Meld
On my way to work every day I see the the tall towers and smoke plumes of a distant petrol refinery. Situated several miles away, it's one of the many sights I encounter on my daily drive. Like most of the others, it's just become part of the scenic wallpaper. But on certain days it leaps into my gaze like some apocalyptic vision of our future.
The sun has only just crept above the horizon, and although a few beams of its light are touching the tops of the concrete spires, the overall impression is of darkness. White smoke billows up against the gloom, staining the sky like ink spreading on blotting paper. Thousands of multi-coloured bulbs twinkle and flash on the sides and ceilings of the buildings, turning the area into a grotesque fairground. It looks so much like a scene from BladeRunner that you have to blink to make sure a flying car isn't rushing towards you.
The other day, the meteorological conditions were such that the image made my jaw drop again, but this time the BladeRunner resonance became even stronger, because I suddenly remembered a recent conversation about the possibility of the existence of one, homogeneous global culture. Someone I know is studying globalisation and he stated that all of the world's major problems would be eradicated if we dissolved the differences between various groups of people and decided to adhere to the terms of a clearly defined mono-culture. Putting aside all my quibbles about who would decide the contents of the One Rule Book, what would happen to dissenters and whether I even believe that 'sameness' spells peace and contentment, I wondered whether it would actually be possible for a single, cohesive culture to exist across the span of the entire planet.
We like to think that cultures are wholly human constructs. We tell ourselves that we can tinker with them and make them suit our requirements. But surely many aspects of various world cultures are the result of forces beyond our control. The most obvious one is climate. To use a couple of extreme examples, countless facets of Eskimo culture must be dictated by the cold and Arabic cultures are no doubt influenced by heat and humidity. Then there are genetics. Length of limbs, texture of hair, colour of skin, eye shape. All these must have an impact deeper than the purely cosmetic. And how about geography? I suppose that's partly related to climate, but even if you and I live in two different places which have roughly the same weather, but mine has lakes and yours has forests, then I'd argue that our two cultures are bound to be dissimilar in many ways.
Simple solution: use genetic engineering to make us all look the same, muck up the climate so badly that the whole planet is covered in a single sheet of smog and make all cities identical to each other and let them keep growing until they obliterate every square meter of free land. Does that sound like a plan? Oh, and while you're at it, spare a thought for what you'd do to Mehdi Kazemi. Or would genetic engineering have solved that particular little problem as well?
The sun has only just crept above the horizon, and although a few beams of its light are touching the tops of the concrete spires, the overall impression is of darkness. White smoke billows up against the gloom, staining the sky like ink spreading on blotting paper. Thousands of multi-coloured bulbs twinkle and flash on the sides and ceilings of the buildings, turning the area into a grotesque fairground. It looks so much like a scene from BladeRunner that you have to blink to make sure a flying car isn't rushing towards you.
The other day, the meteorological conditions were such that the image made my jaw drop again, but this time the BladeRunner resonance became even stronger, because I suddenly remembered a recent conversation about the possibility of the existence of one, homogeneous global culture. Someone I know is studying globalisation and he stated that all of the world's major problems would be eradicated if we dissolved the differences between various groups of people and decided to adhere to the terms of a clearly defined mono-culture. Putting aside all my quibbles about who would decide the contents of the One Rule Book, what would happen to dissenters and whether I even believe that 'sameness' spells peace and contentment, I wondered whether it would actually be possible for a single, cohesive culture to exist across the span of the entire planet.
We like to think that cultures are wholly human constructs. We tell ourselves that we can tinker with them and make them suit our requirements. But surely many aspects of various world cultures are the result of forces beyond our control. The most obvious one is climate. To use a couple of extreme examples, countless facets of Eskimo culture must be dictated by the cold and Arabic cultures are no doubt influenced by heat and humidity. Then there are genetics. Length of limbs, texture of hair, colour of skin, eye shape. All these must have an impact deeper than the purely cosmetic. And how about geography? I suppose that's partly related to climate, but even if you and I live in two different places which have roughly the same weather, but mine has lakes and yours has forests, then I'd argue that our two cultures are bound to be dissimilar in many ways.
Simple solution: use genetic engineering to make us all look the same, muck up the climate so badly that the whole planet is covered in a single sheet of smog and make all cities identical to each other and let them keep growing until they obliterate every square meter of free land. Does that sound like a plan? Oh, and while you're at it, spare a thought for what you'd do to Mehdi Kazemi. Or would genetic engineering have solved that particular little problem as well?
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