With respect, Thomas,
I think a lot of things are getting mixed up here. I generally agree with
the first paragraph of your post, though I think it's a lot more than a
business issue, it certainly goes hand in hand with ever expanding business.
It also has a lot to do with what people, certainly young people, in all
cultures seem to find attractive and worth striving for. Technology means
power, and power and prestige and status are something you find in every
culture.
Your enumeration of expansionist movements I find rather unbalanced. And
none of the religions you mention have yet ended up in any dustbin. They may
at some time in the future, but some of the ideas and values they propagate,
in some form or an other, will undoubtedly endure.
Moreover, Buddhism has, perhaps with the exception of the empire of Ashoka,
as far as I know, never been the philosophy of an expansionist empire.
Warm regards,
Jan Matthieu
Flemish Greens
PS: this is not to say I agree completely with the post you responded to.
-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Thomas Lunde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Datum: mardi 17 août 1999 20:40
Onderwerp: Re: Interesting - anti-Americanism or a point?
>Thomas:
>
>Globalization is not necessarily an American issue - it is a business issue
>from a capitalistic viewpoint of ever expanding growth. The fact that it
>dovetails with the American myth of the endless frontier and is dramatized
>by the most powerful image machine of history as reflected in the media's
of
>North America seems to point the finger at America.
>
>Historically, one can perhaps state that it is just another form of
>expansionist history. From Alexander The Great, to Rome, to the Vikings,
to
>the British Empire, the Catholic Church, Budda and Mohamed, and many others
>in between, there seems to arise in history, movements that strive to
>globalize. All have ended up in the dustbin of history - as will
>globalization.
>
>What endures is family, sex, the need to eat and have shelter, the desire
>for entertainment, happiness and a search for the meaning of life through
>philosophy and religion and drugs.
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Thomas Lunde
