Christian Carter LBST 2102 Mr.

Robert Arnold 30 August 2011 Microtheme 1 During the first chapter of Globalization, Manfred B. Steger introduces the concept of globalization and how it spreads across many parts of the world. For many years, globalization has significantly changed the way people communicate at a local level, a national level, and a universal level. Steger brings the many controversies surrounding globalization to life by using the ancient Buddhist parable of the blind scholars. This reference helped me to clarify what globalization is and how people from different regions of the world can perceive the same concept. The major points of the Buddhist parable is to demonstrate the various angles of globalization, and how scholars make the mistake of trying to confine the abilities of globalization into one category. The four blind scholars each represent how the limitation of ones knowledge can underestimate the capabilities of an idea that is massive in size. The parable also alludes to an elephant, which symbolizes the concept of globalization. The elephant also represents how the human mind will confine an endless idea into a single classification, even when the answer greatly exceeds those limitations. Globalization has no right or wrong definition because it is constantly changing and producing even more questions. Globalization has proven to be a rapidly emerging phenomenon that will be beneficial to many people, as long as the central focus is to interlock each aspect without ignoring how we are all connected.