[lbo-talk] Baudrillard: The Violence Of The Global

[Dwayne Monroe]

Today's terrorism is not the product of a traditional
history of anarchism, nihilism, or fanaticism. It is
instead the contemporary partner of globalization. To
identify its main features, it is necessary to perform
a brief genealogy of globalization, particularly of
its relationship to the singular and the universal. 

The analogy between the terms "global" and "universal"
is misleading. Universalization has to do with human
rights, liberty, culture, and democracy. 

By contrast, globalization is about technology, the
market, tourism, and information. Globalization
appears to be irreversible whereas universalization is
likely to be on its way out. At least, it appears to
be retreating as a value system which developed in the
context of Western modernity and was unmatched by any
other culture. Any culture that becomes universal
loses its singularity and dies. 

That's what happened to all those cultures we
destroyed by forcefully assimilating them. But it is
also true of our own culture, despite its claim of
being universally valid. The only difference is that
other cultures died because of their singularity,
which is a beautiful death. We are dying because we
are losing our own singularity and exterminating all
our values. And this is a much more ugly death.
[......]

more at http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=385

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