Is Globalization The End-All to Cultural Authenticity?

Globalization

Globalization was once touted as the forefront of the future of world business and culture. The effects were to be widespread, promising a cultural and intellectual exchange that would enhance international relations and contribute to the dissemination of information, all while clearing up cultural misconceptions. In theory, this model sounds like the ideal of how the world should function and communicate, however what idealists failed to recognize were the implications of said movement. As our world becomes more unified, there is less room for individualism and differentiation. Those with substantial differences in culture from that of the ideal risk alienation if change doesn’t occur, causing a widespread epidemic of uniformity.

Drastic? Yes. However, the loss of culture evident not only in the aforementioned countries, but on a global scale, is reason enough for such alarm. As the world’s economic crisis gets further and further widespread, countries are feeling the pressure to conform to not only the economic regulations of the Western world, but at that cost? Those who do not speak English, or only speak one language are finding it increasingly difficult to find work. Immigrants who bring their children to places such as the United States soon find their children growing up as Americans, with little regard for their cultural history. Noticeable aftershocks of globalization became apparent during my Spring Break trip to Italy and Spain.

The first encounter that turned my attention to the impact of globalization was on my way to Rome, Italy from Florence during my spring break holiday. I sat myself down onto the train, preparing myself for a relaxing ride when somewhere to my right, the faint chatter of American English caught the attention of my all-too-willing ear. Feeling insatiably intrigued, I turned my head in an owl-like manner to overhear scuffling between a group of four partnered-up teenagers.

“No you idiot! It’s like this!”, said one of the boys, stealing the white Apple Macbook away from the other, as the two girls, clearly their significant others accompanying them, rolled their eyes. After looking at their minor bickering for a few minutes, I turned myself towards them and asked, “Where in the States are you from?” They looked at one another puzzled, and then one of the girls said, “We’re from Italy. I’ve never been to the United States and have barely even left Italy.” Feeling the utterly shocked expression on my face, I turned myself back into my seat, confused. Were they joking? But one look at their noticeably Mediterranean features, and I knew I had heard the truth.

As I sat befuddled by the occurrence, I slowly started noticing the vast amount of English spoken around me on the train by those who were clearly Italian, and it left puzzled as to why a country with such history and culture seemed suddenly so gentrified. Was it a means of survival in this ever-changing economic landscape? Or had the world really gotten as “flat” as everyone had said it would? Whatever the case, I was not disappointed with the answers I uncovered during my short stint in Western Europe.

I was determined to get an “authentic” experience, as pretentious and subjective as that may sound, so I decided that rather than stay at a hostel with fellow travelers, I would use the website couchsurfing.com to meet and stay with locals instead. Upon my arrival to Madrid, Spain, I stayed with a local fellow college junior named Jorge Alcalde, whom within a day or two of spending time showing me around the Madrid “scene”, vented his frustration with the people in his school’s undergraduate program.

“We have a group of students that are doing a student exchange program”, he told me in clearly frustrated Spanish. “Rather than trying to learn the Spanish language, or experience any sort of cultural immersion here, the girls, who are both from European countries, insist on only speaking in English to everyone.” Though this clearly upset Jorge, he wasn’t done just yet. “But the worst part,” he added, “is that everyone is totally fine with it and now everyone in the class, including the professor are only speaking in English.” He then proceeded to shout to the sky, “When did this become an English class? We’re in SPAIN!”

We laughed for quite some time, but after a tapas bar crawl later that night in the heart of “non-touristy Madrid”, I was assured, the level of English being spoken by fellow Spaniards was astounding. Though I used my ethnic ambiguity to my advantage, everyone spoke to me in Spanish while speaking to one another in a Spanglish that reminded me of my hometown of Miami, Florida. English menus were readily available everywhere, and I saw two friends, one clearly English, and the other a Spaniard, deep into conversation. Was the world really becoming as integrated as everyone said it was going to?

Upon arriving to Milan, Italy, I found nothing but the same kind of gentrified culture, though understandably moreso, as Milan is Italy’s industrial capital. When asking how to get anywhere, I had no issues whatsoever finding someone who spoke English. I admittedly got rather excited when I discovered my first non-English speaking Italian, which lead to a spontaneous awkward hug that baffled me moreso than it did him. Well, when in Italy, do as the Milanese do, right?

Moving on, upon arrival to my couchsuring host’s apartment, Maurizio made me lunch and during the course of our meal, I decided to ask him about why everyone I had met in Italy seemed to not have the same “Italian-ness” I had expected. He then mocked me a bit at first saying, “You know, these are real people who aren’t here just to entertain you like something out of a movie?”. “Touche Mr. Di Luccia”, I said back to him, feeling rather stupid for asking my question at that moment. He then laughed a bit, and then told me rather seriously, “Italians are at this moment not proud of being Italian. The reason they seem so gentrified is because they are trying to identify with something else other than Italian. They really admire the Americans for everything they’ve done for Italy, and that’s why you guys are almost idolized here.” I shook my head in understanding as he noted the abundance of Obama-related publications available in any given area.

Maurizio then went further to say that given the state of Italian politics, especially in regard to Silvio Berlusconi, who Maurizio said Italians view as an “embarrassment to the Italian people.” Berlusconi is the Italian Prime Minister who’s made such notable inappropriate comments about President Obama such as calling him “young, handsome, and tan”, though he is clearly African American, and also calling himself “paler” than the U.S. President. Maurizio then tells me about Berlusconi’s control of the media, involvement in a right-to-die case a la Terri Schiavo, and his conflict of interests in regard to the Italian People.

With a slightly better understanding of the current political state of Italy, I couldn’t help but feel how sad it was that I had no in-depth knowledge of the state of global affairs, more than what I read on CNN and the New York Times. Why was it that everyone I met from other places in the world knew so much more about the United States than I knew of their country? Even the lady selling chestnuts on the side street in Milan spoke 6 languages. Was I really that ego-centric of an American to think that the rest of the world was trying to conform to the standards of the world superpower? But, in reality, what does the United States need to conform to? Are we not the major proponents of this so-called “globalization”, though we feel no true sense of aftershock? Even in the global financial crisis, were we not the stem of the issue?

Walking through the security gates at Milan’s Malpensa Airport en route to Prague, one of the security officers grabs my passport for verification, and a huge grin sweeps his face. “He’s American!”, he shouts. Was this going to be a lengthy session of patronization? Instead, I was hailed as a modern-day hero, and asked many questions about life back in the U.S. and what I thought of Obama, though they made no effort to disguise their happiness. Walking to the gate, I realized that though I didn’t get a concrete answer to my criticism of globalization, I gained a better understanding of the world at large, and maybe that there is hope for Americans in the the context of the world sphere after all. I realized that just because we are at the helm of the globalization movement, it doesn’t mean that we can continue to stay ignorant of the world around us.

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