Multicultural Australia by GDL

Globalisation, culture, values and multiculturalism

By GDL

The advent of Globalisation, economic, cultural and military, has no doubt been instrumental to the world becoming a global village and this is even more exemplified by the instant and rapid digital communication. 

News and other information are now available instantly and most of the time “freely” thanks to global and online media. Radio and Television also receive and diffuse the latest news as soon as they are received and edited.
However the quickest way of obtaining information today is via the 3G mobile phone. The news of Steve Jobs death was first announced on iPhone, then ipad and then the other electronic media before it hit the traditional media.
The social media are another aspects which make people from different part of the planet feel closer and this is a good thing. Today people do not feel lonely although they are” alone” in the computer room. With the help of the computer they feel that they belong to a global communication network and feel closer to the most distant relative or friend. Via Facebook, one can have many virtual friends without having a real one and still not knowing the name of the next door neighbour.  But who cares?
Today there is that notion of a global individual, the global citizen or what Virginia Nightingale calls “network individualism”. However she said that social network is a powerful option available to marginal and individual audiences. (V N, 2007). For his part, Jim McGuigan referred this to the mobile privatisation as “ a new pattern of life associated with unban-industrial society in general as much as with the  specific use of communication technologies.( J M, 2007).
The global communication, the advance of technology, the new media and the rest, reinforce the notion of cultural globalisation and the push towards a mass culture. The new global or mass culture is a strategic agenda setting by global media, media barons using marketing and advertising for more consumption to the liking of business and wealth concentrators.  The consequence of which we have a new  society embedded in consumerism and subject to  aggressive marketing.
The advent of modernism and post modernism bring also the notion of a new set of values: economic independence, career focus, labour mobility, online shopping, online dating, less time for the family, less time for real face to face communication and less time for parent-children interaction, less time to care about the elders. Values and cultures take a new dimensions.
With the advent of a “new” cultural globalisation comes the disintegration of traditional cultures and subsequently community or societal values. Religious philosophy is a thing of the past which is no longer a priority. Religion as an organisation is failing to cope with change towards post modernism.    In western society particularly where globalisation is at its best, people today do not need religion to tell them how to live their life. The notion of marriage as well as divorce for example, has a similar or different meaning. They are not regarded only as a sequence of the life cycle. Child bearing and having a family is today a choice, according to circumstances. Family breakdown has become a current event.
This new culture has turned everyone into an individual, a free person, an independent one. The individual does not longer feel part neither of a family nor of the local community nor member of a village, town or country. He is a global citizen with a free mind and can move and travel easily; the only preoccupation is to be economically independent and free.
The influence of new media and global culture has had a free ride with the collapse of communism. It was a system which placed too many restrictions on the individual to be part of a society or country and abide to rules. It restricted freedom of speech and association and was doomed to fail.  With post- communism came a benign hegemony with the ideology of liberalism, individualism, free-market and consumerism: the modern capitalism dogma.

The Islamists fundamentalist in the wake of the collapse of communism feared a   western cultural culture invasion. They had recourse to terrorism and suicide bombers to stop the decline of Islam. Unfortunately their methods were not acceptable by most of us and particularly by many moderate Muslims. They also antagonised the other nations and religions and bred “Islamophoby” to some extent. This was surely not the way to go. But for them this is a jihad that they will pursue.

Cultural and economic globalisation have definitely led to decline of religion, the anthropological form of culture. This in turn has diminished the concept of values as they are very much part of religion and culture. In the western world today, we see the emergence of a  value-free society. The notion of morality is weak if not inexistent. While the society is still law abiding, it will not take long to have a debate on what is also legal, who are the lawmakers and their mandates.
However the picture is different in multicultural society like Australia. In the wake of western culture propaganda and marketing, it is noted that many ethnic communities approach and accept cultural globalisation from a completely different angle.  The culture at home is strong even if it tends to be loose outside the family circle. E.g. eating McDonald for lunch and pasta at home. wearing jeans outside and watching bollywood movies at home, children are taught moral and religious values at home even if they accept secularism outside.
In Australia, the ethnic communities are becoming more and more visible through the media; they have their own radio programs, their own newspapers, their own magazines and having more and more social and cultural gatherings and parties. These factors demonstrate that they are not moving towards a mono culture in a western society but rather towards a more hybrid and multicultural society. 
Multiculturalism has been beneficial to Australia by enriching the social and  cultural landscape and all the signs are there that it will keep flourishing like a garden with many colourful flowers. This is the new Australia of today and tomorrow.

GDL.