Negatives And Disadvantages Of Globalization

The spread of ideas and technology on a global scale stems as far back as the Silk Road of the Middle Ages, but was dramatically accelerated by the developments of World War II. These events brought the world together politically and economically, through organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, in a way that had never been seen before and could not be easily undone. Although these new connections can break down indigenous cultures, especially in violent post-WWII conflicts and through unsanctioned government intervention, the negatives are balanced by the spread of technology and ideas that benefit underdeveloped countries. The downsides of globalization include the potential of a generic monoculture and deteriorated relations due to cultural clashes. An introduction of Western ideologies to essentially untouched civilizations often proposes the notion that traditional methods are worse because they are old. This leads to the breakdown of previous cultural barriers, leaving an outlier group that developed on its own to no longer feel important, but rather forgotten and backward. While discussing the Ladakhi people of northern India, Helena Norberg-Hodge states that “[c]ontact with the modern world has debilitated and demoralized a once proud and self-sufficient people” (Norberg-Hodge 614). Salman Rushdie echoes this disenchantment of people in the same country because his Indian passport “stated in grouchy bureaucratic language that it