Why “NO Globalization” Part I: The Dangers of Standardization
By Zahi Sahli
Globalization was forever a dream of civilizations in order to spread the beliefs that serve the common good. In other words, the dream was to cross all borders with spiritual goodness, but globalization was manifested in material terms. The multiplication of goodness turned into a powerful and centralized control of minds. This control occurs through the tools of globalization such as the internet and the mass media. This control directs minds and causes everyone to think that there is only one right way to think of every aspect. Standardization causes the rise of standard culture and a common flow of ideas that are acceptable. Other thoughts, cultures and ways of life become rejected. The dangers of this phenomenon are beyond a limit and stretch to all fields of life. Today, there is standard beauty! Can we imagine a beautiful woman with features unseen in advertisements? No! Also, we accept not a beauty that reflects difference! We want common beauty; standardization has made of us creatures that long for bodily and style perfection! We demand perfection-is this realistic? Television series and sit-coms have made a certain school of thought propagate into the minds of people and made youngsters subject to constant control from what they see as the method of approach to life. The brilliant ideas, once held, by “different” (or special) people are now rejected, since there is a standard to thoughts and the way of life. We are thus left to wonder: is globalization truly a blessing? Is this the type of globalization we want? Why are Arabs speaking foreign languages on Arab lands and taking foreign ideas and making them their own? Can’t every man have his own ideas and views in life without being looked at as against “the flow”? Why are we as weak as slaves and have to “go with the flow”? Let standardization out of your lives! Be not a slave for those thoughts that are not your own! Wander freely and find your true self and true thoughts for everyone of us is a free person with his or her own thoughts! Now, let those thoughts out, freely! Break the bars of imprisonment and clichés and leave to a free sanctuary of your own where you can be yourself and not another, standard person!
