Cosmopolitanism: Cultures

The essay “Making Conversation” by Kwame Antony Appiah is a reflection on the term “cosmopolitanism” and the steps people in any nation have to take in order to achieve “cosmopolitanism” and “globalization”. He brings up the point of how all cultures have their similarities and differences and in most cases these differences are so different that it makes these cultures hard to connect with one another. He believes that conversation is the first and most important step to the understanding of others. Appiah explains how all cultures have standards that they believe to be the norm and how some cultures with also find these customs acceptable while others will find them repulsive. Due to the nature of all human beings, people tend to only think of themselves as having the correct views on the world and are less accepting of the beliefs of others. I wholeheartedly agree with Appiah as he says how small agreements essential to eventually having two cultures that work in harmony for long periods of time. Over time, this will eventually open up people’s minds to other cultures, customs and beliefs. Citizens of each culture will then learn to accept the beliefs of others and by “changing our minds” we will slowly move towards becoming more cosmopolitan and globalized. But only when all citizens of a nation become completely accepting of everyone’s beliefs without necessarily agreeing with them at all will the nation and culture fit the definition of cosmopolitan and become completely globalized. Only the nations that will strive to accept other cultures will become globalized. These countries will then become an asset to communications between all other countries on this Earth and become a successful and thriving