Tim's blog

A longer lasting isolation of an ethnical group is within the globalisation becoming a rare condition nowadays. Shifts and changes happen very fast currently. We all can feel it. Either it is from the fact of buying a cheap t-shirt made for instance in Bangladesh or of the fact the products being produced here are sent to the whole world. This is how it is in the moment. Liking it or not liking it does not change the fact and the international political orientation is very much towards globalisation. But products are not alone moving* around the world. People also do this and this more and more as ever. Increasingly a modern family becomes a mixture of cultures and folks. And if it is not the “blood line” getting international, social contacts are getting it for sure (and this means sooner or later also the “bloodline”).
With this in mind, what happens with different cultural identities? Thinking of the appearing of Paris in France 50 years ago and comparing it with the Paris as it is now brings the obvious conclusion that the cultural identities are changing and this means dissolving.
What?! A cultural identity dissolves? What about the wonderful cultural of the French or the Parisian? Can this be preserved? The answer is for some of us uncomfortable as it is a clear yes. If a certain level of isolation does not exist anymore, the consequences are inevitable. It is the old game of survival. If not adjusting to a changed environment you don’t last. Simply said: not changing means not continuing as it will be sooner or later a dead end.
It is difficult to accept this as it means the e.g. French culture will not last forever. Well, this anyway not but it will even not last long. No cultural identity will survive globalisation and it is very unlikely that a culture can be recovered as we don’t know of a method to keep it. We can save the language and its usage. We can save the events and thoughts about it. And so on and so forth. A cultural identity is like a person’s character overall. Some aspects can be described but the whole as one overall object is impossible to preserve. Nobody knows how Charles Darwin really was as not even him is gone long ago but also everybody who ever had contact with him is gone long ago. In a few hundred or thousand years we will wonder about the cultural identities of the current era.
I wonder how “we” will be after all the natural societal troubles we Europeans will go through now. I don’t wonder about financial overstressing our economies as this is not going to happen. We have proven to adjust to changed environments. May be the Neanderthals lost the game because of not adjusting in time. Actually, we humans turned out to be a indestructible pest or skin disease of earth. Hopefully we will turn more into, well something like a peaceful beautiful flower. Something we are in the moment so very much not.

PS: *not to forget, as this article may sound negative about globalisation: this process brings great advancements to us human beings without debate and certainly it also brings disadvantages (which very much don’t outnumber the advantages)

PPS: **it may sound that globalisation directly is responsible of certain human migration effects but of course we have also historical, religious, economic, political and other reasons causing it