[This is Chapter
Fourteen of Murphey’s book The Emerging Crisis of Economic Displacement.]
Chapter Fourteen
THE CHALLENGE TO OTHER CULTURES
The odd brevity of this chapter deserves some
explanation. In my plan for the book, I
wanted to discuss in detail the situation of western civilization, which is why
that became the subject of the preceding chapter. We know, at the same time, that many peoples
around the world are just as concerned about the fate of their own
cultures. For me to make the discussion
of their situation a mere part of a chapter on something else, such as an
appendage to my discussion of western society, would hardly give their cultures
the respect and importance they deserve.
Hence, I have set apart a separate chapter as a mark of that
respect. The brevity comes from my
having relatively little to say about those other societies, since I am not
intimately familiar with them. There is
no substitute for knowledge about the specifics of any given culture. What are its needs? What do its people consider most worth
retaining about it? What is its local
politics and history? Even these
questions are far too superficial.
There are three things, at least, to
note that arise out of what we have been discussing:
1. The incoming of highly productive
non-labor-intensive technology will pose for them the same combination of
potential well-being and economic disaster as I have described for the
The inability of the market to serve
as an instrument for distribution will make it necessary for each viable
political entity to respond. Hopefully,
at the very least, if market mechanisms can't assure the survival of their
people, those entities will be able to use the technology to produce goods and
services directly for distribution.
Whether this will be done, and whether the statist potential that arises
from doing it can be contained, will have to be worked out within each
society.
This won't be easy. History, including much that is going on in
the world today, tells us that we can't assume that there will everywhere be a
benign intention to raise everybody up and live well together. Abuses of the most horrible kind are possible
if such things as the lust for power or the expression of ethnic rivalries
predominate.
An associated problem is that many
of the "nations" especially of the Middle East and of Africa aren't
really homogeneous groupings of people who care about each other; i.e., they
aren't actually nations in the true sense.
Their boundaries were drawn by colonial powers for administrative
purposes, or by historical push and shove, with some tribes split between
countries and others thrown together that are not at all compatible. This is often compounded by a multiplicity of
languages. The conflict within the
former Yugoslavia, which isn't even in Africa or the Middle East, is a case in
point.
And there is an issue of an entirely
different order: each society will be faced with a question of what sort of
civilization will result from a population that is not for the most part
engaged in work. Where will things fall
along the continuum? Will "freedom
from work" produce a high culture, or (at the other pole) something
depraved and dissolute, or something in between? We will get into this in Chapter 21, but more
by way of raising the issue than providing answers.
2.
Unless these problems result in a society's being insulated from the
outside world (which may occur so far as the products of other nations are
concerned if there are few means to buy them, but will be impossible with
regard to communication), it will become harder and harder to maintain any
cultural uniqueness. Mass world
communications, sports, entertainment, travel and computer resources will
introduce new ways of living and of thinking and will all mitigate against anything
like a "closed society." Cato the
Elder wanted to keep out Greek ideas to shelter the Roman Republic from
dissolving acids. That proved impossible
for him 2200 years ago, and it will be increasingly unthinkable in tomorrow's
world. This is what I mean by "the
challenge to other cultures."
Powerful forces will tend toward a world culture. (Again, this is a matter of concern only for
those who value a specific religion, body of tradition, or way of life. There will certainly be many who will welcome
everyone's being a "citizen of the world." These are matters of values and preferences,
so there is neither a "right" nor a "wrong" about them
separately from what is in the human heart.
Values and preferences are, however, extremely important to people,
whose lives are framed by them.)
3.
The need that each viable political entity will have to see to the
well-being of the people within it will, on the other hand, provide the same
impetus and opportunity that I discussed in the preceding chapter toward a
reaffirmation of local identity. Various
authors, from Charles Murray to Anthony Harrigan, have spoken of the rich
texture of life "within the little platoons" of family and
community. The necessity of local
political self-sufficiency may provide the center around which the love for those
things will become focused.
Is there necessarily a conflict between world
culture and these local reaffirmations of culture? (When I say "local," I don't mean
to suggest merely each hamlet. The
reaffirmations may be on a national, regional or even continent-wide basis and
still be "local" in the sense that they are not world-wide.)
We can hope that the two won't be at
odds, but the answer isn't going to be easy.
There are certain local conditions that the international community has
come to consider less than tolerable; and, perhaps even more importantly, its
sensibilities on such things change over time.
This is apparent in the drive for "human rights," such as for
the universal abolition of slavery or torture.
If conflict is to be avoided, a balance will need to evolve, if it can,
in which local societies refrain from things that other peoples see as abuses,
while at the same time the messianic impulses of those who see their mission in
life as leading others to improvement are held in check. Merely to mention it is to suggest how
difficult it will be.