“It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural”
Samuel Huntington
Nador, Morocco—More often than not, when we talk about culture we refer to it as a shared system of behaviors, languages, values, and as a set of traditions and ways of life of a certain community. Culture in this framework, particularly for Moroccans, occupies a cardinal position. To put it in Robert Lieber and Ruth Weisberg’s words, “culture takes on this pivotal position not only because of its intrinsic significance, but precisely because it has become so bound up with the most fundamental questions of human identity in its many dimensions: personal, ethnic, religious, social and national.”
In this juncture, any change in culture is likely to foment a corresponding change in one’s identity. It should be marked however that cultural metamorphosis does not take place on the spot but it takes years if not decades to yield blatant consequences. Accordingly, regardless of the difficulty that stems from the lack of quantifying statistics on the role of globalization in instigating cultural transformation particularly by homogenizing the diverse culture of Morocco, we can still notice seeds of change taking place in our Moroccan society. The effects of globalization are by no means limited. In this framework, to deal with the effects of globalization on Moroccan culture is not to deal with it as an abstract process but as a prevailing phenomenon whose clear-cut effects on it [the Moroccan culture] are channeled particularly through media, technology, and tourism. This, by no means, implies that I’m against globalization, but as globalization has many economic and political advantages it has also negative side effects which entails that globalization is a double-aged sword.
If in the past we talk about the civilizing mission as a western attempt to bring the “backwards” into the light of European civilization, nowadays we talk about globalization or cultural imperialism as complex process of bringing the diverse cultures of the world into one single, homogenized culture. Notwithstanding the difference between globalization and civilizing mission, both processes involve necessarily the obliteration of local and indigenous cultures by introducing western popular culture and western civilization, and both attempt to homogenize the entire globe. To put it in Manfred words, “globalization was the inevitable process of a universalizing Western civilization battling the parochial forces of nationalism, localism, and tribalism”. That said, the process of globalization is predicated upon the imposition of western system of values, morality, and life styles on the entire world. Congruently, traditional borders in societies like Morocco will gradually collapse to embrace the western culture.
Globalization is undoubtedly a form of neo-colonialism based on the process of westernization and homogenization. Remarkably enough, while some countries have the power to resist globalization like Japan, other countries like Morocco, which is weak ideologically, politically, and economically succumb to the inexorable imperatives of this phenomenon to the extent that local culture and traditions are jeopardized and tend to be eclipsed.
All in all, globalization is the enemy of diversity. The Moroccan culture is an Islamic, relatively conservative and traditional one in comparison to other developed nations of the world. It is one of the most diverse countries in the world. However, with the advent of globalization, Morocco finds it hard to defy the attractions of globalization and is eventually drawn into its vortex. By going global Morocco is witnessing a tremendous and gradual transformation that touches primarily the local culture, and this simply means that Morocco is at risk of losing its culture in favor of western popular culture.
By Nouh Anajjar.
