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Compare And Contrast Jihad Vs Mcworld

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Compare And Contrast Jihad Vs Mcworld
Jihad Vs. Mcworld (1995)
Benjamin R. Barber

Jihad Vs. Mcworld is a book written by Benjamin Barber, the director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University. Jihad Vs. Mcworld is a satirical look at two opposing forces in today’s world. On one side we have the ever-growing Mcworld (globalization/capitalism) and on the other we have the slowly disintegrating Jihad (tribalism/disintegration). The author presents an paradoxical thesis; Benjamin stands to say that the world that we once knew is slowly, painfully being torn apart yet at the same time coming together in an economic and capitalist fuelled embrace. The thesis seems quite interesting; the book was not.

According to the author there …show more content…
However that is not the case. The author more or less sits on the fence for the most part and rants about the negative effects of Americanism and how it erodes our boundaries from each other, on an international scale, he calls it a “powerful threat to humanity”. He often restates this during the book in different statistics and stories. After reading the book, there was a sense that the author was afraid of a hegemonic monoculture. It almost felt as if the author found a certain need for ethnic strife and nationalism. Unfortunately if he was trying to get at something he never really succeeds in making his point very concrete. He never takes sides except in constantly reminding the reader about how evil America and globalization …show more content…
The book was much too alarmist. It made the reader feel like if something isn’t done about these problems and if Mcworld doesn’t stop it’s growth then it game over for everyone. Obviously since the book was written in 1995 the stats are somewhat dated but still, It’s not like what the author has to present is anything new. We realize that Mcworld is going to keep on growing and tribalism will always have a violent tendency. It’s the way things are, it’s the way they always have been and it’s the way it always will be. Human nature will not allow east and west to ever become one without some sort of imperialism or takeover by one or the other. World peace and unity is an impossibility, not due to economic markets or ethnic strife or any of that, it’s because it’s human nature. There’s no winning. Get over
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