Jihad vs. McWorld: The new world disorder
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literature
book review
published 01/12/2008
review : Completed
level : General public
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Jihad vs. McWorld was written by Rutgers University Political Science professor Benjamin R. Barber. The author is widely regarded one of the nations foremost scholars on democracy. He has written Strong Democracy, in which he explains that economic liberalism is the basis for and cause of globalization. He uses this theory as a catalyst for his book Jihad vs. McWorld, expanding on this to examine the unique and often paradoxical relationship between parochial fundamentalism and secular consumerist capitalism. Barber sees these two adversary entities as proliferating from opposite ends of the spectrum; it is to say that Barber believes that they are operating at equal force and cultivating at equal velocity. This creates what Barber dubs The New World Disorder or the clash of Jihad and McWorld, as he defines them. The twin assault on democratic citizenship from the fractious forces of Jihad and the spreading markets of McWorld in effect cuts off the legs out from under democratic institutions.(Barber, 219) Here, Barber is not only saying that these two forces work against one another, but essentially that they create a world order where, even in McWorld, democracy is occluded.
Table of Contents
- Introduction.
- The birth of McWorld.
- The vertical integration of media.
- One of the more unique cases - China.
- What's so threatening about soft drinks and satellite dishes.
- The prognosis in Jihad versus McWorld.
- The most blatant opposition to the Jihad vs. McWorld theorum.
- Conclusion.
