Jihad Vs McWorld - the Ultimate Showdown

Jihad vs. Mcworld, the Ultimate Showdown

According to Benjamin Barber, the future of International Relations is dominated by a conflict between McWorld and Jihad. The world is being simultaneously pulled together by McWorld and apart by Jihad. McWorld is working towards globalization and commodification by using the forces of capitalism to create human needs. Jihad, on the other side, is a sort of retribalization, where humanity is being divided and subdivided into exclusive units. Through retribalizing, Jihad tries to create a tribal identity to which we bond and identify. This tribalism is breaking out as a reaction to McWorld. Was Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld prescient of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center?

In Jihad vs. McWorld, Barber speaks of “a confrontation between the forces of global market modernization and commercialization and a tribal, religious and ethnic reaction against them.” This ideology became real to Americans on September 11. America has been throwing blows for centuries, in deciding that other countries need to be more democratic, by sending rifle totting soldiers off into war for its own selfish needs at all cost. In America’s attempts to create globalization for capitalistic gain, the back door of technology was left wide open. The terrorists represent jihadic warriors reacting to globalization, uniformity, and interdependence the concepts that America (McWorld) represents. These warriors operated effectively by manipulating and leveraging American transportation, international, financial, banking and credit card systems which are maintained by what else, technology. A fatal blow was dealt to America’s concepts of independence by reducing the World Trade Center, “the icon of American capitalism” to a pile of rubble. Why the world trade center? The World Trade Center is a symbol of McWorld’s capitalistic ideology. The concept of uniformity hit America right blow the belt, because now with everyone being alike, how can we tell who is for or against America. In Disney's Incredibles movie, Syndrome, the nemesis of Mr. Incredible stated that he used his own technology to create a means for everyone to be super, but with everyone super, now one will be. This means if you try to create a world where everyone looks the same, how will you know who to trust and not to trust. Now America has supposedly put an Arabic or Muslim face on terrorism, but there were terrorists among our midst, before September 11th. In Friedman’s “Revolution Is U.S.” his thoughts of a “rising resentment of the United States that has been triggered as we move into a globalization system that is so heavily influenced by American icons, markets, and military might,” is the exact reason why Jihad vs. McWorld became reality on September 11th (137). We as Americans hate it when someone opposes our freedom of speech, and we talk about liberty and justice for all. Does this only apply to Americans? America is not just interested in exporting its films, Coke, Nike and Levi’s, it is interested in exporting its way of life. What makes