Globalization of need

As I sit here typing a blog post on my laptop in Nashville, TN and upload it to a blog that has been read in English by at least a few Russians (I kid you not), I feel safe in asserting that the modernization of the world is nearing completion. Granted, not every citizen of every country enjoys all the benefits and curses of technology, but the digital age has touched every country in some way. 750,000,000 people are on Facebook, more than 10% of all the people on Earth. However, as the world progresses on, are we modernizing or are we Americanizing? Saudi Arabia was once considered primitive and remote. They are modern now. Why? American/Western businesses and products are now seen there and so we say that they have “caught up to the rest of us”. Japan modernized when Commodore Perry established trade relations between them and the U.S. There are still strong cultural traditions around the world, but it cannot be denied that America has had an extreme impact on societies all around the world. What is it about America that gives us this influence? How many British fast food chains have you seen here?

                In 1943, Abraham Maslow proposed his theory of the hierarchy of needs. If you aren’t familiar with it, that’s ok. No one believes it anymore anyway. It essentially states that there are certain needs which must be met before higher ones can be pursued. For example, a person’s food supply must be secured before they can go about seeking self-worth. The specifics of the pyramid have been disproven (or so I have gathered), but the idea remains. I want to propose that civilizations have a similar hierarchy of needs that must be fulfilled before it can start to export culture. Civilizations are made of people with needs, so this is the study of those needs on a large scale.

                One need for a society is resources. If citizens cannot feed themselves, they are not likely to produce a product for other nations to consume. If all of their leisure time is spent foraging, they will have no time for creative output and their culture will not be very rich. Zambia does not have much food or water compared to China. Thus, although you check all your clothing tags and electronics, you will never find a “Made in Zambia”. Their citizens must be able to eat before they can produce. A second need is peace. Another problem plaguing African nations, such as Zambia, is warfare. Sudan in particular has been victim to a long history of genocide. Most national resources will go toward defense and the finer things in life will be neglected. So far, these correspond to the bottom two levels of the pyramid. The next level is love/belonging. This is analogous to the idea of community among citizens. Culture is a certain way of life for members of a defined people group. Traditions are what they do. If people have no sense of belonging to any group, there will be no culture and no traditions.

                The next level is esteem. I cannot find an analogy for this so I will substitute my own idea of worldview. The worldview of a society is vitally important to its productivity. This may be doubted by many, but the evidence is out there. The Chinese government has recently shown an interest in importing Christianity because they have seen that Christian countries are typically the most prosperous. This is a tricky definition, so I won’t conclude anything from it. Maybe we will have some new secular countries (such as America) that will come out and have strong economies, but the process of secularization is too recent to have an effect. Anyway, the Chinese officials contrasted it with Buddhism which they cited as not healthy for a country’s economy. It teaches contentment and renunciation of all desire, two things that don’t really jive with the capitalist mentality that built America. I’m not saying that Buddhism is bad to believe, but don’t expect mass comfort if no one desires to make it happen. The combined GDP of the entire Muslim world is less than that of Finland. You can make up your own mind whether that means anything.

                Once a society has met all these needs it is ready to realize the top level of the pyramid, self-actualization. This translates into cultural output. It can then have international trade, influence of the culture of another country, and a place in global affairs. America is one of the primary nations to have achieved this. 96% of Americans have said that they never go hungry. We have the lowest level of the pyramid. We have one of the largest militaries in the world. If you didn’t feel violated after going through a TSA checkpoint, you probably felt safe. We have the next level. I feel that there is a good sense of community among most Americans. Most of us sense that there are other Americans that are affected by our lives and that we must learn to work together. We have the third level. Also, America’s foundation in hard work and capitalistic growth has pushed us into prosperity. Since we have all four levels of the pyramid, we are ready to export our culture to the world. For better or for worse, from a cultural standpoint, the world is becoming New America.