A lot of people say that globalisation is good and it has and will continue to provide opportunities and jobs for much of the world’s populace. This is true, and there is no doubt that globalisation has brought about positive changes to the world, but I have a problem with one of globalisation’s uglier properties, and that is the exportation of programs and websites that encourage the belief that it is okay to be stupid or intellectually bankrupt.
Programmes that come with a “reality television” tag are probably some of the worst in the universe; they are some of America and Europe’s ugliest exports. They encourage unbridled greed, unashamed lying and deceit and worst of all, they create the erroneous impression that morality and ethics are things that can be subverted and ignored in pursuit of money.
Last year I watched with considerable displeasure as a certain social website came into being. This site encourages participants to tell harrowing details of their lives in a few hundred words and caps the end of the tale with words that make it seem like these people’s lives are worse off than others. This site is but one example of the gross and disgusting depths to which the world has sunk as a result of culture being subjugated by the spread of social values that are of Western heritage.
Whilst Pakistan faces insurgent attacks, women and children die in Somalia and face constant threat of violence, Barack Obama undeservedly wins a Nobel Peace Prize, and war ravages Iraq and Afghanistan, some people are watching “reality TV” and typing up their life stories for internet consumption. There is no doubt that the privileged among us sometimes feel cold and uncaring to the problems of the rest of the world and sometimes of our fellow countrymen, but how can one logically justify this sort of pursuit of triviality?
No one can claim to be perfect and as such I am nowhere near that, but the times of interconnectedness we live in demand that we, at the very least, take note of the suffering of our fellows and do something to improve the life of others.
There was a time when reading a book was better than watching TV, and when conversations were conducted face to face. The spread of globalisation has promulgated a shift away from physical social interaction and away from being well-read and well-spoken. It is a social sin nowadays to speak of Ancient Greek tragedies, recite poetry or quote text from Shakespeare or any other eminent writers outside of a classroom.
So, it seems to me that although there a lot of positives to be drawn from globalisation, some of which I have benefited from and will in future benefit from, there are also some negatives. To quote the book of Isaiah, society needs people who are “strong and of good courage,” people who are willing to change the status quo and refute the intellectually bankrupt values that globalisation seems to have brought into the social realm. High minded debates are taboo in a society that now promotes fashion labels, Hollywood celebrities and profligate drinking and sex.
The responsibility to change the downward cultural trend that globalisation has imposed on us, lies with the educated among us, for if the educated people don’t take up the cause, then nobody will. For as John Kennedy once said, “…the educated citizen has a special obligation to encourage the pursuit of learning, to promote exploration of the unknown, to preserve the freedom of inquiry, to support the advancement of research…”
Indifference and lack of interest in the problems of our time is no solution to the problem, and is unjustifiable in the face of what is effectively the gradual erosion of our moral conscience. Jack Kerouac once wrote, “If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.”
Written by Tatenda Goredema.
Tatenda Goredema is the Deputy-Editor of VARSITY Newspaper.
Programmes that come with a “reality television” tag are probably some of the worst in the universe; they are some of America and Europe’s ugliest exports. They encourage unbridled greed, unashamed lying and deceit and worst of all, they create the erroneous impression that morality and ethics are things that can be subverted and ignored in pursuit of money.
Last year I watched with considerable displeasure as a certain social website came into being. This site encourages participants to tell harrowing details of their lives in a few hundred words and caps the end of the tale with words that make it seem like these people’s lives are worse off than others. This site is but one example of the gross and disgusting depths to which the world has sunk as a result of culture being subjugated by the spread of social values that are of Western heritage.
Whilst Pakistan faces insurgent attacks, women and children die in Somalia and face constant threat of violence, Barack Obama undeservedly wins a Nobel Peace Prize, and war ravages Iraq and Afghanistan, some people are watching “reality TV” and typing up their life stories for internet consumption. There is no doubt that the privileged among us sometimes feel cold and uncaring to the problems of the rest of the world and sometimes of our fellow countrymen, but how can one logically justify this sort of pursuit of triviality?
No one can claim to be perfect and as such I am nowhere near that, but the times of interconnectedness we live in demand that we, at the very least, take note of the suffering of our fellows and do something to improve the life of others.
There was a time when reading a book was better than watching TV, and when conversations were conducted face to face. The spread of globalisation has promulgated a shift away from physical social interaction and away from being well-read and well-spoken. It is a social sin nowadays to speak of Ancient Greek tragedies, recite poetry or quote text from Shakespeare or any other eminent writers outside of a classroom.
So, it seems to me that although there a lot of positives to be drawn from globalisation, some of which I have benefited from and will in future benefit from, there are also some negatives. To quote the book of Isaiah, society needs people who are “strong and of good courage,” people who are willing to change the status quo and refute the intellectually bankrupt values that globalisation seems to have brought into the social realm. High minded debates are taboo in a society that now promotes fashion labels, Hollywood celebrities and profligate drinking and sex.
The responsibility to change the downward cultural trend that globalisation has imposed on us, lies with the educated among us, for if the educated people don’t take up the cause, then nobody will. For as John Kennedy once said, “…the educated citizen has a special obligation to encourage the pursuit of learning, to promote exploration of the unknown, to preserve the freedom of inquiry, to support the advancement of research…”
Indifference and lack of interest in the problems of our time is no solution to the problem, and is unjustifiable in the face of what is effectively the gradual erosion of our moral conscience. Jack Kerouac once wrote, “If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.”
Written by Tatenda Goredema.
Tatenda Goredema is the Deputy-Editor of VARSITY Newspaper.
Posts
Go globo...
ReplyDelete