Combining Forces of Local Heterogeneity and Global Homogenization

Combining forces of Local Heterogeneity and Global Homogenization

When you type in globalization to a search engine like google, you receive over 93 million hits. But what truly is globalization? Although it can be defined in many different ways, globalization in its most simplest terms is just a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations driven by international trade and investment aided by information technology (Levin Institute, 2011). Through this essay, influences of globalization will be assessed as well as how they affect important events such as Christmas. But I’m sure when you ask many people today the first thing that pops into their head when the word Christmas is said is not the birth of Jesus Christ, but the word gifts. The identity of Christmas has challenged many countries views as to where the allegiance lies with their own culture and conformity of Westernization.

But before we discuss Christmas and its dramatic changes across the globe, we must first determine how Christmas connects to the idea of globalization. In Barber’s article, Jihad vs. McWorld, the idea of McWorld is essential to the reshaping of this important holiday. Jihad is illustrated as the planet being torn apart by race and ideology between each other. McWorld, on the other hand, can be described as economic and technological forces working together to create a world of mass media and culture through the advances in worldwide communications and trade. Solely, with these two words, a paradox is established with the world being torn apart but at the same time becoming unified. Between this relationship, the world is being torn in opposite directions, moving from a somewhat stable control in societies to pure anarchy. They, in essence, are both a threat to society because Jihad emphasizes the differences between countries but McWorld eliminates them. The problem