Is the Global Village Still an Imagined Community

We have access to global communication, mass media, we can learn everything about any place, we can travel around any corner of the world in a flash.

Depending on how you look at it, for some we still live in an imagined global village and will remain so as long as we hold on to our national sentiment and don’t share one collective identity, for others we’re a global community because of globalization.

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Global Village

When Marshall McLuhan coined the term ‘global village’ in the 1960s, it was a reference to the “prevailing notion of global coexistence transformed by transnational trade, migration, and culture” (cited in Poll, 2012), and today we’ve moved beyond that.

Even though we’re all connected through social media and technology, have we really become closer?

The Concept of ‘Imagined Community’ by Benedict Anderson

Wikipedia explains that “An imagined community is a concept developed by Benedict Anderson in his 1983 book Imagined Communities, to analyze nationalism. Anderson depicts a nation as a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. The nation, according to one of the Benedict Andersons formulation, is an “imagined political community“.

It is imagined because it is essentially “created” by the human mind, and it is “political” because it expresses itself in a particular form of government.”

What Makes Us a Global Village?

The convergence of people, cultures around the world, and technology have facilitated communication between us and our understanding of cultural diversity. We can now see the news from other countries in seconds.

We’re able to talk to people from other countries every day. We’re able to learn about the culture of another country in a matter of minutes through instantaneous sharing and electronic communications.

We’ve come so far in the last century. It’s amazing what we’ve accomplished in such a short time.

If aliens saw our planet, they’d probably see us as a global village in the universe, but if they started digging deeper, they’d see that there’s a division between people and that we’re not “one nation with a collective identity.”

They may find out that we’ve countries and states, that we live in a global imaginary community, and that our human culture is only a visual culture, but in the end, they’ll still see us as a species living on Earth.

We’re All Human

We’re all human beings. That’s why there are differences among us because not all of us think alike. Because of that, we differ from each other and develop different cultures, which is why the separation exists. At the end of the day, we’re still human beings living on one planet.

If we understand the term global village as a civilization of people getting along, then we’re far from being a global village.

Ubiquitous pervasive technological advances and global communication aren’t enough for us to live peacefully as a global community.

What Divides Us

Most people, no matter where they live, want the same things: a good job, a comfortable home, and a safe environment in which to raise their children. But there are many factors that separate us. Starting with the way we think and the way we act.

Cultural Differences

Travel is my passion, and every time I visit a new country, I find it fascinating to learn about the people, how they interact with each other, work, language, education, marriage, and many other aspects of life.

I’ve been fortunate to visit many different places, from developed countries to developing countries, and each time my experience is richer. I see things from a different perspective and that helps me learn more about myself as well.

When we think our way of life is right and others think wrong. In this way, we build walls of separation between us. We forget that there are many different ways of looking at things and that others might be right in their own way.

It’s easy to point fingers at others, but we need to accept that not everyone thinks the way we do and accept what we believe. We don’t understand that they may have their own beliefs and perspective on life, which can be good or bad depending on what they believe in.

We see every day on social media how cultural differences affect instantaneous sharing responses when someone from one nation responds to someone from another nation.

The key is that we should respect other cultures as much as we want them to respect ours.

Politics

In our increasingly globalized world, we must recognize that our actions have implications beyond our national borders.

As a result of globalization, there are now two types of politics: politics in the old sense – taking place within existing national borders – and new transnational politics – taking place in the space created by globalization. Globalization creates both challenges and opportunities for society.

In the ideal global community, there would be no war, no nationalism, and no discrimination – all people would be equal. It would be a world without borders and prejudices. But in today’s world, that seems impossible. When people feel threatened by their surroundings and are narrow-minded, they become more divided and have less trust in others.

Beliefs

We all have beliefs about how the world works, based on our experiences and knowledge.

Our beliefs are shaped by early childhood experiences, cultural biases, education, mainstream media, and religious indoctrination. We’re taught to believe that we need money to survive; that success is measured by what you own; that competition is healthy; that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell; that war is necessary for peace; that money can solve problems; that there’s hope or no hope for our planet.

