Abu Lughod Article [Emily Schulman; Week ; Substantive/Dialog Post

Abu-Lughod’s article about globalization, stressed that globalization is not simply a westernization of other cultures, rather that both parties are influenced by each other. A globalized culture is different than a homogenized culture. In general, this article has a relatively positive view of the cultural impacts of globalization, but he made certain criticisms that I found strange. He says that we should “develop much more tolerance for the world views of others, no matter how offensive we find them.” This statement has implications. I agree that tolerance is important, especially now that information about different cultures is so readily available, but at the same time if other nations are acting in ways that we find morally unjust, does this statement imply that we should never get involved? Can we not judge leadership style or ethnic violence within countries because they simply reflect a different world view? This statement also implies a pluralist view of the world. Certain worldviews may not encompass pluralism. Being accepting of other worldviews may go against a worldview.
Abu-Lughod continues to say that “Communications have irretrievable shattered the cloisonnéed character of cultural boundaries; there is no longer any place to hide” (135). This concept could have both positive and negative effects. For example, it is good that Milosevic could not hide the violence in Serbia that was based on ethnic conflict. Because the world could see, the violence was stopped. At the same time, problems in Darfur and Rwanda were seen and not stopped. These genocides were not/are not hidden, but it does not seem to matter. The world is highly globalized, but for certain countries it does not seem to matter. It is better to consider them hidden. Do countries need a certain level of modernization, need to be in a certain proximity to a major power or have certain resources in order to truly be part of the globalized world? Perhaps that is the secret to remaining hidden.