Initially emerging from neoliberalisation, globalization is an intricate, multi-layered phenomenon that has played a significant role in determining modern culture and wider transformations that shape life on our planet.
Central to the mythology of modernity, globalization continues a lineage of ‘progress’ that originates from the Enlightenment. Essentially, processes of globalization are part of a system of rationalization, which attempts to overhaul a diverse set of unpredictable human cultures with a predictable model of human existence. The diversity of perspectives, abundance of contributing factors, global scope and complex processes that constitute globalization make for an extremely complicated situation. In response, globalization utilizes a rationalist imperative in order to systematically simplify human behavior and establish control measures.
I will argue that under globalization, processes of neoliberalism and rationalization always diminish traditional cultures, either through destruction or augmentation. Specifically, I will consider consumer culture to be the normative framework that globalization offers as a replacement for traditional culture. Despite arguments that traditional cultures are strengthened through ‘contra-flows’ and ‘glocalization’, changes brought on via globalization and consumer culture will inevitably replace localized cultures as time progresses. Trough a ubiquitous framework, globalization deploys consumer culture as the world standard for human existence.
