Are we creating a mono-culture?

[The2ndWheel]

Today, tomorrow, 100 years from now. Will there only be one language spoken? Will there only be one way of doing things? One way of thought? Is that how we get rid of war? Is it a good thing? Is it the most efficient way of doing business?

Just watching 30 Days last night, and every time I see a story on how Indians have to take classes to be Americanized, and choose an American name to get a job, the question always pops into my head.

[porphyrian]

1. Not unless the universal trend towards entropy can be reversed.

Just sayin'.

[The2ndWheel]

4. But we do everything we can in an attempt to reverse it

and guessing will continue doing that until we run out of the energy needed to sustain it. Not just black gold, but also nuclear.

[porphyrian]

8. Oh, I don't deny that we'll continue, as humans, trying to impose order...

I'm just saying that any attempt to make those changes permanent will ultimately fail unless the nature of the universe itself can be changed.

[Warpy]

9. Ah, ENTROPY

The misfit's best friend.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. Entropy only applies to the physical, non-living world.

Life tends to organize and grow more complex. We have evolved from the simplest single-celled organisms to extremely complicated lifeforms. All the while, intelligence has progressed from the non-intelligent, to the proto-reptiles, to the dinosaurs, to the mammals, to the most intelligent life forms on earth -- whales. Dolphins and men running a close second. Life is the opposite of the inert, on which entropy plays, and it flows in the opposite direction.

[porphyrian]

15. I disagree with "Entropy only applies to the physical, non-living world."

Haven't you ever played the telephone game? Or heard the same story told over time? Ideas aren't physical. And how do you account for mutation in lifeforms? Do you want to rethink that statement or just re-word it?

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Entropy does not equal mutation.

Entropy (as i undersatnd it) is the gradual process of reduction, from more complex to simpler forms. Mutation, as the driving force of evolution, tends to create more complex, more successful lifeforms. The telephone game is not an example of entropy, but of evolution.

Caveat: I am not a scientist and may have a mistaken impression of what entropy is -- if so, I have just revealed my ignorance. If so, no harm, no foul.

[porphyrian]

17. Entropy can be defined as follows:

1. Symbol S For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work.
2. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.
3. A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message.
4. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.
5. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

You were speaking only to the fifth definition, I believe, and I tend to think along the line of the second. As you said, no harm, no foul.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. it is a sin

the way the US government has tried to distroy Indian cultures . Who in the world would want EVERYONE to be the same?

[Donnachaidh]

6. the brits did it to the Scots, etc....

whoever is holding the bigger stick will try to enforce it's will on the little guy. This has happened throughout human history

[Kali]

10. big stick, shiny religion, walmart; whatever works,

as long as the dominant in the dominant culture profit from it.

[The2ndWheel]

7. Every empire in our history

They succeed each time, until they collapse. Then the next empire is bigger, and succeeds again, until it collapses.

[sweetheart]

3. culture?

The culture is consumption, and all we have in common standing in queues at the supermarket.

[Igel]

5. No, there'll still be a lot of languages spoken,

and various cultures.

Some cultures, I would hope, will die a merciful death, just as the culture of 14th century Europe is dead.

As for languages, which one you speak is mostly a matter of convenience and desire, with languages always dying or being absorbed by others that are spreading--it's happened in E. Asia, Africa, N. American, Europe, the Middle East/N. Africa (twice) Central Asia, and S. Aisa. Even as English spreads, it serves to support numerous cultures: culture-specific realia and concepts find modes of expression in English.

I think the rule of thumb is any language with fewer than 3 million speakers will likely bite the dust in the coming century and not survive as "real" languages--they'll be "boutique languages", languages that people speak at home or among their peer group to show allegiance to some culture or tradition, whatever language they use for government, trade, and education. Make allowance for small countries, but only some, they're still threatened in the intermediate term. Those languages with 50 million or more native speakers are most likely to be long-term survivors. But don't quote me on the numbers, it's been a while since I looked them up.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. No. I do, however, forsee that our country will be disunited.

We have far too many people in the Republican party who like the chaos, and you won't be able to stop them. You might as well make a clean break from them.

[Armstead]

12. The tension between Monoculture and Identity is at the root of the chaos

The rise of Religious Fundamentalism, Tribal and Ethnic War and Conflict, Extremism and many other conflicts today can be traced to the tension between the drive to "Globalize" everything and the contrasting insrtinct of individual identity and diversified communities.

As the Corporate Glomalists and Empire Builders have attempted to push every nation and culture into a single straughjacket, it has caused equally extreme counter-reactions.

Obviously, that is not the only reasion for violence and strife and polarizatiion. But the drive to impose a monocultuire on the world has exacerbated it greatly as a counter reaction.

[bryant69]

13. Who cares?

The future of mankind of mongrolization; we aren't supposed to be pampered purebred poodles, but junkyard dogs. Or at least that's my take.

Bryant
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