Requesting for the fourth defense draft: Globalization brings more cultural colonization than cultural exchanges

The origins and motivations of cultural globalization

1. Capital expansion: The driving force Marx and Engels predicted in the "Communist Manifesto" is that capital needs to constantly pursue profits. The formation of the world market, the cosmopolitan nature of production and consumption, and the enhancement of mutual exchanges and interdependence among various nations, followed by the cosmopolitan nature of spiritual production. In other words, it is the nature of capital expansion that determines the inevitable trend of globalization. It is precisely because of the rise of capitalism that it is possible to detect a continuous trend towards globalization, and it is precisely because capitalism has entered the era of globalization that it is possible to explain the root causes of the emergence of cultural globalization. Ellen Mixings Wood believes that now, for the first time, capitalism is close to becoming a world system, and “capitalism is also the first time that it has truly penetrated into every area of ??life.” In Jameson's words, "The huge expansion of transnational capital in recent years has finally invaded and dominated the pre-capitalist strongholds (including 'nature' and 'unconscious') under the existing system." Pierre Bourdieu and Han When analyzing the phenomenon of literary and artistic sponsorship in the book "Free Communication", Shack quoted the words of Alain-Dominique Perrin, chairman of the French Cartier Company: "Culture is the fashionable thing in front of you, which is good. As long as it is still fashionable, We should take advantage of it.” This sentence nakedly points out the control of culture by capital.

The reason why culture has become a "fashionable thing" depends on the one hand, the new changes in international relations after the Cold War, that is, the end of the Cold War, resulting in the relative decline of the role of political factors and military factors in international relations. And the opportunity for cultural factors to rise in status. On the other hand, today's culture is no longer a purely spiritual thing, but has become a profitable business. The cultural industry has become one of the most profitable industries. The global dumping of cultural goods can not only bring high direct profits, but also reshape and stabilize the world system that the West needs through the spread of Western lifestyles, consumption patterns, and values, and can bring more to the West in other fields. , indirect, long-term benefits. Where there is profit, there is capital. It is capital's insatiable appetite for profits that allows it to penetrate from the economic field to the cultural field and promote the process of cultural globalization.

2. Postmodern cultural situation: possibility

Daniel Bell once pointed out that modernism is the sworn enemy of the bourgeoisie itself. It is the cultural condition of postmodernism that makes it possible for culture to serve the expansion of capital. On the one hand, postmodernism's efforts to decenter, dismantle foundations, and doubt "grand narrative" actually treat all cultural forms as instantaneous phenomena, impacting the values ????and "normal" behavior with complete rebellion. Motivation model, preaching "anything goes". This eliminates all imaginary hierarchies and artificial boundaries, and even challenges the concept of nation and country, thereby paving the way for cultural globalization. On the other hand, postmodernism transcends the artificial boundaries between high culture and popular culture, fills the natural gap between elite culture and popular culture, and blurs the standards for judging culture and art, thus giving rise to the art of copying and patchwork under high-tech operations. . Culture and art, once considered high-end spiritual products, have lost their unique rebelliousness and have been regarded as consumer goods. Consumer culture has set off a global surge.

Westerners talk a lot about postmodernism, construct postmodernism and promote it to underdeveloped countries. The hidden intentions behind it are the same as the modernization discourse. As we all know, modernization is a concept that the third world longs for and is actually actively promoting. However, this kind of "imitation" is no longer possible to "catch up" because of the emergence of postmodernism. The introduction of a new discourse means a kind of hegemony, a kind of pre-emptive power. It can be said that postmodernism deconstructs the grand narrative and actually constructs a new grand narrative; postmodernism eliminates the center and actually constructs a new center, but this center is more hidden, seemingly non-existent but omnipresent. As someone pointed out: "It is not difficult to construct an alternative narrative: in the post-Cold War period we realized that imperialism was obsolete, and it was the Americans who decided to redefine this set of power and imperial rhetoric." It can be seen that the postmodern situation It not only clears away ideological obstacles for cultural globalization, but also provides a more covert form for the expansion of capitalist culture. The excessive accumulation of culture within capitalism has prepared the ground for cultural globalization.

