Jihad VS Mcworld

Zusatztext "An important new book."¶ -- Newsweek ¶ "Mr. Barber is. . . the first to put Jihad and McWorld together in an inescapable dialectic . . . . [It] stands as a bold invitation to debate the broad contours and future of society."¶ --Barbara Ehrenreich¶ The New York Times Book Review ¶ ¶ "COMPELLING. . . IMPRESSIVE. . . A thorough! engaging look at the current state of world affairs."¶ --The American Reporter "Challenging and instructive."¶ -- San Francisco Chronicle ¶ "Barber is well worth reading. . . for an introduction to the real world! look at Jihad vs. McWorld ."¶ -- The Nation ¶ "Stimulating! tartly written."¶ -- Publishers Weekly Informationen zum Autor Benjamin Barber was an internationally renowned political theorist, the Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos in New York City. He died in 2017. Klappentext Jihad vs. McWorld is a groundbreaking work, an elegant and illuminating analysis of the central conflict of our times: consumerist capitalism versus religious and tribal fundamentalism. These diametrically opposed but strangely intertwined forces are tearing apart--and bringing together--the world as we know it, undermining democracy and the nation-state on which it depends. On the one hand, consumer capitalism on the global level is rapidly dissolving the social and economic barriers between nations, transforming the world's diverse populations into a blandly uniform market. On the other hand, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds are fragmenting the political landscape into smaller and smaller tribal units. Jihad vs. McWorld is the term that distinguished writer and political scientist Benjamin R. Barber has coined to describe the powerful and paradoxical interdependence of these forces. In this important new book, he explores the alarming repercussions of this potent dialectic for democracy. A work of persuasive originality and penetrating insight, Jihad vs. McWorld holds up a sharp, clear lens to the dangerous chaos of the post-Cold War world. Critics and political leaders have already heralded Benjamin R. Barber's work for its bold vision and moral courage. Jihad vs. McWorld is an essential text for anyone who wants to understand our troubled present and the crisis threatening our future.1 The Old Economy and the Birth of a New McWorld GILLETTE'S CHAIRMAN Alfred M. Zeien has said I do not find foreign countries foreign. Welcome to McWorld. There is no activity more intrinsically globalizing than trade, no ideology less interested in nations than capitalism, no challenge to frontiers more audacious than the market. By many measures, corporations are today more central players in global affairs than nations. We call them multinational but they are more accurately understood as transnational or postnational or even antinational. For they abjure the very idea of nations or any other parochialism that limits them in time or space. Their customers are not citizens of a particular nation or members of a parochial clan: they belong to the universal tribe of consumers defined by needs and wants that are ubiquitous, if not by nature then by the cunning of advertising. A consumer is a consumer is a consumer. McDonald's serves 20 million customers around the world every day, drawing more customers daily than there are people in Greece, Ireland, and Switzerland together. General Motors (still the world's largest company despite its uneven recent sales history) employs more people internationally than live in a number of the world's smaller nations. With $2.4 billion worth of pizzas sold in 1991, the privately owned Domino's earned enough revenues to fund the collective government expenditures of Senegal, Uganda, Bolivia, and Iceland. Toshib...

"An important new book."¶
--*Newsweek
*¶
"Mr. Barber is. . . the first to put Jihad and McWorld together in an inescapable dialectic . . . . [It] stands as a bold invitation to debate the broad contours and future of society."¶
--Barbara Ehrenreich¶
The New York Times Book Review¶
¶
"COMPELLING. . . IMPRESSIVE. . . A thorough, engaging look at the current state of world affairs."¶
--The American Reporter

"Challenging and instructive."¶
--*San Francisco Chronicle
*¶
"Barber is well worth reading. . . for an introduction to the real world, look at Jihad vs. McWorld."¶
--The Nation¶

"Stimulating, tartly written."¶
--Publishers Weekly

Autorentext

Benjamin Barber was an internationally renowned political theorist, the Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos in New York City. He died in 2017.

Klappentext

Jihad vs. McWorld is a groundbreaking work, an elegant and illuminating analysis of the central conflict of our times: consumerist capitalism versus religious and tribal fundamentalism. These diametrically opposed but strangely intertwined forces are tearing apart--and bringing together--the world as we know it, undermining democracy and the nation-state on which it depends.

On the one hand, consumer capitalism on the global level is rapidly dissolving the social and economic barriers between nations, transforming the world's diverse populations into a blandly uniform market. On the other hand, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds are fragmenting the political landscape into smaller and smaller tribal units. Jihad vs. McWorld is the term that distinguished writer and political scientist Benjamin R. Barber has coined to describe the powerful and paradoxical interdependence of these forces. In this important new book, he explores the alarming repercussions of this potent dialectic for democracy.

A work of persuasive originality and penetrating insight, Jihad vs. McWorld holds up a sharp, clear lens to the dangerous chaos of the post-Cold War world. Critics and political leaders have already heralded Benjamin R. Barber's work for its bold vision and moral courage. Jihad vs. McWorld is an essential text for anyone who wants to understand our troubled present and the crisis threatening our future.

Leseprobe
1
 
The Old Economy and the
Birth of a New McWorld
 
GILLETTE’S CHAIRMAN Alfred M. Zeien has said “I do not find foreign countries foreign.” Welcome to McWorld. There is no activity more intrinsically globalizing than trade, no ideology less interested in nations than capitalism, no challenge to frontiers more audacious than the market. By many measures, corporations are today more central players in global affairs than nations. We call them multinational but they are more accurately understood as transnational or postnational or even antinational. For they abjure the very idea of nations or any other parochialism that limits them in time or space. Their customers are not citizens of a particular nation or members of a parochial clan: they belong to the universal tribe of consumers defined by needs and wants that are ubiquitous, if not by nature then by the cunning of advertising. A consumer is a consumer is a consumer.
 
McDonald’s serves 20 million customers around the world every day, drawing more customers daily than there are people in Greece, Ireland, and Switzerland together. General Motors (still the world’s largest company despite its uneven recent sales history) employs more people internationally than live in a number of the world’s smaller nations. With $2.4 billion worth of pizzas sold in 1991, the privately owned Domino’s earned enough revenues to fund the collective government expenditures of Senegal, Uganda, Bolivia, and Iceland. Toshiba, the General Electric of Japan, boasts in its 1992 annual report that “as good corporate citizens” they “do our part to e…