Jihad vs McWorld

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Jihad vs McWorld
by Benjamin R. Barber

Book Review by Darold Morgan

Times Books, New York, 1995 o $25.00

To anyone concerned about the growing internationalization of business, communications, and politics, here is a volume of importance and balance. Additionally, the author colors the scene with the paradox coming from a worldwide religious and tribal fundamentalism which is examined alongside these global relationships. How this ultimately impacts democracy is the conclusion toward which the author moves with an analysis of significance and relevance.

This book logically unfolds with a new word for our times-McWorld! Coined from a blending of McDonalds, Macintosh, and MTV, it is an appropriate synonym for "pressing nations into one homogenous theme park, one McWorld tied together by communications, information, entertainment, and commerce." We may not like it, but it is an obvious reality. And the trend will only intensify, not diminish, the author argues.

Professor Barber`s section on the "New World of McWorld" is worth the price of the book. The changes in our world are breathtaking, and the perceptive observer of these times has no choice but to be aware of this. Television stations are now conglomerates which can bombard the entire globe with their message for good or ill. McDonalds restaurants are worldwide. Banks and investment houses, once centered in Wall Street, London, and Tokyo, now have branches everywhere. McWorld is here, and it is here to stay. Like it or not.

Alongside eye-popping and mind-boggling breakthroughs of science, industry, and entertainment is the "Old World of Jihad." Jihad is the highly publicized word from the Islamic culture depicting and encouraging holy war in the name of religion. The term is expanded by Barber from its Moslem roots to include "religion and tribal fundamentalism," which also is a worldwide phenomenon perhaps as important as the McWorld phenomenon. In fact (and this is where the book moves to one of its most important conclusions), the Jihad dynamic may derail the movements toward global democracy. McWorld is not synonymous with democracy. Jihad is profoundly disturbed by a capitalism which is sometimes destructive and often indifferent to traditional family values. McWorld is essentially amoral. Involved in Jihad are ardent ethnicity, fundamentalist religions, and exclusivist culture. Neither Jihad nor McWorld seems willing to exist with the other; but neither is able to be complete without the other. This book does not solve this great dilemma. A pungent quote the author uses notes this dichotomy: "An American mono-culture would inflict a sad future on the world, one in which the planet is converted to a global supermarket where people have to choose between the local Ayatollah and Coca-Cola" (p. 361).

The author never wavers from his conviction that democracy is humanity`s best hope for the world. His book is scholarly, well-written, and extremely well-researched. The appendix and notes at the end of the volume are quite valuable.

Barber dashes cold water on those who glibly speak of a worldwide democracy, particularly an interposed American version, pointing out the enormous problems this process faces in the Jihad mindset as it confronts an evolving McWorld. He makes a strong appeal to Americans to get their house in order, morally, racially, and economically. The people`s voice for reason and balance has been all but lost in the clamor of special interest groups.

His final chapter is a call for recapturing the basic tenets of the American experiment which could serve as a helpful foundation for a new world order in the international arena. The need for stable governments around the world is obvious. Is he campaigning for a controversial "one world" concept of government? There are a few of these gleams. Jihad is a problem which will not disappear. It is a strong, surging source of power and energy that somehow needs to be harnessed. How to get these two philosophies together, creatively and harmoniously, is the great challenge which the book is focused on.

Applications of this challenge are myriad. Think of such places as Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda-Burundi, Israel and the Palestinians, the new/old republics in the Soviet Union, Northern Ireland, and even locations in the United States, particularly where the religious right, as our very own Jihad, is pervasive and influential, and see Barber`s point that we are all, here and now, in McWorld.

Barber stresses important issues that cannot be ignored, and his provacative volume deserves a wide reading.