IV. Religion and Global Modernity

     People believed that a step towards the modern era was a threat to religion that relied on the Supernatural. This really began throughout the eighteenth century and was present all the way through to the twentieth century. In some extreme cases, religious beliefs and religious practices faced a huge cut. As science became more present in the world and scientific advancements were made, the more people were inclined to believe something plausible and something that was proven with cold hard facts, as opposed to believing a really far fetched story that, nowadays, could not been seen as ever happening.
     However, although religion faced a huge decline, throughout this past century, religion has been mounting a comeback and come back more stronger than before.
     Buddhist ideas and practices were more than welcome in Western civilizations. Another religion that is regarded as one of the bigger ones is Christianity. It has spread worldwide so much that the majority of Christians no longer reside in neither the United States and Europe. Islam was another religion that underwent a wide expansion.
     The biggest opposition of modernization and globalization was fundamentalism. It pretty much accompanies every major religion.

WW: CH 23 pt. 2

     The second part of Chapter 23 starts off by talking about the feminist movement. Throughout the twentieth century the idea of liberation spread like wildfire across the globe. A time period in which this was the main focus, in terms of worldwide politics, was the 1960's. It was as if the entire world came together and decided to deal with the topic/issue of liberation. For example, here in the United States you had civil rights movements, not to mention Antiwar protests. In Europe, particularly in France during 1968, you had protests against the middle class and its value system. In addition to that, Europe was plagued with protests having to do with consumerism as well as having an unresponsive bureaucracy. 

     In the Communist side of the issue, you had things like socialism attempted in Czechoslovakia. This movement was quickly ended thanks to the Soviet Union. While all this was going on, further towards the east, China was having a Cultural Revolution. 

     By the 1960's, organized feminism was revived in the West. Women were sick and tired of being unequal and regarded as "other" or "deviant". The part that really got my attention was how they wanted to "control" their own bodies. I guess it struck me as odd simply because we live in a completely different time period in which women have more or less the same rights as men. In addition to that, we are also taught at a young age to keep our hands to ourselves. However, the one that seemed most important to me was the fact that they wanted equal opportunities. They wanted the right to have jobs that men had and wanted a right to go to school and get an education, something women had been greatly denied throughout the majority of time. 

     As we all know the issue with women and their liberties were a huge topic of discussion throughout much of the twentieth century. As the twentieth century progressed, patriarchy lost power and people were starting to refrain from resorting to that. Women were really vocal and were very persistent, so persistent that the UN officially declared 1975 International Women's Year. Not only that, in addition to the title granted in 1975, the UN also declared the decade following International Woman's Year was the Decade for Women. Recently in 2006, over one hundred and eighty-three different Nations had agreed that the UN absolutely eliminate discrimination against all women. 

     Although women finally had their voices heard, this topic of discussion presented some problems. For example, who was going to represent the women? Were they to have one leader or a group of leaders? In addition to that, people weren't fully on board, for example, developing nations had different interests and things they were more concerned about, as opposed to already developed countries that were already well established. 

WW: CH 23

     The chapter starts out talking about Barbie and Ken dolls. It really gave a perspective on the vast size of global commerce. It also goes on to talk about to how Iran, in response to the creation of the Ken and Barbie dolls, created the Sara and Dara dolls. The Sara and Dara dolls were intended to portray Iranian Muslim values and practices. I thought it was ironic that all these dolls were made in China. China was responsible for this vast expansion of dolls representing other cultures.
     Throughout some part of the twentieth century the world was internationally connected through political relationships, economic transactions and cultural influences. By the time the 1990's rolled around, the process of accelerating engagement became known as globalization. Globalization did not really kick off until after the dust settled after World War II.
     For the most part, people recognize globalization as international economic transactions. To many, it has become unavoidable and an essential part to their lives as of 1950. Although throughout the majority of the second half of the twentieth century globalization was a prominent way of life, it was not the same for the first half of the twentieth century. Arguably the biggest reason behind this was the tension between nations, not only during, but in between each of the World Wars as well. Speaking of World Wars, after World War II, the capitalist nations that emerged the victors of the war were more than determined to ensure their economic safety and do everything within their power to ensure that something that was an economic threat, such as the Great Depression, never happened again.
     After World War II, the Bretton Woods agreements were developed in 1944. The key points of these agreements were the establishment of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This was essential due to the fact that it laid out the foundation for postwar globalization. This promoted free trade as well. In addition to the Bretton Woods System, technological advancement also contributed to the increase in globalization.
     In the 1970's many capitalist countries started viewing the world as a single market. This was known as neo-liberalism. This was in favor of less tariffs, privatization of state enterprises, reduced government regulation of the economy, as well as spending and tax cuts.