There are some beliefs that divide us as a global village and keep us from living in peace.

The main cause of this is the way these beliefs are taught in childhood at home. We all learn our first lessons in life from our parents and teachers, and not all parents or teachers draw a fine line between right and wrong.

As children, we trust our parents to tell us what’s right and what’s wrong, but some parents only want to teach their children their own beliefs and don’t teach them about other beliefs.

This teaches children that there are many different beliefs in the world, but only their own is true.

If we become tolerant of others, we can see that every religion has its good points and every belief also has its bad points. When you realize this, you’ll no longer hate anyone because of his or her beliefs.

And so you’ll treat everyone equally, whether he or she believes in your religion or not, without any hatred.

The ideal global village would be a life of peace and harmony because everyone is tolerant and willing to learn from each other.

Inequalities

In recent decades, the world’s population has grown at an unprecedented rate, and this growth has brought with it many environmental problems. Inequality has also increased.

Poverty and wealth inequality is on the rise. We’re losing our resources at an alarming rate. The rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. Inequality is a global problem that we face in our global village.

Environmental inequality is also a global problem that we face as a global village. Climate change, food, migration, sustainability, and poverty are all interconnected. They take many forms. You see it in climate change, in food, and even in migration. Some countries are more affected than others because of their location, resources, and other factors.

These inequalities can also lead to migration: People move from one area of the world to another for environmental or economic reasons. The effects of migration can be both positive and negative, both for the migrants’ country of origin and for the country to which they move.

Access to food is another global issue that highlights our inequality. There are many ways in which people may not have access to food, such as poverty, crop failure, war, etc.

Education Isn’t the Same All Over the World

There are many factors that influence a nation’s educational performance, such as geographic location and economic growth. But even within a nation, there can be massive differences between rural and urban areas when it comes to access to quality education.

It’s one of the most important aspects affecting our lives. It helps shape our future by providing us with useful knowledge and skills that help us perform our jobs more efficiently. It also helps us to better understand other cultures around the world as well as our own culture and traditions.

Education plays a central role in our collective identity, whether in developed or developing countries. It opens doors to new opportunities and allows us to live healthier and happier lives. But education can also open up rifts between people and create divisions that are difficult to overcome. Our level of education often determines how we see the world, and therefore how we see others.

Will We Ever Become a Global Village?

The division of the world into countries is based on physical and geographic factors. These boundaries are imaginary lines drawn on maps for administrative purposes.

Countries in the same region or continent can have common interests in culture, language, and religion, but are separated by these imaginary lines called borders. Borders can lead to hostilities and conflicts between countries.

What We Need to Do to Become a Peaceful Global Village

We must:

eliminate inequality within and between countries
significantly reduce poverty
fight discrimination and exclusion
promote healthy living and combat deadly diseases
ensure quality education for all boys and girls
provide access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy for everyone
Provide everyone with a safe, clean and accessible home
end the scourge of human trafficking
ensure equal pay for women
ensure that all men and women can fully participate in their communities
ensure that everyone has access to clean water
promote sustainable agriculture so that no one goes hungry or thirsty, while preserving our environment and biodiversity.

Is the Global Village Still an Imagined Community?

I, for one, believe that we have always lived in a global village that’s rich cultural diversity, and regardless of what our national identity is or whether we’re part of a particular national community, we’re all part of the global community.

Quotes

It is important to keep in mind that to learn a language is not simply to learn a linguistic means of communication. It is also to learn the way of thinking and feeling of a people who speak and write a language which is different from ours. It is to learn the history and culture underlying their thoughts and emotions and so to learn to empathize with them
Benedict Anderson

Nationalism is a modern phenomenon, even though many people think of their nations as ancient and eternal; it is universal (everyone has a nation), even though each nation is supposedly utterly distinctive; and it is powerful (so much so that people will die for their countries), even though on close inspection it is hard to define
Benedict Anderson

As the unity of the modern world becomes increasingly a technological rather than a social affair, the techniques of the arts provide the most valuable means of insight into the real direction of our own collective purposes.
Marshall McLuhan