End of History and Clash of Civilizations

In response to the article by Fukuyama "End of History? ", I have to say that I think he's jumped the gun. The westernization of the world and spread of democracies has been the pattern in our global history thus far but who's to say it won't take an entirely different direction. The democratic system itself is relatively new. Socieities of people living in times when the feudal system thrived would have laughed at the idea of democracy...and here we are. It's definitely short sighted to say that democracy is the end all of political systems. They aren't perfect (as we talked about in class). How a new system will come about is hard to predict. Perhaps it will take a drastic social change or some sort of cataclysmic event to bring it about. Who knows. All I'm saying is that things are constantly changing and moving in our global community and like the past has shown, constant change is inevitable. History can't be finished...we're still living it!!

Huntington says that the normal state of the world is about cultural conflicts. He believes that a clash of civilizations will occur near their borders and that it is inevitable. I must disagree (for the hope of humanity!). Although wars have occurred regarding larger groups of people through time, who's to say things won't turn to peace. Huntington says that the West naively believes in the virtue of Western values but there are only so many of us. What is the basis of our values, our culture? When you get down to it, American culture is quite void of tradition and the richness that other cultures have. We're so diverse in race, language, culture, and everything that I cannot determine a defining one! We are learning about other people all the time. With new technology and the access to global communication, I think that cultural gaps will begin to close instead of open. In the U.S., our national language is moving toward Spanish and we're more tolerant of different races, religions, political systems and orientations than ever before. Certain vlaues are universal. Instead of communication and globalization leading to conflict, I think it can lead to peace and understanding. I have to believe so...what else is there to believe in?