opportunities for everyone. As a result, people seek to take advantage of new and better opportunities for themselves, which in turn requires relocation of families. People seek to earn more for their families as their consumption needs are increased and can be easily met by working more and giving less time to social functions through the families and community. This led to the decline of the communities as evident from dislocating people, disappearing neighbors and families that may not see each other for weeks as they are busy working in their workplaces far away from their home. The age of globalization thus poses a serious threat to the firmness and survival of communities. But what could globalization have to do with character? As discussed earlier, globalization results in safeguard of national interests through trade opportunities and high mobility of goods, labor and capital. But these interests often conflict with those of the individual communities within the nation. Meaning the national income may as a whole increase and the economy may seem to be prospering, but the individual communities and their interests are sacrificed at its expense. Since the protective national borders no longer exist to hinder the steady flow of economic resources across the nations, the propensity to outsource all available resources including labor has drastically increased among the nations that are in favor of globalization. This eventually results in availability of cheap labor but at the expense of vanishing domestic jobs. From late 80s until 1914, at the time of European imperialism, capital was transported in bulk quantities from America and Europe to developing countries with plentiful natural resources, but the cheap labor was never outsourced. Like this, the developed nations were paying for the capital and goods for the developing nations, but the jobs were reserved for the inland workers. Hence the communities’ interests were not sacrificed in the name of national interest. Moreover, the free trade also requires countries to practice various protection policies such as protective tariffs that affect the domestic growth and stifle economic progress. It could be said that in the age of globalization there is abundant supply of variety of goods and services and everything has its price, a person can have what he wants only if he has the money to spend. This has made man a status seeker and he has involved himself in attaining material things such as houses, cars, apparel etc. Moreover, when everything has a price, people respond to these price signals instead of traditional family and community bonds. All this has severely impaired our perception of character and its survival in today’s world. Advocates of globalization often try to weasel national interests with the welfare of people & individual communities by arguing that the economic growth and efficiency due to globalization results in greater national wealth which means that more money could be spend on the society in the form of charities, funds, maintaining good environment and facilitating bonds of communities. This is only possible with the proper forming and implementation of relevant government policies which often change with every other election. Hence, despite several efforts long term peace and prosperity cannot be assured. In order to take any remedial measures for the survival of community and character, it’s very important to recognize the importance of family in society. A family performs four major roles in a society. These includes: social functions, reproduction, emotional support and economic functions. The first and the function with foremost importance is that the family builds the personal character of each of its members by contributing moral and social values in children who grow up to be a part of community. An individual is then expected to pursue and integrate within his personality a set of ideals and personality traits that he adopts from the community he belongs to. Another important function the family plays is the continuity of life through procreation. A family, besides building character, also provides invaluable emotional support to its members at the time of depression and loneliness. No other institution in a community can perform such roles. And finally a family performs economic functions by engaging itself in productive activities and consuming food, clothing, shelter and various necessities of life. The family is thus a major and most important unit of any society and the survival of community and character thus depends on its welfare and well-being (Lechner). As discussed earlier the globalization and the capitalist economy provide numerous opportunities to people who own money and certain distinctions among other people. But the overall upbeat of the people and communities has largely suffered due to dislocated communities, increasing pollution due to industrialization, and it may also destroy non-renewable resources. Tremendous growth in social and technical changes naturally brings a change in the lifestyle of people. As we get entangled in the racket of ever-increasing rush, hurriedness against being late, crowdedness born out of urbanization; the well-being of people has significantly suffered and potential for the extermination of communities and character has increased accordingly (Tomlinson). Here, I would like to draw attention toward the Buddhist perspective, which emphasizes on the ethical way of living with no lying, stealing, killing, consumption of alcohol and sexual misconduct. All our acts should maximize the positive and pleasant effects on the human beings. This may also help slow down the workings of market economy and moving towards a more reasonable and beneficial economy with social welfare given the most importance ("Buddhist Studies"). Given the potential influences modern industrialized societies may have on their inhabitants and keeping in mind the contribution of depression and stress factors, it would be worthwhile for people to consider quitting their current lifestyle characterized by crowdedness, hurriedness and stress for a more peaceful and sustainable lifestyle. We should, at least, consider the reality of the fact whether it is possible for us to continue the same modernized lifestyle and at the same time ensure our fundamental needs and growing desires are sustainable in the long run? To conclude, today is the time when the moral and social values are being lost and communities are being transformed into one global village. However a good family can still prevent its values and cultural norms from being lost by closing out the community and limiting the interchanges it makes with the outside world to only those that are beneficial. Like this we can maintain our integrity and character in an unfavorable community setting. Our society today consists of people who fear the loss of community and its social functions due to globalization as well as those who think how traditional societies were small in scope and options. We therefore live in a world of an unending dilemma. Perhaps, both societies, traditional and modern, have their own issues and rewards, and it’s possible to learn and accentuate the positive impacts both can have on our modern society as well as minimizing the drawbacks associated with both societies. So it is advisable to bring traditionalists, such as Buddhists, in conversation with those advocating the modern society to discuss the best possible solution to the stated problem. Works Cited "Buddhist Ethics." Buddhist Studies. BuddhaNet, n.d. Web. 14 May 2012. . Lechner, F. J. Globalization: The Making of World Society. 1st. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 14 May 2012. . Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 14 May 2012. . Robertson, R. Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. 1st. Sage Publications Ltd, 1992. Tomlinson, J. Globalization and Cultural Identity. eBook. . Accessed May 14, 2012. Read More