The consequences and countermeasures of cultural globalization

The Lisbon Globalization Research Group pointed out: "From the current manifestations of globalization, it is absolutely impossible to conclude that this is a correct process and worthy of Political support and cultural promotion. "In fact, due to the many problems caused by globalization and the undesirable consequences it brings, most of the characteristics of globalization have caused serious concern among people." From culture. Looking at globalization, it has brought more worries than joy to people.

First of all, the direct consequence of cultural globalization is the cultural identity crisis. The process of globalization has so far generally gone hand in hand with the penetration of Western values, especially American culture, into the rest of the world. Jeans, Coca-Cola, soap operas, and Hollywood movies have been brought to almost every corner of the world. Not only have entertainment programs become standardized, but even international news has been deeply affected. The foundations of non-Western cultures were weakened.

In many places where Western culture was imported, cultural confusion emerged, manifested by a loss of purpose, moral indifference, a penchant for violence, a breakdown in tradition, and the psychological pain that comes from the realization that one belongs to a "backward" society. The invasion and expansion of culture not only makes societies in developing countries extremely fragile, but also makes European societies face huge difficulties in maintaining their own cultural identity, social values, language and existing control over information dissemination. (There are concerns that as English becomes the lingua franca of the scientific and computer professions and on the international Internet, some languages ??will face death.) In short, the path of cultural globalization experienced today is the same as the process of colonization a hundred years ago. , is tending to destroy the traditional culture of each society and obliterate the essential characteristics or cultural identity of each ethnic culture itself.

Secondly, closely related to the previous consequence, cultural globalization has led to more cultural conflicts. The forcibly promoted cultural globalization will inevitably cause resistance from other cultural systems. Huntington predicted that non-Western societies would return to their native culture in the face of the powerful offensive of Western culture. Such as the response of the Islamic world to the "corruption" of the West; East Asian societies attribute economic growth to their own culture, etc. The reason why postcolonial theory arouses enthusiastic response from intellectuals in the third world is that it is regarded as a theoretical weapon to dispel the central discourse of empire and promote national culture. Confrontations between cultures also occur within Western culture. For example, France plans to establish the Cultural Maginot Line to protect the French language and prevent the invasion of American culture; the European film and television industry regards Hollywood as a strong enemy, and so on.

Under certain conditions, the confrontation over cultural sovereignty will develop into an open dispute over political sovereignty. This was the trigger for the rise of nationalism and fundamentalism and many regional conflicts after the Cold War. Another worrying tendency is that nativism, a variant of post-colonial discourse, moves from one extreme to the other, either doubting normal cultural exchanges or mistaking local inherent culture without analysis. Considered the "quintessence of the nation". Under the guidance of such an extreme mentality, the result can only intensify the conflict between cultures and hinder the healthy development of local culture.

Thirdly, from the perspective of the development of culture itself, cultural globalization also poses a great threat to the survival and development of elite culture. Under the tide of cultural globalization, it is an irreversible trend for cultural production to become market-oriented. Culture can only be noticed and hyped when it becomes a commodity and enters the market. Cultural products that cannot adapt to the requirements of marketization will face the fate of being eliminated or marginalized. Although this does not mean the end of elite culture as some commentators feared, it does produce a phenomenon that is not optimistic: on the one hand, the principle of material interests dominates, and "enlightenment", "aesthetics", "depth" ” have given way to “entertainment”, “benefit” and “flatness”, and cultural commodities characterized by “mixed collage (Pastiche)” and “schizophrenia” (Zhan Mingxin’s words) have flooded the market; on the other hand, , some humanistic intellectuals are unwilling to be left alone, giving up their original pursuits and turning to producing popular, popular and even boring cultural products that please the public. For a time, for elite culture, survival or death has become a question, and culture itself is also facing the situation of being redefined.